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Cost of Rituxin treatments. Is mine out of whack?

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1 year 2 months ago #73412 by russp
In 2022 I was treated (as I have been before) for ITP using 4x Rituximinab infusions.  It's what my hemo calls a full course.  Anyways, now that the hospital is finally getting around to billing I was looking at what was billed to insurance and it seems insane. The total is over $200k.  Is that right?  That's seems cray beyond belief. I mean 4x visits to infusion center for a few hours with Rituxin and Benadryl and probably some saline solution.  What the heck?  Is this really what is normal?   Insurance allowed (per contract with hospital) $143,842.

I mean I have really good insurance still so my cost is a few k but it bothers me that it would really be this much.  What the heck would you do without great insurance? Just wing it?

Would love to hear any comparisons.  

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1 year 2 months ago #73416 by gozorakgogo
Replied by gozorakgogo on topic Cost of Rituxin treatments. Is mine out of whack?
I havent been on here in some time. I check every once in a while as a reminder of what I dealt with in 2020. With a platelet level of 2(having never had an issue in my 54 years) I was in the hospital for 10 days including 4 in the ICU. That included all the treatments one would expect for a newly diagnosed ITP patient with extremely low platelet levels. Eventually after not much progress I had the 4 weekly Ritux infusions along with weekly Nplate injections for the following 3 months after which my platelet levels were well above 100 and have remained since then. I do not remember a precise number but at one point all of my treatment and hospitalizations were over 300K. In the end I think I was on the hook for around $12000. I have and had then Blue Cross. Needless to say, after never really having spent any time in the hospital or having any medical procedures it was a shock to see the total cost. Those weekly Nplate injections alone were thousands of dollars.

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1 year 2 months ago #73418 by russp
Yeah, my guess is you will need to be retreated with Rituxin in a few years unless you were just having a one-time event (unlikely given your age).  However, if you are like me (sounds like it) we are pretty lucky in that Rituxin gives us remission of years at a time.  Anyways, Rituxin does now have biosimilars (ie: generic) but sounds like somehow they are still charging a heck-ton of money for treatments.  I need to see what actual drug they gave me (Rituxin or biosimilar) and try to understand it's cost.   Seems unreasonable as they due use Rituxin a lot for Rheumatoid arthritis (like every 6 months I think) so can't imagine they could be incurring this kind of charge that regularly (unless maybe they use a whole lot less Rituxin in those treatments).    

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1 year 2 months ago #73438 by gozorakgogo
Replied by gozorakgogo on topic Cost of Rituxin treatments. Is mine out of whack?
Dont say that. Ive already put my episode behind me and pretty much pretend that it never happened and will never happen again lol

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1 year 1 week ago #73478 by Rob16
There is a low dose rituximab protocol which can drastically cut costs.
Here is a thread I started on it many years ago:
pdsa.org/discussion-group/7-treatment-general/27993-low-dose-rituximab-rituxan-research.html?start=0
And here's an update :
pdsa.org/discussion-group/7-treatment-general/27993-low-dose-rituximab-rituxan-research.html?start=120#71889
"Conclusion: Rituximab was effective and safe for adult patients with ITP. A low-dose rituximab regimen might be an effective alternative to the standard-dose regimen in ITP, as it showed similar CRR, ORR, and SRR at month 12 and was relatively safer with a lower cost."

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