MDS to CML

[agonzalez]

My father was first diagnosed with MDS a little over a year ago at the Veteran's hospital in Chicago, IL, but his last bone marrow biopsy done at a different hospital showed it is now Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. He stopped going to the Veteran hospital because we felt they weren't helping him.

My father is currently seeing a specialist at a different hospital who wants to start him on Vidaza treatments soon but he is on Medicare (disability)which doesn't cover everything.

He was told to apply for supplemental insurance in Oct. 15 (BlueCross BlueShield) but it won't be effective until Jan 1st.

Does anyone have any ideas on what he can do in the meantime to help pay his medical bills? He just got a billing statement from the hospital he was recently in for 2 weeks that states $114,000 which he will have to pay a good portion of.


Thank you,
Amy

[Neil Cuadra]

Amy,

I suggest that you check out the Celgene Patient Support (http://www.celgenepatientsupport.com/) website. Celgene is the maker of Vidaza and perhaps they can help your father if he starts on Vidaza.

Other possibilities:
The Patient Financial Aid (http://www.lls.org/diseaseinformation/getinformationsupport/financialmatters/patientfinancialaid/) program of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.


The Chronic Disease Fund (http://www.cdfund.org).


The Patient Advocate Foundation's Co-Pay Relief (CPR) Program (http://www.copays.org/).

Finally, you can look at a list of organizations on our Medical Resources (http://www.marrowforums.org/resources.html) page and read other threads here in the Insurance, Finances, Disability forum.

[usaf1125]

contact the healthwell foundation at www.healthwell.org

[Neil Cuadra]

contact the healthwell foundation at www.healthwell.org
I think you mean healthwellfoundation.org (http://healthwellfoundation.org).