madhatter
11-02-2005, 03:21 PM
Hello group! I'm taking 60 mg. of oxycotin tid. and was allowed one 15 mg oxycodone i.r. Well now i'm taking the generic version of oxycotin,and man! What a difference. So my last doc. visit,she is allowing me to take two 15mg oxycodone i.r. But my pain is not as controlled as it was with the brand name oxycotin. My doc. said her other patients had complaints as well.And she said she[doc.] tried writing d.a.w for her other patients,and either the insurance company wouldn't fill it,or,in one case she had a patient who was taking it tid,and the insurance company said oxycotin is made to be taking 2x aday not 3. My doc. I don't see my doc till the 20th I just want some of your opinions,do you think my b.t [15 mg oxycodone i.r] is enough at taking it two times a day? Should i ask her if i can take it 3x a day. And is that a normal dose[3] for being on 60 mg of oxycotin tid? Thanks
Sponsor
Shoreline
11-03-2005, 02:07 AM
Hey MH, Every insurance company has different policies, I know you don't want to go through another month and not know untill your at the pharmacy if they are going to fill a DAW or throw up another control or limit , but this is becoming more and more common. It saves them money by limiting the dosage or doses per month and making you use a generic.
The best thing to do is call your insurance company and find out if they have a policy regarding DAW when a generic is available or a policy on quantity per month that would prohibit TID dosing.
With all the medicare research I've done this month :rolleyes: all I can say is every company and the policy your covered under has their own twists. It would be best to find out what your insurance companies twists are and be able to go back to what worked rather than using BT meds to fill gaps instead of true BT pain. What happens when you need BT pain meds once they become nothing more than gap fillers for less effective generics. It's that or increase the generic LA dose to accomadate the generic' short comings.
I just hate to see you go from a working plan to one that sets you up for problems and having to go back to clock watching and having to take a pain pill 6, 7 or 8 times a day. That kinda defeats the whole purpose of LA meds and will leave you without true BT meds.
Hope you get it figured out before your next apt. Pharmacies aren't usually much help unless you have a common plan and they know it's policies very well. There response will likely be, "we won't know untill we run it through." Your script providor should be able to give you definitive policy answers.
Good luck, Dave
The best thing to do is call your insurance company and find out if they have a policy regarding DAW when a generic is available or a policy on quantity per month that would prohibit TID dosing.
With all the medicare research I've done this month :rolleyes: all I can say is every company and the policy your covered under has their own twists. It would be best to find out what your insurance companies twists are and be able to go back to what worked rather than using BT meds to fill gaps instead of true BT pain. What happens when you need BT pain meds once they become nothing more than gap fillers for less effective generics. It's that or increase the generic LA dose to accomadate the generic' short comings.
I just hate to see you go from a working plan to one that sets you up for problems and having to go back to clock watching and having to take a pain pill 6, 7 or 8 times a day. That kinda defeats the whole purpose of LA meds and will leave you without true BT meds.
Hope you get it figured out before your next apt. Pharmacies aren't usually much help unless you have a common plan and they know it's policies very well. There response will likely be, "we won't know untill we run it through." Your script providor should be able to give you definitive policy answers.
Good luck, Dave
Midwest-JD
11-03-2005, 02:53 AM
One thing you could ask your doc and/or pharmacist about - There are different "grades" of generics. I don't remember exactly what the classifications are, but my pharmacy (at our local Wal-Mart) will only use grade AA (or triple A?) generics - those are the ones that have to have within a very, very small amount of having exactly the same amount of the drug. Lesser generics can actually have less of the drug, which it sounds like is happening with you. You could call local pharmacies, and ask them about what grade generics they use, and pick the pharmacy with the highest grade/strictest requirements for generics. I don't know if Wal-Mart's Rx policies are nation-wide or local, so don't know if your Wal-Mart would be the same or not, but you can call them and ask.
When I was on oxycontin (60 mg/day), I had 10mg hydrocodone for BT, as needed, up to 3 per day. (I've been on methadone for almost 2 years now, and found it to be much better FOR ME, and a LOT cheaper too!)
Good luck!
JD
When I was on oxycontin (60 mg/day), I had 10mg hydrocodone for BT, as needed, up to 3 per day. (I've been on methadone for almost 2 years now, and found it to be much better FOR ME, and a LOT cheaper too!)
Good luck!
JD
Director
11-03-2005, 01:26 PM
Hi Madhatter: It's too bad if you are stuck with taking the generic version of Oxycontin. When I was on it, I took the name brand and my doc gave me Oxycodone IR for breakthrough. I started with the 15 mg., but eventually went to the 30 mg and it was written Q4H PRN. I tried to only take them when I really had to, but eventually the Oxycontin got up to 160 mg TID. I think that's a problem a lot of people have and that's your tolerance level seems to go up quite fast on Oxy. Of course having the same med for you BT doesn't help when it comes to your tolerance increasing. To answer your question, no I don't think you're out of line asking for a bump on your Oxy IR. You could also ask for a dose increase (on the IR) or an increase in your Oxycontin too. Good luck.
madhatter
11-03-2005, 05:17 PM
Thanks for the replies,I'm going to call my insurance and ask them,then go from there.Thanks again! MAD
Director
11-03-2005, 05:23 PM
Hey Mad: Let us all know what you find out from your insurance company. I know if you could get on name brand Oxy, it would help you a lot. I guess the only other routes would be to increase the Oxycontin, increase the Oxy IR or make a change in your base med to something else.