Blood Thinner

[georgiapapa]

Perhaps your private cardiologist might write a letter stating why he prescribed Effient. If your private cardiologist is agreeable to any alternatives, he should also indicate this in his letter. If not, he should provide reasonable medical rationale as to why any alternatives would not be acceptable.

You could take the letter to your VA PCP and ask the PCP for a consult with a VA cardiologist and see if he would request Effient or an alternative if it is listed in your private doctor's letter as being an acceptable alternative to Effient.

If your private cardiologist and VA cardiologist can not agree on a medication, I would pay out of pocket for the Effient. You may also want to check with your private cardiologist to see if he has any Effient coupons which could he used at your pharmacy for a discount. When I was on Effient, my cardiologist had Effient coupons available in her office.

Good luck.

[Berta]

And if you feel that this is a Patient Safety issue (meaning this non formulary med is critical for your care)
by all means contact the IG:

http://www.va.gov/oig/contact/

Georgiapapa was right:
"Was the cardiologist who implanted your stent a VA cardiologist? If it was a VA cardiologist, you should have them contact your VA PCP and order a medication that meets the requirements of the cardiologist. I believe they can get medications not on the VA formulary if it is requested by a VA cardiologist."

Use the PDF from the formulary if you need it, as I posted link above.

Is this a med for a SC cardio condition?

(I got a question yesterday from a local VAMC employee as to what the formulary list meant....

because of your question I could explain it to him. Hadit helps more people than we think sometimes.

[Buck52]

YES,

IF the VA P Advocate is not any help (obviously there not) by all means seek higher authority!

IG like Ms Berta mention/who ever it takes to help with your medical issue

Call The new VA Sec Robert.Bob. McDonald....his number and email address is on this site!

[usdart]

I wrote the IG office and am waiting for a response.

I think we need a higher authority because there must be other Vets with similar issues and we may help bring it to the list of complaints. We can only hope they really do care.

[Chuck75]

I'd be curious as to the VA's cost difference between Effient and Clopidogrel (Plavix).

My experience has been that the cost difference between alternative drugs is more important to the VA than

the actual effectiveness.

I've taken Plavix for some time. It looks like Effient may be preferred, due to the fact that Plavix is "black boxed"

and not effective in all cases. I remember when the VA did not want to use Plavix, even though it was on the "list".

(Cost, don't you know!) How far away is the VA Cardiologist, and is the VA Cardiologist "Board Certified"?

Which Cardiologist is actually the "treating" Cardiologist?

Plavix is now generic and the generic price is fairly low. Effient is quite a bit more costly, based only on the drug pharmacy prices.

When hospital related costs are included, the price difference might be about $1 a day, if an insurance company

had both on a preferred drug list.

A quick look on the net produced some interesting results.

https://investor.lilly.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=434208

Edited February 12, 2015 by Chuck75