who has gotten Augmentin XR covered by insurance?

[matis_mom]

How do you get your children to take Augmentin XR? Are they not giant pills? I want my son to take it but I doubt he will swallow those big pills. How do you do it?

Yes, they are pretty big but my 12yo would rather swallow that than have to taste the antibiotic! I guess it would be the equivalent of swallowing a jelly bean, if you want to give it a try!

[EAMom]

We have United Health care.

 

They cover the Azith. 250mg no problem.

 

Did anyone get XR covered by filing an excemption (is that what it is called?).

 

Thanks!

Our insurance was covering the brand name one, but now that there is a generic they will only cover the generic. I think the difference in price is pretty significant. So I don't know about apealing or anything, but maybe they will cover the generic, or you may choose to pay out of pocket (I think is something like about $100 for generic versus $600 for brand name!)

 

Our insurance won't cover either. Our best deal was about $200/mo. (for generic) using the Walgreens rx drug program.

Edited August 31, 2010 by EAMom

[MomWithOCDSon]

I have heard of cutting up the Aug. into halves (or quarters) and taking it that way. ??? does that work. I think that pill is okay to half as long as both halves are taken at the same time.

 

Yes, there's actually a split line on the XR pills so that you can even just literally break them in half for swallowing. Just know that the two halves must be consumed at the same time, though, for the extended release to work properly. In other words, were you to ever decide you could decrease the dosage, you wouldn't want to take 1,000 mg. XR pills and break them in half to give your child 500 mg. at each dosing.

 

Honestly, I don't know/can't remember why this is, but there were a series of previous posts in which Alex did a lot of homework on this topic. If you're interested, I would search the forum archives for "XR" or posts by Alex, and you should come up with his research, findings, links, etc.

[memom]

We have BCBS with Caremark for the medication coverage. They have not at all balked with the Augmentin XR. We do pay a higher copay though. DD18 has not found it to be any different in terms of benefit as compared to Zith, or Augmentin 500mg or 875mg.

 

On the other hand, our IVIG done last week will likely not be covered even as we are going through the appeals process. We are using Variable immune deficiency as she failed the pneumo titers but now we have to prove a history of hard to treat serious infections before they will cover. They do not cover for Pandas diagnosis,

 

I don't know if this helps.

 

Ellie