The other day, my mom and I were at a meeting with one of my GI doctors, when he pulled us aside to introduce us to a pharmaceutical representative. After our short conversation, we held in our hands a card that would have saved us approximately $113,100 in medical expenses over the course of my life.
CREON, according to its manufacturer AbbVie, “helps break down food into nutrients.” It is a prescription medicine used to treat people who cannot digest food normally because their pancreas does not make enough enzymes either due to cystic fibrosis, chronic pancreatitis, removal of some or all of the pancreas (pancreatectomy), or some other rare condition. Children with severe cases of pancreatitis are likely to be prescribed this medication. Every child post pancreatic transplant must take CREON for the rest of their lives. It is the only way in which most of these children can eat; without it, I could not have a bite of food without checking into a hospital afterwards. Our family has a long-standing joke that if I was ever stranded on a deserted island, then I better have my CREON with me.
The past few years, the cost of CREON has increased drastically from around $900 per month to most recently $3,200 per month. There are some medications I can live without, but this is not one of them. My only option for survival is to spend the rest of my life in a hospital bed, or find a way to deal with the cost of CREON.
Life is defined by unexpected miracles. If you give grace with no expectations in return, I’ve learned at my house, that unexpected miracles will happen. That little plastic card for CREON turned out to be an extraordinary, unexpected miracle – or my version of a pot of gold.
Now with my new card in hand, our new monthly cost of CREON drops from $3,200 to $5.
You read that correctly, because of my new card, the cost of CREON has been lowered by $3,195 per month!
With the CREON on Course co-pay card, any patient with commercial insurance can apply to save thousands of dollars a year, and hundreds of thousands over a lifetime using this lifesaving medication.
The CREON on Course co-pay card, although new to me, is not something that just fell out of the sky. This card has been around for the entire nine and a half years that I have been taking CREON. Yet, not a single pharmacist ever mentioned this card to us until this summer.
Without an advocate specializing in pediatric pancreatitis, it takes chance meetings and word of mouth to spread information as important as this. Hopefully this article finds its way into the hands of more patients who need to hear about the CREON on Course co-pay card. I have heard stories of suffering kids, who opt not to eat because of the of the stratospheric cost of CREON and others who can’t afford the cost and so they end up in a hospital.
For anyone who needs to apply for a CREON On Course co-pay card, either talk to your pharmacist or visit www.creononcourse.com
Please share this article with anyone you know who is taking CREON. It might just change their life.
With love,
Rebecca Taylor
