Cancer Negotiable...Who Knew?

Cindy:

When I was a kid I remember mom always negotiating for everything. She would never take no for an answer from our private school tuition to my first car.  I usually felt embarrassed and would beg her to stop. If I just would have known how much I'd turn out be like her, I wouldn't have believed it.

Well today I got the very taste of what it must have been like to be mom twenty years ago.

 In the past year we've added a lot of unexpected expenses to our lives from weekly therapeutic massages,medical supplies and co-pays for mom to having our 4th child. After going from a two income household to just my husband's salary it finally hit home we needed to be a lot more conservative with our spending.  I started the day thinking about Benecalorie & Boost Plus and how I wished it was covered by insurance when it really is a necessity in trying to keep mom's weight stable.  I decided to be a little more like mom today and called Rxusa the company I've bought Benecalorie from in the past. This company in my past experience has had great customer service and the best price on Benecalorie I've found to date at $38 a case. Knowing that alot of us within the cancer community use alot of Benecalorie whether as a cancer warrior or in caregiving for a loved one I asked them if they would consider giving cancer warriors and caregivers a discount if I listed them on our blog and they agreed, so if you mention

 "The 6th Opinion" when placing your order a 10% discount will be applied on any prescription or nutritional supplement. No sooner had  I hung up when I got a second call from the genetic testing center that told me last week mom's insurance wasn't going to cover any of the almost $2000 cost for the test she'd had done weeks ago.  I have to say I felt pretty defeated, all I could think was where were we going to get another $2000 dollars to pay for yet another test without putting ourselves too deep into the whole.

So I started calling around trying to figure out if their's some sort of a grant that helps with the cost of this test. But unlike the grants that help pay for Genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer there are no grants for cdh1 testing at the moment. Which brought me back to my original problem until my phone rang yet a third time.

This time it was the American Cancer Society, calling to let us know they would be sending us complimentary parking passes that my mom had asked about the last time we were at the hospital. She began by asking how my mom was doing and if I had any questions for her about anything.  "As a matter of fact I do." I said. We went on to have a 30 min conversation and before I knew it she had committed to trying to find us some resources and promised to call me back. Within 30 minutes she did just that, she had contacted the genetic counseling center, had asked to speak to a manager and explained to them our situation.  Not only had she gotten them to agree to reduce the cost of the test by 35%.They had also agreed to take $300 in opposed to $1000 down that they had originally asked for and arrange a payment plan for as low a $10 a month if needed.  She even went on to tell me about an organization called Cancer Care who right now is offering a one time $100 check regardless of where you live for transportation for women with cancer who are currently undergoing chemo. They also offer financial assistance with co-pay's for women with stomach, colon or brain cancer. Every little bit helps in today's economy.

I'll post the links below in hope that you find benefit in them.

Rxusa.com

tel:866-843-4154

You can call or place the order online for prescriptions or any nutritional supplements just mention the "The 6th opinion" or when ordering online place in the comments section to receive a 10% discount on anything you order.

http://www.cancercare.org/

Call 800-813-HOPE (4673) and speak with a CancerCare^® social worker

For $100 check for Transportation or 

Help paying Co-Pay's Assistance

American Cancer Society

http://m.cancer.org/treatment/supportprogramsservices/index

tel:800-227-2345

Our hospital has an ACS office in their resource center which has provided my mom with parking passes, gas and Walgreens gift cards to help offset some of the cost in traveling to the hospital several times a week. Check with your local ACS to see if yours does too.

update: 2014 

 Something new we discovered is that some some insurances do cover ensure plus 360 calories drinks. Check with your local medical supply company.