Do you suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness?
Do you have trouble staying awake when your work shift changes?
Or do you have sleep apnea but still feel drowsy despite CPAP?
If you’ve tried caffeine and still can’t stay awake, your doctor may have prescribed Provigil (modafinil) or Nuvigil (armodafinil).
Both these medications are indicated to improve wakefulness in patients with narcolepsy, shift work disorder, and treated obstructive sleep apnea.
This might wake you up: the cost.
A 30-day supply runs from $110 to over $500, which insurance may or may not cover.
Of the two drugs, both made by the same company (Cephalon), the newer medication (Nuvigil) is considerably less expensive. If you are currently on Provigil, you may want to ask your physician to change you to Nuvigil – at least until the older drug becomes available in generic form, probably within the next few years.
If you cannot live a normal life without these medications but have trouble affording them, check into the CephalonCares Foundation Patient Assistance Program, which provides prescription medicines free of charge to qualifying patients. (http://www.cephaloncares.com/)
An uninsured or underinsured individual with a total household income less than $32,490 would qualify for this program, as would a patient from a family of 4 with an income of $66,150 or less.
Insured patients can save as well. A 14-day free trial offer is available for Nuvigil at http://www.nuvigil.com/. Cephalon also offers the Nuvigil Prescription Savings Program with a discount up to $50 off out-of-pocket expenses (co-pays) above $10 per month, up to $600 per year. (Certain restrictions apply.)
Is it worth $10 a day to stay awake? I suppose those of you who stop at Starbucks morning, noon, and night must think so.
It’s impossible to calculate how much the above will save America. But if you’re paying $300 a month for medication and qualify for the CephalonCares program, it could save you pesonally over $3600 a year.
© Cynthia J Koelker, MD – All rights reserved
http://www.101waystosavemoneyonhealthcare.com/
