Any issues with students and epipen cost?

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

So we all know the news buzz has been about Mylan and the soaring cost of Epipens. And while it helps some of us out that we can get some freebies through them, I know that some parents aren't so lucky and their insurance premiums are very costy. Have any of you had parents where they have straight up told you they didn't get the order filled due to cost? (I haven't but was curious)

Also - after seeing some chatter on facebook about people wanting to "just carry a vial and syringe" -also discussion about how some people thought this was a revolutionary idea to stick it to the man and some people (with sense) discussed how during a reaction now having to draw up an accurate dose while being panicked during a reaction is probably not an ideal scenario. Especially if you are a layman that does not routinely draw up syringes.

So then today I happened across this article:

Outrageous EpiPen prices lead some people to make their own - Sep. 24, 2

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Specializes in School Nurse.

I have half the number of EpiPens that I had last year, and the number of students with severe allergies has not gone down. Last year my district obtained stock EpiPens for every building. This information was highly circulated in the media. In addition to the high cost, I suspect some parents choose not to have an EpiPen at school for their student because they know it is stocked here at school.

I have seen more generics this year but no bootleg one!

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All I know is that if a parent came into my school with a frankenepi like that i would not be accepting of it.

Frankenepi! Hahahahahaha!

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I haven't had anyone tell me that cost was an issue. I did send out the coupon from Mylan before school started and I've heard from 5 families that it took their copay down to $0. Each of them used it for 2 packs of pens.

and no frankinepi here either!

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

Not one of my families ever accepts the coupon offer from Mylan.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Public Health Nurse.

Here no. Most of the families have Kaiser or Medi-Cal so they end up having a $0-20 co-pay.

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

My one epi pen student has medicaid so cost isn't an issue. I feel so bad for those families who struggle with it.

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I haven't yet, but a friend has. She's contacting pharmacies to find out other options since a lot of her students and families are non-native English speakers.

We stock epipens, but only for our standing orders which covers unknown allergies. So, technically, we can't use them for a known reaction.

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Not one of my families ever accepts the coupon offer from Mylan.

Sounds like welfare is paying then.

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I don't have as many this year due to insurance companies dragging their feet and not wanting to pay until they get more approval. I also see insurance companies no longer filling new ADHD meds right away until they get further authorization slowing everything down. It's frustrating. I would not be comfortable with the epi straw although we used to have stock epinephrine and syringes before epi pens were made.

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Sounds like welfare is paying then.

What makes you think that these families must be on welfare?

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No problems for any of my parents here, thankfully.

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