Really is flomax that expensive?

[Blackheartednurse]

Ok so I work home health.I'm a fairly new nurse.I have a patient who loves to "experiment" on himself as I would call it and self treat himself. He has an enlarged prostate...and has a prescription for flomax.He stopped take it because the co-pay for this med is expensive according to him (he is on medicare) He recently purchased a over the counter some sort of vitamins for enlarged prostate (Prostalex plus) This med according to the label also decreases the size of prostate.This man has not told to anyone (me his nurse or his doc) that he started this new med.Now he has a diarrhea that alternates with normal stool.It has been like this for the past two weeks.I asked him why did he stopped to take the original med Flomax,he said it was to expensive yet he has medicare and he purchases another meds like Prilosec OTC,prescription meds for hypertension.cholesterol etc..Now I wonder is this man really telling the truth?

[peas&carrots]

Tamsulosin is a new generic so the price difference isn't as much as a lot of generic vs. brand name drugs. As someone has stated before it's the coverage gap (donut hole) that usually causes patients to not be able to afford their meds. Something that we advise people to do is get a $4/10 dollar list from their pharmacy. If you take that list to the doctor and get as many meds as you can changed to this list it will really save people that have medicare. The pharmacy can then run those drugs as "cash" so that it doesn't even go towards medicare. This keeps people out of the coverage gap in alot of cases. This might even involve getting a strength for a drug that is half or double what they usually take. You can then just double or half tablets to get the right dose.

FYI...if you take Yaz there is a generic now available. I know quite a few people get this at our pharmacy and the generic usually cuts their copay in half. :)

[JOVANI]

I work for a Medicare plan D plan and for Flomax is a tier 3 drug for us and would be able to get it for $20 to 30 depending on what plan he has as long as he is not in the coverage gap