Posted by Marc
on 2/28/2009, 7:58 am
I moved down here from the Philly area 4 years ago. When it got too expensive in Philly $100/week, plus no monthly takehomes, I found out about OBOT (office based opioid treatment) in Baltimore that is only $80/month! So I drove the 90 miles each way once a month. Of course for OBOT you have to have been clean for at least 3 years, documented.
I called the CMG clinic before moving here and they said that they would put me on monthly takehomes right away again as long as it was documented that I was clean. No problem.
However, I had to get used to paying $336/month instead of $80/month. Still cheaper than I understand many others pay.
Now, effective March 1, it's going from $336/month to $392/month. A $2/day increase. If I got liquids it would only be a $1/day increase. But as I travel a lot, diskettes are a lot easier to handle.
I get the Vistapharm pre-packaged bottle of 40mg diskettes. It seems to me that the liquid would cost more as there's more to preparing it and using more bottles, etc. But no, they say that the diskettes cost more, but double?
Again, I know people in other parts of Florida have to pay $20/day but it just gets me that if you've been compliant for over 20 years and have been in treatment successfully for close to 25 years, some kind of consideration should be given.
I wrote emails, letters to the higher-ups at CMG, but no luck. Buprenorphine is even more expensive and I'm not eligible for the free meds that some people can get if they take suboxone.
I guess my options are either to pay the increase or consider transferring back to Maryland and flying there once a month, even round trip for one day and I would save almost $150/month!
But it seems that OBOT down here means suboxone only, not for methadone even though any doctor can apply for it but I guess they don't want to go through the trouble. Plus let's face it, they charge a lot more for suboxone which is much more expensive than methadone which is literally pennies per mg compared to other meds.
I don't have pain issues, some have suggested I look into pain doctors but I don't think I'd be eligible plus I understand that's as expensive.
I wish there were closer OBOT doctors than Maryland, but from Florida that seems to be about the closest and the cheapest.
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