11 Comments
User's avatar
Dr. Corinne Menn's avatar

Fantastic honest commentary

Beverly Joyce, MD's avatar

Wow, great article! It is absolutely criminal. What if people ran out of insulin? Or blood pressure medication, or god forbid, Viagra😱. ( oh butthere are multiple Other ED drugs to choose from, all which are very inexpensive!!!)

Suzanne Gilberg, MD's avatar

I’m glad you enjoyed it! And you bet this would

Never happen with ED drugs!

Lara Zibners's avatar

Move to Europe! I get Estrogel for a song!

Gina Thomas's avatar

Good information for people to act on !!

Densha's avatar

“There is, however, significant financial incentive to steer patients toward branded alternatives…” my insurance just changed the formulary patch to Vivelle-Dot and removed the generics. Have not had to fill it yet.

Tracy Anderson's avatar

Not only that, but some woman are being heavily overcharged for patches. I have a client who is getting a combination patch that costs $800 for a 90 day supply! What?!

Suzanne Gilberg, MD's avatar

Insane! PBM at its finest

myself's avatar

The sad part however is that when I tried to ask my prescriber (MIDI Health) to discuss alternative formulations they’ve sent a canned response of “try calling pharmacies” and when I replied that my ask was about alternative formulations they just moved my prescription to a different pharmacy (where it’s always more expensive) - and then I got to know optum would have restocked it in a few days.

What’s really enraging is the condescending tone of that reply and the dismissal of my ask.

The condescendingly dismissive attitude towards women is so deeply rooted in the medical community that even Midi providers that supposedly have chosen to address the problem fall back to old habits.

Suzanne Gilberg, MD's avatar

really sorry to hear this= my guess is that they are overwhelmed and dont have infrastructure to support a nimble and creative response

Jaye's avatar

The shortage is also in Canada, where branded alternatives are avoided by insurance companies.