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HANOVER (CBS) — Nichole, a 25 year old living with Hepatitis C, was desperate when she reached out to WBZ.
“A week ago, I didn’t feel any hope,” she told the ITeam’s Lauren Leamanczyk.
She had been struggling with the disease since she was abducted four years ago. The fatigue and jaundice, plus the stigma made it hard to get on with her life.
Making matters worse, the man who victimized her had received a life-saving cure in prison. Nichole was left only with multiple denial letters from her insurance company, Tufts Health Plan.
“Aside from the physical, emotionally, this has been horrible,” she told Leamanczyk when they spoke in January.
The drug Harvoni made by Gilead has a 95 percent cure rate for Hepatitis. Nichole’s doctor prescribed it saying she was a perfect candidate. It would help rid her of the disease and move on. However, a full treatment of Harvoni is priced at a whopping $84,000. That’s $1000 per pill.
Tufts Health Plan denied Nichole coverage of the drug, saying she isn’t sick enough yet. “The insurance company wants me to be in Stage 3 liver scarring,” she said.
Four denial letters meant Nichole would have to wait for her cure.
Then, Mark Janian, the Chief Commercial Officer at AllCare Plus Specialty Pharmacy, saw the story on WBZ. It touched a nerve.
“Putting myself in the shoes of a father with three kids, disbelief, shock, sad, upset,” he said.
He also knew that Nichole is just one of many patients in Massachusetts who are also denied the potentially life saving treatment.
“I saw the story and I know that this is something our patients face on a daily basis,” he said.
Mark reached out to WBZ and we put him in touch with Nichole.
He made a few calls to his contacts at Abbvie, a drug maker with a competing medication called Viekira Pak. Within hours, he had secured an expensive medication with an equally high cure rate for free.
Nichole said she cried when she heard the news. It feels like a second chance.
Read the rest of this incredible story here……http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/02/07/good-samaritan-helps-woman-denied-insurance-coverage-receive-lifesaving-hepatitis-c-drug/