Testosterone, Other Injectable Drug Access Problems in San Francisco Area: Call for Information
Some patients in the San Francisco area have stopped receiving testosterone, and perhaps other injectable drugs, for which payment had already been approved. It appeared there was a business dispute between Coram Prescription Services, a home-care service which delivers and injects the drugs, and Brown & Toland Medical Group, an IPA (independent physician association) which currently pays for these drugs (and therefore decides which patients are eligible to receive them). It seems that Coram believed that Brown & Toland would no longer pay for home delivery of these drugs after the first of the year.We called Coram in mid January, and were told that they were in negotiation with Brown & Toland, and therefore could not speak about the issue.
On February 7, after hearing that another patient was not getting his medication, we talked to Stephen Becker, M.D., Medical Director for the HIV Intervention Program at Brown & Toland. He said there has been no change at Brown & Toland, which still "has the risk," meaning that it is currently paying for these drugs as it always has--and that Brown & Toland had not known about the problem until we brought it to his attention. He suspects there is confusion at Coram, because of efforts by Brown & Toland to shift "the risk" to HMOs in the future. But no such change has happened yet.
We called back to Coram on February 7, but were unable to reach a person after 15 minutes on the voicemail.
Anyone covered by Brown & Toland who still has problems getting home delivery of drugs which have been approved for payment should let Brown & Toland know, by writing to: Brown & Toland Physician Services Organization, 1388 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94109; also send a copy to: Stephen L. Becker, M.D., 2351 Clay St., San Francisco, CA 94115. Dr. Becker is not the one who decides who receives the medications. But he can make sure Brown & Toland knows if drugs which it has agreed to pay for are not being delivered, apparently due to a misunderstanding of Brown & Toland's current payment policy.
AIDS Treatment News would also like to hear of any further problems which are not quickly resolved.
