How would you respond if a client told you his heart medication suddenly costs more than his monthly mortgage payment? Or if a client is cutting pills in half because she’s worried about running out of money in retirement?
Now, you or your client can call Medicare BackOffice’s on-staff pharmacy director, Ryan Vlasin at 1-877-385-8083. With the price of prescription drugs skyrocketing along with other health care costs, conversations once contained to the doctor’s office or pharmacy are now leaking into the financial planner’s space, as pre-retirees and retirees search for ways to manage. Mitigating these costs is not only a new requirement to developing responsible retirement plans that can withstand future pressures, but also a savvy way to add value for clients.
In seeking ways that we can support you, Medicare BackOffice hired a professional best suited to help your clients get the best, most affordable coverage, so they don’t have to take drastic, possibly unhealthy, measures. Our Licensed Insurance Agents can continue to help your clients with most Medicare Part D Prescription Drug plan questions, but for the more complex issues or prescription-specific questions, Ryan Vlasin is now available.
“I feel my current role is mostly that of a patient advocate,” Ryan said. “As drug prices continue to climb, patients need strategies to make sure they’re not being priced out of the market.”
How can Ryan save your clients time and money? Here are a few examples:
Ryan is uniquely qualified to share cost-saving and health-smart strategies. After earning a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, he earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree and started out as a quality assurance chemist at the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer before moving behind the counter for nearly a decade as a retail pharmacist. This vast experience makes him knowledgeable about not only the medicines themselves, but also the manufacturing, retail and the insurance pieces of your increasingly complicated health care puzzle.
Learn more below about Ryan and his story of helping a man whose retirement decision hinges on a costly medication.
The Man Who Couldn’t Retire
By Medicare BackOffice Pharmacy Director Ryan Vlasin
After nearly a decade as a retail pharmacist, I felt I had a good understanding of how Medicare Part D worked. Every January I would brace for the influx of crisp, freshly laminated Rx cards directing me to a patient’s new insurance plan. My patients were like family — we laughed and cried together. Mostly, we cried though, because it seemed like every year their premiums and co-pays went up.
About six months ago I left retail pharmacy, hoping to use my education and experience to help patients find the best coverage and avoid pitfalls before their newly minted insurance card hit the pharmacy counter. This way, everyone could cry less and laugh more and, more importantly, afford their meds. Now I spend my days assisting financial planning professionals and their clients as we work through the extremely complicated Medicare maze. There are great coverage options out there, and I love helping people by suggesting therapeutic alternatives and other strategies that will lower their costs.
It was in that spirit that I answered the phone a few weeks ago and was presented with a question that changed my perspective. It was a call from a 70-year-old cancer survivor who was still working full time. His question and in fact his entire future were balancing on one medication. As soon as he said “Keytruda,” I sat upright. It’s not a medication I see every day, and in fact I had never dispensed it. It was an expensive medication, but a promising one used in the fight against melanoma skin cancer.
“Keytruda is the only thing keeping me alive,” the client explained. “I need to know if Part D is going to cover it.”
After spending the better part of an hour researching Keytruda and how it’s covered by Medicare plans, we discussed his expected out-of-pocket costs. His dose of Keytruda would have been $53,000 without insurance. He already had excellent insurance through his employer, and his out-of-pocket costs for the medicine were only $600 per year. Although Medicare covered the medication better than I expected, his cost difference would have been $4,500 per year. Ultimately, he decided to keep working because his employer insurance covered it better than any of the Part D plans. He told me that every year he thinks he might retire, but the cost of Keytruda keeps him working. He can’t afford to retire.
This case study highlights a couple of important things. I have encountered many people who think that because they don’t currently take any medications, they don’t need to enroll in Part D. If any of these people needed a life-saving medication like Keytruda, it would likely result in financial devastation. There is a penalty for some who don’t enroll in Medicare when they turn 65, but the real penalty is needing a life-saving medication and not being able to afford it. If your clients are eligible for Medicare, please make sure they have a Part D prescription drug plan in place to protect them and their family.
If they have any questions about their Part D coverage, encourage them to give us a call at 1-877-385-8083.
