About the Specialty Pharmacy
Specialty medications often require a high amount of support in many different areas, including clinical monitoring, counseling, insurance navigation and financial assistance. The UK HealthCare Specialty Pharmacy is designed to improve this process for patients seen within UK HealthCare.
UK HealthCare Specialty Pharmacy has partnered with many UK clinics to assist in improving the care for patients who require a specialty medication and those who require additional support for any medication therapy. Our dedicated clinical pharmacists work within many clinics to provide counseling and clinical monitoring in person during your clinic visit. We are also able to counsel and answer questions over the phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Our Patient Care Coordinators will work with your insurance company to cover your medications, research for financial assistance if your copay requirements are unaffordable, and coordinate the dispensing and refills of your medications. Medications will be mailed to your home free of charge, or may be dispensed from the Kentucky Clinic Pharmacy or Turfland Clinic Pharmacy for convenient pick-up.
UK HealthCare Specialty Pharmacy has pharmacists and technicians dedicated to many areas, including oral chemotherapy, growth disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, psoriasis, cystic fibrosis, rheumatology and transplant. Because they are directly involved in the clinics, our staff have a distinct advantage over external specialty pharmacies: Having access to your health record and health care providers allows us to more efficiently manage these complicated medications.
What Is a Specialty Medication?
A specialty medication can be defined in a variety of different ways. Medicare has perhaps the simplest definition: It states that a specialty medication is any medication that costs more than $600 a month. Other businesses, such as drug manufacturers, health providers and insurance companies, typically agree these drugs are expensive and are medically necessary to either save a life or improve the quality of a patient’s life.
Most specialty medications will cost between $2,000 and $10,000 a month, while some may cost as much as $50,000 a month. The cost to each patient will depend on what type of insurance coverage that patient has.
Specialty medications that are administered by the patient are typically either oral or injectable drugs and are often approved through the patient’s prescription insurance. Specialty medications that require an infusion are typically approved through the patient’s medical insurance and can be administered at a hospital infusion center or in the patient’s home by qualified staff. There are more than 500 specialty medications and hundreds of insurance companies, so many variations and exceptions occur.
A specialty pharmacy advocate such as the UK HealthCare Specialty Pharmacy is dedicated to helping you succeed with your medications.