My not going well transition to Ocrevus continued

Well, if your following the saga (or catch up with the link above), I discussed my insurance concerns with my doctor with regards to the Rituxan. The Rituxan will come from the patient assistance program at Genentech. However, the infusion of the Rituxan, steroids, benedryl and saline are not covered. My insurance will deny them because they denied Rituxan. I’m scared, at the last minute, they will tell me we couldn’t get authorization for the infusion therefore you can’t do it. My doctor and I agreed we need to go forward with the Ocrevus still.

She has put in the order and today I called the infusion site. For the first dose of Ocrevus, you get a partial dose followed by another dose 2 weeks later. The appointments were made for August, although I’m due for my infusion in July. It was an issue my doctor talked about yesterday that she felt I was still ok on my last Rituxan infusion to hold me until August. The infusion site now gets the insurance company authorization.

Insurance authorization shouldn’t be an issue because Ocrevus (Ocrelizumab) is approved for MS. Rituxan, it’s close sister drug, was not. That is why it was denied. It was for this reason we were making the change of drugs. I won’t have that answer for at least a week. In the meantime I’m keeping my Rituxan appointment open, just in case.