Do you cut off your treatment and prescription refills at a certain hemoglobin and hematocrit? How much is it monthly with your company? Do you do telemedicine, and if so, do you require your patients to have to travel once a year or at all to come to your office? How often do you require blood work, and can patients provide their results from ultalabtests.com? Can you write an rx to be filled at the patients local Costco?

AlphaMD's Answer

No patient has ever had to be cut off for RBC like that, every person who has had symptoms has followed suggestions to lower it. If it was exceedingly high and the patient was completely ignoring advice, then the provider overseeing their care would have to lower their dose, as that would be the appropriate step. Though this has yet to happen, most men want to be safe.

It is typically $129 a month, which covers supplies, communication, shipping, consultations, and medication costs when a provider prescribes treatment.Initial bloodwork is needed when someone starts, then if they are having intense side effects that can't be figured out, additional bloodwork would be needed to help figure it out. If someone is 200mg+ a week then the provider overseeing their care would require bloodwork around every 3-6 months depending on the dose. Below 200mg a week & without any symptoms while feeling great, additional bloodwork isn't typically mandated after you are dialed in. Some companies look to make their bank here with high cost mandatory draws for low dose folks, but we're not a fan.

A licensed provider can send an Rx to the patient's local pharmacy if the patient thinks they can get it covered by their insurance. We'd provide a monthly discounted rate instead. It's kind of the same amount of work for us either way and we have a really good price that covers medication costs when treatment is prescribed, so we don't find this works out often but are happy to do it.