Adventures of an Allergist Mommy

I just received notice that as of January 1, 2014, the Express Scripts formulary will be removing a number of medications from its repertoire of covered drugs. This means that patients under the Express Scripts plan will have NO COVERAGE for these prescriptions, and will be required to pay full price at the pharmacy. The list is long, and heavy on medications commonly used by patients with asthma and allergies: Asthma medications: Advair diskus Advair HFA Alvesco HFA Flovent Diskus Flovent HFA Maxair Autohaler Proventil HFA Xopenex HFA Allergy medications: Auvi-Q Beconase AQ Omnaris Rhinocort Aqua Veramyst Zetonna As insurers continue to seek ways to cut costs and boost the bottom line, they will negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to obtain lower pricing. Those companies that play ball get to keep their drugs on the formulary. Those that don't, get dropped. The losers are the patients who will be required to switch from medications they have been taking ...

I am proud to be from Illinois, where we already have excellent guidelines in place for the protection of food allergic children, and also have a stock epinephrine law on the books. I am also so pleased that my state's U.S. Senators have teamed up to co-sponsor a bipartisan bill designed to keep the children of America safe from severe allergic reactions. Read on to learn more! Courtesy of the Allergy and Asthma Network - Mothers of Asthmatics : Your Chance to Weigh In On Stock Epinephrine Legislation The School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, which would encourage states to require that schools keep lifesaving epinephrine on hand, is now in front of the U.S. Senate, bringing it one step closer to passage. You can make a difference by contacting your Senators today to ask for their support. S. 1503 was introduced by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and co-sponsored by 23 other senators. The companion bill, sponsored by Rep. Phil Roe, MD ...

The following message is courtesy of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. A formerly available epinephrine auto-injector (Adrenaclick) is back on the market, as is an authorized generic for this specific device. It is likely that insurance companies and pharmacies may encourage substitution with this generic product, as a way to decrease expenses for both insurers and patients. Please read the message, and be alert to the possibility of device substitution. _________________________________________ Be Aware of Authorized Generic Epinephrine Autoinjector Dear Colleagues: It has come to our attention that Lineage Therapeutics, Inc. recently launched an authorized generic version of Adrenaclick® under the name  epinephrine injection, USP auto-injector . This product being marketed as a generic epinephrine autoinjector is an “authorized generic” of the Adrenaclick autoinjector only. We want to make you aware because the availability of this product ma...

Allergy & Asthma Network - Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) is partnering with the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) to produce six video vignettes on "Why see an Allergist?" and they need your help! AANMA is looking for people who fit the following criteria and are willing to participate: Newly diagnosed or undiagnosed patients with symptoms of allergy and/or asthma  Patients diagnosed with at least one of the following conditions:  Children with seasonal allergies  Food allergy  Pregnancy and asthma  Teenager with asthma  Pet allergies  Rhinitis  Required to send a homemade, 60-second video of your story to AANMA by March 15, 2013  Willing to participate in a pre-interview via telephone with video production agency  Able and willing to participate in a one-day commercial video shoot in downtown Chicago in April 2013  The video vignettes will be utilized in social media outlets to raise...

As a mother of 2 boys, I sometimes feel outnumbered. Therefore, I was delighted to be invited by the local Daisy Scouts to a meeting which focused on being kind and considerate. Using the topic of food allergy as an example, we were able to address the issues of safety, inclusion/exclusion, bullying, how to be a good friend, and more. The girls offered up a whole host of ideas about how to celebrate special events without being food-centric, just in time for Valentine's Day! In this one group of Daisy Scouts, there were allergies to milk, egg, peanuts, tree nuts and fish! It was lovely to see the girls talk about how they pack special lunches so they can sit with their food-allergic friends and how they don't ever share food. One adorable little one demonstrated, arms outstretched, how she would come between a bully and her food-allergic pal! We did a drill of how to call for help if a friend is experiencing an allergic reaction, and familiarized ourselves with autoinjectabl...

The other day, my 7 year old son came home from school excited to tell me about his day. His second-grade class had just begun a unit in science about the human body. As an introduction to the unit, his teacher asked the students to name organ systems. One child called out, "the gut", and another, "the lungs". But not my child. No, my kid offered up "the immune system"! Here's the book he took from my office to read to his class: http://primaryimmune.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Our-Immune-System.pdf "Our Immune System", by Sara LeBien Obviously, I'm biased by both genetics and profession. But I couldn't be prouder. :-)