As a shortage of growth hormone used to treat rare diseases in children drags on, families and doctors are struggling with insurers' requirements to get prescriptions filled.
Winston Hall, 9, needs growth hormone to manage symptoms of Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic condition. A shortage of the medicine has contributed to behavioral issues that led him to be sent home from school.
A shortage of growth hormone — as well as how insurance companies are handling the problem — has consumed nearly every spare minute she has had for the last six months.Norditropin, the growth hormone prescribed most often, went into shortage in the fall of 2022. It's still scarce a year and a half later, despite assurances from Novo Nordisk, maker of the drug, that supplies would stabilize in 2024.
Most insurance companies require a prior authorization for growth hormone, meaning health care providers need to justify their prescription with the insurance company before the company will cover the drug, allowing the pharmacy to dispense it to the patient. The process can take days or weeks, which is cumbersome but at least was required only once or twice a year for most families.
Hillary Hall, who lives in Las Vegas, has spent hours on the phone trying to get growth hormone for her 9-year-old son, Winston Hall, who has Prader-Willi syndrome. The company said in an email to NPR on March 20 that it was temporarily discontinuing one of its pen sizes to focus on the others. It expected to continue to have supply problems for at least a few more months.
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