For 2027, I just found out that my insurance is going to cover Merilog and I was wondering if anyone here is using Merilog and what your experience with it is. It is a biosimiliar for Novolog.
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Yes. In Wellcare’s cheapest Medicare Part D offering Merilog is the only ultra-fast acting insulin; if you don’t choose it you have to use Novolin.
It’s the same as Novolog. “Biosimilars” are better known as “generics”.
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Yes, that what I have. Wellcare. So I guess I’ll give Merilog a try in 2027. I have used biosimiliars in the past and had no issues. For example, I’ve used Basaglar and Semglee instead of Lantus with no issues. I may try stockpiling Novolog for the rest of this year so I have a pretty good supply before changing over to Merilog. A biosimilar for rapid-acting insulin just feels like unfamiliar territory.
Medicare.gov is open now for examining the plans and that way you can see how the Wellcare plans differ. In Oregon there are two on offer, Wellcare Classic with a premium of $7.30/month and Wellcare Value at $5.30/month. I don’t care about $24 difference, however the devil is in the details and the two plans may have different formularies and are very likely to have different drug costs.
The only way I found I could use Medicare.gov was to add every single insulin to my drug list and then look for the ones which cost no more than $420/year (i.e. the ones in the formulary).
The problem arises because even though different manufacturers insulins are chemically identical each brand name plus the medical name have to be added; it’s not enough to search for Aspart, we have to search for Novolog and Merilog as well. In fact Aspart is not currently on the medicare.gov drug list although adding Humalog suggests adding lispro instead as the “generic”, despite the fact that lispro is often more expensive.
In other words add everything you can think of; in my case I can add Fiasp because for me it seems exactly the same as Novolog/Aspart/Merilog (it doesn’t even make me itch!)
It’s not possible to tune the drug list to the plan; there is only one drug list, so it’s necessary to use a spreadsheet or good memory to do the calculation. It’s ridiculously easy to make a mistake; I just double checked Wellcare and my initial check a couple of days ago was wrong. Both plans only cover Novolin and Merilog.
Of course the drug list changes every year…
Yes, I will go back on Medicare.gov. To be honest, I will likely keep Wellcare Value Script and try the Merilog. They aren’t perfect. I sometimes have to call multiple times and speak to multiple people before I get an accurate answer. This 2027 formulary change took a couple of phone calls. The first person told be Novolog was covered on the 2027 formulary. Then I checked Medicare.gov and saw that it wasn’t. So I had to call again and got the info about Merilog. How are we supposed to do this at age 80 or 90??? The government is really ruining Medicare.
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