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Profile picture for awfultruth @awfultruth

@izziesue two years is typical but a crazy long time to be taking a powerful and for some a dangerous drug and not know if it's working. Traditional Medicare for instance will pay for DXAs every year if your doc knows how to submit it. Not sure about other insurance. I have paid for DXAs when I wanted/needed to know where I was at earlier than the 1 year limit. At my doctors the DXAs were not that expensive ($75 for each site).
Also I test CTX frequently and use Jason Health Labs for a good price. The draw and test processing is done at a local Quest Labs in my case. I think I pay $68 for blood draw and CTX test. Much thanks to Jason Health because going direct through Quest is much more expensive.

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Replies to "@izziesue two years is typical but a crazy long time to be taking a powerful and..."

@awfultruth I agree! Waiting 2 years between Dexas is often too long. I have asked my oncologist, my primary care doc and my endocrinology about getting my next Dexa in a year, rather than 2 years. Why? Because I will be having a Reclast infusion, take an aromatase inhibitor, and have osteopenia. All said no. My oncologist, who prescribed the Reclast, is disinclined to go to bat for me on this issue. Perhaps it takes a fracture first.

Medicare, my primary coverage, uses that 2 year rule unless medically necessary. I thought I would meet the standard of "medically necessary." My Dexa from August 2025 shows I am still in osteopenia. My oncologist and physician's assistant said they have gone to bat with Medicare over medical necessity for Dexas in a year rather than 2 year interval. They said they have been unsuccessful so no longer try.

I'd assume the patients they were trying to get coverage for have histories similar to my own. It may be that you have to establish that you have a previous DX of osteoporosis as a minimum.

Like you, I may end up paying out of pocket in a year for a Dexa. The problem is that the majority of my Dexas have all been done at a hospital and I'm sure their charges would be well above $75 here. That would mean using a free-standing facility so would lose the ability to compare scans and not have the same equipment.

Thanks for the info on Jason Health Labs. Will keep that info in mind for future use as well as the notion of self-paying for a Dexa.