Kidney Patient Future Unsure

Transplant Drugs Still Unpaid For

Kidney transplant patient Mark Pappan, who was kept in the hospital an extra 10 days because no agency will pay for his anti- rejection drugs, is at home but still doesn’t know how he’ll pay for the medication.

Pappan, 53, of Rio Rancho, was released Friday from University of New Mexico Hospital with a month’s supply of the drugs and the name of a caseworker in Sandoval County.

The transplant was performed on March 22.

Pappan needs two drugs, Prograf and prednisone, to suppress his immune system so that it won’t fight off the transplanted kidney. Prograf can cost up to $17 per capsule, depending on dosage; prednisone costs 10 to 22 cents a pill, also depending on dosage.

Pappan said he was told he would have to take the drugs for the rest of his life.

Had he known he’d have to find the money for the anti-rejection medication, Pappan said this week, “I would have definitely reconsidered” the kidney transplant. “But that’s hindsight. It’s hard to say.”

UNM Hospital helps outpatients with prescription drugs — if they live in Bernalillo County.

The Indian Health Service, which provided Pappan, a member of the Sioux and Kaw tribes, health care for most of his life, has said Pappan is UNM’s patient, and won’t pay for the drugs.

Medicare won’t cover the drugs, and Pappan gets $958 in monthly disability, too much to qualify him for Medicaid.

Pharmaceutical companies sometimes donate their drugs, but Pappan said he was told at the hospital that it takes two to three months.

Pappan also takes medications for diabetes and high blood pressure. Altogether, he said, he takes 17 drugs.

“I feel OK,” he said. “I just learned that the (laboratory results) are real good and that kidney function has improved.”

Pappan was told to come back to the hospital every morning, he said, which inconveniences his family. He’s unable to drive because of weakness, he said.

“It’s kind of a mess — even though I’m home, I’m not home because I have to go back there every day at 8 a.m.,” he said.