Archives for April 2017

The first biologic medicine that most patients are prescribed for dealing with Systemic JIA is Kineret (AKA Anakinra: Kineret is the trade name, Anakinra is the scientific name). But a fair amount of the time, the health insurance company will push back, citing the fact that kinaret’s FDA approval is for NOMID and does not mention SJIA at all. This happened to my family last month, when Anthem insurance denied approval of Kinaret to my son, despite the fact that he had already taken the medicine in the past and had responded positively to it, and he is dependent on IL1 blockade for even partial control of his systemic systems. Only due to heroic acts of paperwork on behalf of our son’s rheumatologist (Dr. Alexei Grom) was the medicine finally approved (we had to go for independent review by a third party, and have it judged by the State Insurance review board).read more