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Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after UnitedHealthcare jack up price of inhaler from $66 to $540

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Cole Schmidtknecht, Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after OptumRx raise price of inhaler from $66 to $540
Cole Schmidtknecht, Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after OptumRx, UnitedHealthcare subsidiary jack up price of inhaler from $66 to $540 as parents now file federal lawsuit against insurer along with Walgreens Pharmacy.
Cole Schmidtknecht, Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after OptumRx raise price of inhaler from $66 to $540
Cole Schmidtknecht, Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after OptumRx, UnitedHealthcare subsidiary jack up price of inhaler from $66 to $540 as parents now file federal lawsuit against insurer along with Walgreens Pharmacy.

Cole Schmidtknecht, Appleton, Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after OptumRx, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare jack up price of inhaler from $66 to $540, with 22 year old unable to afford necessary item as family now file lawsuit against insurer and Walgreens pharmacy. 

What matters more, an insurer’s profits or your life…? The family of a 22 year old Wisconsin man with chronic asthma have filed a federal lawsuit against an insurance company, whose parent company is UnitedHealthcare after rising the price of a necessary inhaler from $66 to $540.

Cole Schmidtknecht, 22, who had suffered from chronic asthma since childhood, was denied his life-savingAdvair Diskus’ inhaler when he went to collect his prescription at a Walgreens pharmacy in AppletonWisconsin on January 10, 2024. 

Chronic asthma user was given no notice and Walgreens did not offer him a generic alternative

The pharmacist had informed him that his medication would now cost $539.19 – a 816 percent increase from his usual $66.

Walgreens according to the lawsuit advised the 22 year old that his medication was no longer covered by his insurance and would cost him $539.19 out of pocket, according to the lawsuit.

The change came after OptumRx, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, decided it would no longer cover the inhaler Schidtknecht used for a decade.

According to the suit, Schmidtknecht was given no notice and Walgreens did not offer him a generic alternative ‘and further told Cole that there were no cheaper alternatives or generic medications available.’

Forced to choose between rent or his medicine, the 22 year old man left the store without the necessary inhaler. 

‘Over the next five days, Cole repeatedly struggled to breathe, relying solely on his old ‘rescue’ (emergency) inhaler to limit his symptoms, because he did not have a preventative inhaler designed for daily use,’ the lawsuit continued according to Eyewitness News Chicago

Cole Schmidtknecht, Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after OptumRx raise price of inhaler from $66 to $540.
Cole Schmidtknecht, Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after OptumRx raise price of inhaler from $66 to $540.

Asthma sufferer was not given mandated 30 day notice of insurance coverage change

On January 15, 2024, Cole suffered a severe asthma attack and never woke up. He was pronounced dead January 21, after his devastated parents made the decision to remove their son from life support on January 21.

The 22 year old man’s death came 11 days after Schmidtknecht being denied his usual inhaler at the pharmacy. 

The man’s parents are now suing Walgreens, its parent company Boots Alliance and Optum Rx, the pharmacy benefits manager, for negligence and wrongful death.

Cole was reportedly given no warning about the insurance coverage change, which violates Wisconsin state law requiring 30 days’ notice.

‘Defendant OptumRx had a duty to not artificially inflate prescription drug prices for medications such as Advair Diskus for insured patients, including Cole Schmidtknecht, making them so unaffordable that patients could not obtain the medications their physicians prescribed,’ the lawsuit said. ‘Walgreens Defendants failed to exercise reasonable care in that they knew, or should have known, of the unreasonable risk of harm to asthmatic patients, including Cole Schmidtknecht, that would result from their failing to provide him with Advair Diskus or a medically equivalent alternative medication at an affordable price at the point of service.’

According to the lawsuit obtained by Newsweek, the Walgreens pharmacist should have contacted Cole’s physician about alternative treatments, but failed to do so.

The pharmacist ‘never provided Cole with any more affordable workarounds to obtain his usual inhaler for his chronic asthma,’ the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit comes less than two months after the assassination-style killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, whose death renewed debate about how health insurance companies treat their customers.

The suit comes as UnitedHealthcare parent company, net income rose to $5.54billion in the last quarter of 2024.

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