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Comment by reidjs | Hacker News Reader

I have a dust mite allergy and have tried doing this in the past, but had to stop because I moved away from my allergist. I would be interested in this type of service, but $99/month is a bit expensive for me. I have health insurance, is there any way I could get them to pay for it for me?

I have had surgery for nasal polyps related to this twice if that might help my case.

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Unfortunately, we don't accept insurance right now because of the complexities involved with insurance and telemedicine (the laws are literally being written right now).

If you have an HSA or FSA, you can put it towards treatment with us. Many of our patients have employer-funded HSAs that they put towards their treatment.

I’d do this in a second if you accepted insurance. It’s a huge hassle to go and get shots especially given I have to wait like I’m waiting on the doctor (sometimes it’s 30 mins then I have to wait around to make sure I’m ok.

But I just can’t justify the 100 bucks out of pocket each month when insurance will pay 100% for the shots. I know this insurance situation is ridiculous and out of your control. That said, I think it will be huge for you if you can work that out. Good luck and I’ll keep an eye on this for sure.

I’ve been doing SLIT in the US for ~2 years. The drops themselves are off label, and no insurance will cover it. I’m allergic to basically everything and the drops are $250 for a 90 day supply. So that’s $1k/year already. After copays for office visits I’m definitely in $99/mo territory.

Have you considered trying those ultrasonic dust mite repellents? They work for me and really made a huge difference.

> $99/month is a bit expensive

$99/mnth for possibly 5 yrs is a helluva commitment. Most people are going to have difficulty with both the cost and time IMHO.

Before starting SLIT I was unable to spend more than an hour outside in the spring before I turned into a disgusting mess (this is with daily OTC pills). Now I can go play with my kids all day in the sun. $99/mo is well, well worth it.

I looked at the alternative (shots), but that’s multiple visits per week to the clinic, with 1 hour observation time after each shot. Drops are so much more convenient.

Pre-Covid the cost of just getting my “specific doses” of the compounds I needed was $850 with insurance. Regulations changed apparently and they couldn’t reuse the same combo of like pollen, cat/dog etc so each client needs a “custom” formulated dosage.

Add in the $10 doctor visit co-pay 2x / week when getting the shot, that’s $80/month already.

So $960 + 850 is $1910, so I’d save $710 using these drops instead of the shots.

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