OptumRx said in a statement last April that a review of Cole's claims showed that on the day he visited the pharmacy, he did buy a different asthma medication, generic Albuterol, for a $5 co-pay on Jan. 10 — a medication that it says he also obtained in October 2023.
It wasn’t until Shanon and Bill arrived at the hospital on January 15, 2024, and spoke to Cole’s distraught roommate that they discovered their son had been going without his asthma medication for days.
They allege that Cole died last year because he couldn't afford the sudden $500 spike in his asthma medication, Advair Diskus, when it was suddenly no longer covered by insurance.
Michael Trunk, an attorney representing Shanon and Bill, however, said that the $5 generic prescription Cole filled was for his rescue inhaler, not the Advair Diskus inhaler that he took daily.
Shanon and her husband, Bill, were reeling from the death of their 22-year-old son, Cole, who died two weeks earlier after suffering a severe asthma attack.
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