A hiccup in pump supplies

[John_P]

I was scheduled for a telehealth visit with my Endo April 23, just before I would approve the CCSMedical order for my monthly Dexcom G6 sensors, and 90 day transmitter and my pump supplies.
We were out of town and planned the visit ahead of the re-order approval date so the visit would be within Medicare’s requirement that pumpers see their doctor every 90 days. No visit, no supplies.
All was ok until……a couple days before the telehealth call date I received a notice from my Endo that the telehealth visit was cancelled. After several texts and calls I found that both of the nurse-practitioners I see went on or extended their maternity leaves. Next possible appointment was May 17, well over 90 days from my previous visit.
I called CCSMedical right after the visit and received the 90 days of pump supplies 2 days later.

Next up was insulin order. I have that on auto-refill at Walgreens so they sent me a text saying it would be ready to pick up Sunday, May 16. They are never on time so no panic that I had not head from them until today. Normally I get a recorded message but today, May 20, a real person called and asked when was my last doctor’s visit. That’s a first for insulin refills but it wasn’t a problem because of the recent telehealth visit.

I was never close to running out of any supplies or insulin as I purchased backup long ago (and properly rotate fifo (first in - first out).

I did get an apology from the endows office and I made my endo aware of the consequences of changing visits.

I am curious whether others have been affected by the 90 day requirement.

PS - I did get the Dexcom supplies on time since their visit requirement is every 180 days.

[Marie20]

I am curious about this too. I have plenty of back up, but my next endo visit is about 100 days past my last visit so outside the 90 days. I could care less about waiting 10 more days to get my prescription but I am wondering if my doctor will have to do anything special because it is past the 90 days and should I call her up front to change it.

She is swamped and before Medicare appointments was only available 5 months out, which was fine with me but now I have that pesky 3 month have to see them thing.

[Terry4]

With this 90-day doctor visit requirement for me to receive diabetes supplies has reinforced my practice to build up a comfortable supply buffer for my insulin, CGM sensors and transmitters, and pump infusion sets and cartridges.

When I communicate with my doctor about quantities for my diabetes supplies, I tell him/her straight out that I inflate my requested quantities to protect me from the vagaries of the supply chain and unexpected failures.

I don’t overdo this and keep it reasonable. If my supply quantity gets too large, I just skip an order cycle or two in order to work down my quantities.

I refuse to live with the suppliers’ just-in-time mentality. That’s needlessly stressful. I’ve never had a doctor question my claims. I think they understand well how vulnerable we are to the consequences of running out of our supplies. I appreciate that!

[Laddie]

You don’t need to see your doctor every 90 days, but to get supplies you must have seen your doctor within the last 90 days. So it is no big deal to have a late appointment as long as you have sufficient supplies.