Not sure if this is right place for this, but anyone else have problems with re-ordering supplies lately? My health coverage and insurance is same as it was when i got my pump, same doctors, same medical group, same insurance, etc. All my previous orders were ordered one day, and approved/shipped the next day with no issues. My last order was on Jan 4th and is still being processed by Animas? Has something changed? I'm running out of infusion sets now and the rep I called this morning was nice enough to send me 2 samples, but i won't get them until next week at best. I know there' risk involved with leaving sets in longer than 3 days, but under the circumstances, is it acceptable to leave em in longer to help make supplies last? Any tips on making them last longer? I really don't like the idea of having to go back to MDI since i'd need to go back to endo and get new levemir script as well. Sigh...
I personally tend to leave my sets in for as long as they feel comfortable, up to about 4 days. Sometimes they last for a day, sometimes they last up to 4 before I change them out. It all varies depending on the site that I'm using as I've found that certain sites will last longer than others.
I know that in Canada Animas is processing orders very quickly, so it may be something isolated to your distribution warehouse.
I've left mine in 4 days with no problems, haven't tried longer but as long as the set is good, it might be worth a try. But I would have asked Animas to send it overnight! They are usually pretty good about responding to "I'm out of supplies" as long as your prescription allows it, but you might have to speak to a supervisor. You shouldn't have to try and stretch them!
I also have Anthem Blue Cross. I haven't had any troubles with supplies lately, but haven't ordered any since the first of the year. For me, my prescription coverage changed on the 1st from Medco to Caremark but even that seems to be going smoothly.
To be honest though, I'm not sure what the problem is. January 4th was only one week ago and that is a reasonable time for receiving supplies. My suggestion: Don't wait till you're almost out but order things as soon as you are allowed!
Jan 4th was the order time, but it hasn't shipped yet. All my orders except the initial one were processed and shipped the very next day. Shipping time can take several days which is fine, but this order stalled on process and hasn't even shipped. I do try to order ahead of time and thought I had another box of infusion sets but I can't find it anywhere, though I have a ton of cartridges and tubing which i order in equal amounts so i'm not sure if i lost a box somewhere or what. I may just order a box and bill it to my credit card directly with overnight shipping, it looks like it will let me do that, but it does warn that prescription required. Hoping there's no snags on getting that one processed too. I would have ordered last year but things were chaotic with work moving offices and the holidays, etc.
I am guessing it was the holidays as well I ordered the Diasend kit mid December it got shipped right away. I then ordered a case for the pump film for the screen and a skin. I placed that order December 30. It did not ship till yesterday. I am assuming that the holidays slowed things down for their distribution.
Yes (well I don't know if it's the right spot, but I did have an issue arise)! I just got my first pump plus first group of supplies in Septemberish last year. I reorder cartridges/infusion sets for the first time in Decemberish but wasn't billed until January. Anthem/Blue Cross is showing coverage at 100% the first time, and now 60% the second; so Animas sent me an invoice for the difference. I took all this info into my super work HR people, who pointed that because the difference between the difference went from 100 to 60% coverage, that indicates to them that Animas is now out of network. Apparently this change happened between Sept and Dec. I talked to my Animas lady, who mentioned ordering via a distributor and she gave me another contact at the main Animas place, which is where this story stops. I've contacted but not yet haven't spoken with the other contact yet, so I'm hoping she can save the day :) .
I think the pump companies get swamped with orders In December. I use mine for four days. If it begins to hurt, itchy. or looks bad I take it out sooner. It took me two weeks to get insulin from MEDCO. Got it just in time. I always place orders a month ahead.
I wouldn't leave this to chance. Call and find out exactly what the hold-up is. Don't accept the word of somebody in Customer Service, ask to speak with a licensed pharmacist. If there's a problem with the order, they will tell you and you can get it fixed. If not, no reason they should not move the order out the door immediately.
Just to follow up on this: Turns out that my medical group was the hold up, not Anthem directly this time. The medical group moved their physical office and the old phone numbers will pick up but then when selecting any menu option go to a "service disconnected" message, so Animas couldn't contact them for authorization. I had to call around bunch of places and finally my GP doc's office gave me a working number for a live person at the medical group so I called Animas back and gave them that number to try, hopefully it'll get sorted out shortly. I did get a box of infusion sets out of pocket for now so i'm ok for a few weeks at least while this gets sorted out I hope.
On a related note, I finally got around to looking up and learning more about HMOs and insurance companies. Yay learning!
I use my infusion sets all the time for 7-8 days (since I have no insurance) and have no problem, I do use tagaderm in between the infusion set though with skin-prep for a barrior so they stay on. It just depends on how a persons body handles the infusion set. I never seem to have problems though
I don't have an Animas pump, but I do have Blue Cross/Blue Shield. My PPO switched px suppliers from Medco to US Script. I tried to slip an order in to Medco before the end of the year, but they suck and it takes forever. I decided to just test the waters with US Script. It ends up that their system is totally different and now I have to get supplies straight from Medtronic. Not really a problem although I was really anxious when I was on the phone with a US Script rep who had not one clue about all the equipment needed to pump.
Frustrated with that conversation, I called Medtronic and they were on the case. They took my insurance info and a list of the things I needed and started working on it. It took them over a week to verify insurance and get a px from my doctor. I called them every few days to check on the status, so I suggest you do the same. I think there are some major shifts that happen at the end and start of the year. Good for me, it took them so long to process the order that they shipped it overnight to be gratis.
That's also a big reason why I try to have a doomsday stash of supplies. Because of that doomsday stash I'm about to lessen the time I keep sets in. I was uninsured for awhile and I'm paranoid. The only thing I don't do that with are my test strips and I got down to one more vial, so I cut it real close this time. :-S
BTW, I read the last reply. Glad it's sorted out!
I received a letter saying that Animas was rearranging their internal workings, or something like that and delays were experienced.