I tried to get stuff from Liberty once. I told them I changed my sites every day 1/2 because of the problems I had. I heard “we will need to get special paperwork from your doctor.” What did they ship - site changes for every 3rd day. I again heard, “we need your doctor to sign special paperwork.” I asked why they did not just send him that in the first place since my order was not for 3 day changes. If my doctors office gets a blank form, they call me and ask me what I do, they don’t “assume” what I do. They signed the form for 3 day site changes because that was what they were sent.
Reading all your comments, I can’t get over how fortunate I seem to be as I have never had these sorts of problems in my 4+ years of pumping with an Animas, first 1250 now 2020, replaced under warranty as they no longer gave out 1250s.
I have my insurance with Kaiser NW, first an individual policy now their Medicare Advantage plan. To get replacement infusion sets, I phone the Kaiser DME department, tell them what I want, they put the order in to Animas & 4 or 5 days later I get a UPS delivery with my supplies. Due to miscomunication between Kaiser DME & Animas I have received the wrong sets, blame was about equal between the 2, after keeping detailed records & complaining to Kaiser & the Animas rep it has all been sorted & now no mistakes. I make it difficult by ordering more than 1 type of infusion set & sometimes a helpful! person assumes I meant the same as the last order. But neither Kaiser or Animas has ever said I can’t order as many sets or cartridges as I want, but I do leave some sets in for 4 days so I probably average out at less than 10 per month, I tend to order every 4 or 5 months
The same with test strips, the prescription says 10 per day & that’s what I get, & I always reorder before the 3 months is up, but they’ve never been delayed or queried.
So I am so sorry to hear of the troubles so many of you seem to be having.
Wow, this sounds horrible the way they treated you! Not to change subjects, but this happened to me at my pharmacy. My doctor prescribes me 4 vials of insulin a month, and now the pharmacy says they are not allowed to give me more than 2 vials a month. Said the pharmacy was audited, and that there’s nothing I can do about it. the pharmacist basically told me that my 4 vials I was “requesting” a month was a lot for a person to take. Who is he to tell me how much insulin I need. He told me to contact my doctor, who was conveniently out of the country and still is.
I do get 300 strips per month for $10. I dont always run totally thru them in a month.
The pharmacy called me last month
"Arent you past due? Arent you going to pick up your order?"
I got paranoid. I figured ok, if you are going to ask then I am just going to come monthly whether I am totally out or not!
Proves what I am saying.
From now on, make sure everything is done correctly.
fight for it if you have to!
Ah, I did a post on this on the pumper’s list.
My pharmacist (ex now) asked why I needed two vials.
I explained, well you can drop them (done that) and if you are a pumper you sometimes have to prime insulin out to get rid of bubbles.
Dumb guy, told me if you have air in there you are at risk of infection.
Excuse me, dont we inject air into the vial? Yeah, we alll have infections.
My new place asks no questions ever, God bless them~
Hmmmm that is one I have never heard.
Air = risk for infection…Uh Huh 
Never ceases to amaze me the things people come up with when they don’t know what they are talking about.
Did you say that is why I prime it out and thus need more insulin?
Laura - I hope this gets resolved quickly. The gov’t would only issue a supply mandate in situations they are financially responsible, such as medicare, medicaid, etc. Our gov’t doesn’t set not supply limits for private insurance (yet?).
I think there is a serious misunderstanding here. There have been cases of abuse from medicare/medicaid and I would not be surprised if the govt is limiting those supplies (we’ve all seen the test strips on ebay for example). I think somehow these new guidelines are being misapplied to you and your private insurance. CareCentrix is an intermediary - they probably got the message wrong.
Keep moving up the foodchain until you find someone who will listen to you. It can be very frustrating, but I am 99% sure our govt is not deciding how many sets your private insurance can pay for unless there is some public health crisis and set are in scary short demand
Yes, and I got a look like he didnt believe me at all.
Very odd man, very unprofessional.
Carecentrix had the paper in their hand for the five boxes, but Animas refused to fulfill it.
I posted elsewhere, but I had three answers from Animas.
- Your doctor changed your prescription (no).
- You have to have auth. for your order of five (had it the whole time).
3.They audited us and we cant send five.
While it may be true they needed his office to change something in writing, it easily could have been done.
But, I did get to report the Carecentrix person to my HMO to further prove how better off patients would be without Carecentrix (because this is not the first time they have treated me rudely and shown their ignorance.)
I understand your situation is unique, Laura. I was just talking about a straight Animas-doctor connection without involvement of either insurance company or any third party company. I thought it might be useful information for people in similar situations. It actually is a three box per 90 day cycle that she said the every 3 days equates to and the every 2 day change will get me five boxes for the 90 day period. She has the five boxes ready to go out once they get the fax back from my doctor. I’ve had very good responses from Animas on issues like this.
Well in my long 6 months of battling Animas and supplies… Well I did verify i have a prescription for 2 day change out. So they are now going to bump me to 46 insets… Whooo hooo. Let’s hope that I don’t have more than 1 error in a 90 day period. What is the big dang deal if I get a couple of extra for problems… I talked with the reorder dept, and she told me I couldn’t reorder til the first week in September which means sept 6th as that is when I ordered 90 day supply in June is on the 6th. I asked her to do the math, the supplies I had remaining by the time they process and ship the order will be into mid Sept. and I don’t have enough to get thru til then but they can’t bill insurance til then.
I told her I didn’t really care how they remedied it but they need to give me what I need. So my reorder is now on hold til September and they are shipping me 6 insets. I also told her they have been shorting me since the beginning of all this. OH WAIT there is more. She says the problem with all of my orders is a billing alert on my account. REALLY!!! Because I am supposed to be on a 12 month payment plan for the remainder of the initial order of the pump plus the supplies, so as I have been paying several hundred dollars a month I still owe for the initial pump which should be spread out over 12 months which I have called about 2x. Only they are applying every payment to that invoice and it won’t let me pay for the invoices that occur with the 3 month reorders. So those are also past due. OK so now they have you over the barrel and too bad I feel I am just getting screwed. You know, at least when I was on shots my pharmacy screwed up, I could go in and get it fixed and when I need something even if insurance isn’t ready to be billed they may issue me a vial a week before to help me get through. BUT I am getting very little help on getting enough. Plus because I had to place an extra order for a single box now I had to pay the co-pay on that box plus have it overnighted $$$$$$. So we diabetics must be made of money. Even at 46 insets for 90 days I will only have about one extra… This is still too close for comfort. UGGGH… KEEP IN MIND MY INSURANCE IS VERIFIED ON THEY WILL PAY FOR 105 insets every 183 days.
Sometimes I wonder is the stress of dealing with all this worth the stress of trying to get the best control on a pump? What is worse the stress of the disease or stress of dealing with the people that have you over the barrel and don’t want to work with you? Sorry to rant… But the idea of shots is sounding more appealing right this minute, even at 6 a day
Zoe, lost your post somewhere that you are referring to, but no I understand. I’m just saying, we all should be checking on things and never accept anything you think aint right!
And oh, I believe the guy yesterday actually said they give five sets if you have every two days?
Something like that.
At any rate, someone mentioned they would actually break open a box and only ship half a box.
Never heard of that one.
Zoe I wish I had your luck. My insurance isn’t the problem, My Dr prescription isn’t the problem. The only part of my problem is actually Animas. I have insurance that will cover the 5 boxes for the 90 day but animas won’t ship me the 5 that i need now I will get only 46 per 90 days. See my last post at the bottom of the thread on my latest round about with them.
Laura,
they have sample packs apparently with 2 insets they will ship. not necessarily a broken box. Is what I was told today because they are going to send me 3 sample packs instead of a whole box heaven forbid I get more than 1 extra for 90 days.
I’m so sorry. Can you contact a local CDE, Dr. or a rep.? They usually will get you sets.
I believe the reps have them.
My local is not helpful tho…
Funny, I asked my husband if I could go back on shots yesterday. Because it was way easier to fill pen prescriptions, needle tops etc. He said well, I really do better on pumps. My A1C isnt much better, my doses are just really unpredictable, but I dont go low hardly ever and I used to drop just walking through a store. In 11 years, this is the first time I have wanted to go back.
Your billing issues remind me why I dont want to be taking on any payments. If I can get assistance on my copay I will get a new pump, otherwise just use the three I have (two being rather old) until they go.
Take care, and I hope you find resolution on all of this.
We are here for venting.
This must have been in reference to every two day set changes.
They said they would go by 45… four boxes of ten plus five .
I have contacted my rep and we are in a game of phone tag… LOL my blood is boiling and I am very frustrated. I just feel like I am constantly fighting, fighting BS numbers, fighting pharmacies, Dr.s, insurance… No wonder I have no control…
They apparently count their 90 days like CCS did. June 6th to Sep 6th is actually 93 days (I have a spreadsheet setup so I know when I can order stuff). Both July and August have 31 days in so you are getting screwed – not that you didn’t know that already! I am starting to wonder if the person that used to work at CCS and set their stupid rules is now working at Animas.
I think I mentioned a person from another board that went round with her pump supplies and had to get someone from her insurance company on the phone with her supplies (who happened to be CCS). One of the managers there set that policy because she used to work for Liberty and they had a problem with people returning expired stuff they didn’t use. So if it is expired, set rules for returning stuff, don’t screw the people that need this stuff to live.
The supply company that I get my test strips from allows me to call 7 days before my 90 days is up – they actually use 90 days, not 90-some with the 31 day months. That is actually a Medicare allowance also. My test strips usually show up on day 90 and I have never run out.
I don’t understand how Animas can override what you insurance company says that you are allowed.
Kelly, the MM rep (yes, I am making friends with MM) said that if they looked at his order, it says change every three days. Though the supervisor said, “or two” and no one was making provision for that. As you know, three boxes for three months doesnt cut it either. However, the authorizations all said five.
And that is where the approval was.
The HMO nurse said they are supposed to follow written orders, but I guess they selected their own written orders to pick from.
How is the MDI going for you?
I’m jealous…really wish it worked better for me.
Missing my nice simple wonderful insulin pens.
I had problems on the pens too with the pharmacy, but i got to spend 2 hours on a Saturday with one of the techs and I wrote it all down and she admitted it was their fault I was refunded money given what I was owed and they have really pulled me through when I needed it. Sometimes it helps not to be just a phone call or an email but to make face to face interactions. My pharmacist knows me by name when I come in and I have stayed even through many other problems because of her willingness to help when there is issues.
If I could order 2x a year and get the full amount… It would make my life easier. I have storage space. LOL.