Last month at the hospital I got a freebie Freestyle Lite from an endocrinologist. I’ve been using it ever since, but the strips are on the expensive side. The cheapest I’ve been able to find them for is ~$30. I pay for all this out of pocket, and I go through a box of 50 every week, so I’m looking at about $125 out of pocket per month, making this my biggest diabetes-related out of pocket expense at the moment. I only go through a pen and a half a month of insulin, and I can get boxes of 5 for around $100 from Canada, so I’m spending double on strips what I’m spending on insulin! It seems crazy to me.
I can’t upgrade my insurance program to include drug coverage through my
primary insurer until the end of the year. I also don’t qualify for
assistance from Abbot.
I saw on americandiabeteswholesale.com that there a bunch of cheaper brands out there:
Advocate, Bionime, Home Aide Diagnostics, Prestige, Prodigy No Coding, and TRUEbalance all sell for $15 or less per box of 50
Advocate Redi-Code, AgaMatrix WaveSense Keynote, AgaMatrix WaveSense Presto, Clever Check Auto-Code, Control AST, EasyGluco, Maxima, MediSense OptimumEZ, Prodigy, TRUEread, TRUEtrack, and Ultimate EZ Smart Plus all sell for between $15 and $20 for a box of 50.
I like that the Freestyle needs such a small sample size, because sometimes I have trouble squeezing blood out of my fingers, but I suppose I could crank up the lancer a notch or two if I’d be able to save $700+ a year.
My other concern is if these cheaper brands are as accurate as Freestyle, and may be harder to find at a local drug store if I really needed some and couldn’t wait for mail order.
Does anyone have any experience with these, or other discounted brands? Any other sources you go to for cheap testing strips (like eBay, or other wholesalers)? Any prescription drug plans or pharmacy plans you’d recommend to lower the price? I’d like to trim this expense while not sacrificing too much in terms of quality.
Thanks for the help.
i have found that one touch is more accurate then freestyle… with that being said maybe you should just get one of those meters and check its consistency compared to your freestyle… i don’t have experience with other meters i’ve only had freestyle and one touch
I currently used the wavesense presto. It is actually a pretty nice meter that has as many of the features that some of the more expensive meters have. I got the meter for 15 dollars and I get the strips from walmart for 17.00 dollars for a bucket of 50. Its nice since i dont have to pay shipping or wait for them to get here. I get 600 strips for 90 days and I managed to kill them 3 weeks before I can renew. This meter is a great cost effective supplement for me
here is the meter. Also the company that manufactures the meter was nice enough to send me the usb cable and software used to track the readings and this one has ketone detection on it also
wil, thanks for the details. sounds like you’re a happy customer. saw the sample size is also pretty small on this one as well. how’d you get them to send you the cable and software?
as it so happens, there’s a special on this now on that website, 200 strips and the meter for $74, sounds like a pretty good deal.
go to the website http://www.wavesense.info/presto and call the company and tell them that you were told that they could send you the usb cable. that is what I did and they send me a cable with free shipping
I use a WaveSense Presto. They claim their testing technology is more accurate. I formerly used a Bayer Contour. The Presto seemed to read a little higher. My Ha1c seemed to confirm that the Presto was correct.
My Insurance doesn’t pay for my strips and I go through about 50 strips/week so cost is important. I order supplies from http://www.americandiabeteswholesale.com/ Strips are 17.99 for 50 and if you order $100 shipping is free. They also have a deal with a free meter with purchase of 200 strips.
I also like the software they have for downloading your readings to a computer. It makes it quick and painless to see how you readings are going and my Doc likes the charts I give him every visit.
I use Reli-on. They are sold at walmart. The meters are like 5 bucks and 50 test strips are 20 dollars. I don’t know how well they compare to other meters , but I have had no problems while using them.
I just bought the Presto on Thursday and I am not very happy with it. If I check 2 times in a row, I am getting very wide ranges of numbers - like one check showing 80 and the next showing 50. I was sitting feeling low so I knew the 80 couldn’t be right. The backlight only worked for one day and is no longer working, which makes it very hard to see the numbers. You are supposed to hold down the one button to shut it off and it won’t shut off by doing that - it takes 3 minutes to shut off after using it. I am stuck using the strips I got because it was a special order by my pharmacy but I am switching back to my Aviva meter. I should never have changed.
Kelly, that’s a shame, I was about to order it based on the other two reviews… it seems there might be some individual issues with these meters. what works for some may not work for others. the freestyle actually rarely gives me a reading that makes me raise an eyebrow, but it’s one of the most expensive out there in terms of strips. I guess maybe I should try a few of the less expensive ones, including the presto and maybe relion and see if I find one that i’m happy with, both in terms of accuracy and price.
I was disappointed also Dan. I also saw good reviews about the Presto so that is why I decided to try it. I am going to call Agamatrix tomorrow & see if they will replace it since the backlight doesn’t work - maybe I just got a dud!
Abbott Freestyle promises program DOES give a break on the copay, have you actually called them, and filled in the form? www.myfreestyle.com/fs/d/en_US/70.10:10/freestyle-promise-program
“. Void where prohibited by law. The co-pay savings offer is not valid for persons eligible for reimbursement of blood glucose test strips, in whole or in part, under Medicare, Medicaid, or similar Federal or State Programs. In Massachusetts, the co-pay savings and free meter offer is not valid for persons eligible for reimbursement of this product, in whole or in part, by an insurance company or other third-party payer. 2. One card per person. You may not combine this offer with any other offer. 3. You are responsible for the first $15 of each co-pay under your insurance coverage. 4. 8 out of 10 members with private insurance pay only $15 per month. 5. Abbott has the right to rescind, revoke, or amend this offer without notice”
I have the card on the front of the freestyle lite box for the promise program, but it talks about savings on your copay. my health insurance doesn’t cover any prescription drugs or durable medical equipment, so i figured this didn’t apply to me. I filled out the form online just now though, so we’ll see what happens.
Dan, I just wanted to let you know that I called and Agamatrix is going to replace the Presto meter. Hopefully, the replacement is better.
I took the Wavesense Presto when I went for lab work and got those results back on Saturday so thought I would post an update. My BS per the lab was 84 and the Presto had 110. I already knew it was running high but just wanted to verify against the lab since I was going anyway. I can switch back to Aviva strips on Friday and am counting down the days!
ugh. i just got mine with 200 strips.
i was using the freestyle lite though, and i’m not sure how accurate that is either. i took a fasting bg before a blood test and it was 93, and the lab results came back as 115 (lab test was an hour after my finger prick, but i was fasting, so i expected it to be lower based on how things typically behave)
anyway, presto is usually within 10 of the freestyle lite in side-by-side tests, and the presto strips are 50% cheaper. so, if they’re both giving me the same readings, i may as well use the cheaper one.
i would consider something a little more expensive than presto if it’s actually accurate, but it’s so hard to tell. maybe i’ll get an aviva, and next time i go in for a blood test i’ll test the aviva, presto, and freestyle all at the same time. that would give me some interesting data.
My lab test was fasting also because they were checking cholesterol. I didn’t take my Aviva that morning because I was running late and used the last of my Aviva strips and didn’t have time to run upstairs to get another box so I only had the Presto with me. My Aivva always did pretty good when I compared it to the lab so I don’t have a problem switching back.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the Presto, either. It read more than 20% higher than either my Precision Xtra, my UltraSmart, or the Mini I was using. I had a low of 38 a few days ago, as reported by my UltraSmart. If I had been using the Presto, chances are good it would have repoted 50, perhaps even higher. There’s a difference in the way I treat for a 38 than a 50, and if I had gotten that 50, the results could have been awful.
You’ll still get a discount, it just won’t be the $15/month. If you’re simply buying them off-the-shelf, though, you will need to have your doctor fill out a prescription for it in order to get the discount. I don’t like the idea of having to have a prescription for the strips, since then, the pharmacist will tend to try to limit my access to the strips and limit the number of times I can test/day. If I want to test 20 times/day and I have the money for it, I should be allowed to test 20 times/day!