Just received this e—mail from Dexcom. It looks like Dexcom is trying to push their fulfillment activities to pharmacies so they don’t have to handle so many individual orders and consequently reduce demands on their CS system. It also push the inventory management down to the pharmacies where some might hold stock to address demand. A good strategy. I don’t think my insurance will allow this, but I’m going to check.
Interesting. I’ve been getting mine from Walgreens and haven’t had any of the problems others have reported. But as I understand it, the people who are having the roughest time are the ones on Medicare, which requires them to go to Dexcom directly.
Just checked with my pharmacy (Express Scripts) and they do cover Dexcom! it’s a double benefit for me because once I satisfy my deductible my out of pocket cost drops to zero, whereas processing it as a medical device has a 20% copay after meeting the deductible.
awesome!
Well let’s bring this subject up to date a bit! We’ve been using Dexcom CGM’s for a good 3 years now and the technology is fantastic! (Started w/G5 and now am using G6 w/a pump that optionally utilizes predictive lows to stop deliveries) Great, fantastic, we have obviously come to rely heavily on the CGM technology to keep us healthy, safe and alive! (certainly keeps us out of the hospital and that is good for everyone)
The problem seems to me to be Dexcom’s awful track record of getting product to patient users in a timely manner. That is, to receive refill supplies before running out and thus losing the ability to utilize, at the very least a health affirming technology!
Like I mentioned we have been using the Dexcom product for a good 3 years and each and every time they have either made it difficult of have failed in getting sensors and or transmitters to us in a reasonable, timely manner. We have heard all the ploys or excuses they have concocted to deflect honest, reasonable complaints or even requests from patient users. For instance, “we must receive authorization from your insurance company before being able to process your order”. That one I’ve caught the Dexcom phone rep either being mistaken or in an outright lie. I say that because when I told them I had just prior called my insurance company to get confirmation that they had approved it via fax to Dexcom. The Dexcom rep then said, “oh, I meant we need to get an order and authorization from your doctor”. I knew that I would need to have both authorizations so I had also called our doctor’s office to confirm that they also send it to Dexcom weeks prior. (both insurance and doctor’s offices gave me time and date communications were sent to Dexcom)
More recently we have had to re-establish ordering supplies directly from Dexcom because of a change in our insurance status. (sometimes insurance and/or health providers require that you use their authorized DME distributor, other times they have you go directly through a manufacturer) We knew, as well as our diabetes endocrinologist suggesting we start the order process early. We requested the original order Jan. 10th, 2019 and did not receive the supplies until April 2019. Sounds pretty bad. It was! It took hours of time on the phone chasing apparently made up excuses by Dexcom representatives, including the charge on your credit card has not been authorized. So I called the card bank and they insisted that there had been no attempt by Dexcom, Inc. to process a charge. This is another recurring theme with Dexcom and us. Turns out Dexcom has some kind of internal process to “pre-approve” a credit card. (maybe an antiquated algorithm) that would fail and cause the order to be placed on hold. Bad enough but then it might be a week or weeks if ever of being notified by anyone at Dexcom that our order was on hold. (in the case of the Jan 10th order we were never notified! That after the "we’re waiting for insurance/doctor approval back and forth)
Ok, so my point here is that Dexcom appears to have a bad record of, let’s call it customer service. I wondered, is it just us or is this happening to others. I looked online and as you can see this forum lists a number of incidents very much like those I’ve described. The BBB site also lists similar complaints (seventy some odd complaints in the last 3 years).
It just seems like it would be a relatively simple thing to rectify by Dexcom. I myself feel this is a “top down” issue. I would guess they have a high turn over rate and as many have noticed they have decided to use a foreign call center to outsource ordering and other customer service functions.
I’ve also noticed they recently decided to spend ad money for TV commercials. Ok, how about fixing your supply/delivery issues (I’m sure they don’t feel they have an issue here) before opting to spend $$$$ for national TV ads, hmmmm?
I’m sure they get it right some of the time (at least I hope they do, the fact that there are some praises here means it must be happening). Why not strive to do it all the time, or as close to it as possible for people living with a chronic disease that needs the kind of technology advancement that Dexcom possesses?
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Dexcom is having severe growing pains, but given their remarkable growth in number of additional patients they service worldwide each year, they are actually doing an incredibly good job. Short of a few minor glitches causing up to 4-6 day delays, I have had no issues getting all my Dexcom supplies on time every month. They are fully aware of their issues and dealing with them admirably one by one.
And here I sit, as well as my wife, getting our Medicare supplies from Dexcom like clockwork after filling out the form that is emailed to us every ~30 days. And when I call for something it is taken care of right away. And hold times usually are counted in seconds, rather than minutes. So not everyone is experiencing what some say is horrible service. I’d be pissed if it were happening to me too, but I have to call them as I see them.
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No issues here. Upgraded to G6 in 4th Q 2018 and have received refills every 3 months.
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@CJ114, @Dave44, I wish I was having the same experience with Dexcom that you are. EVERY SINGLE ORDER IS A HASSLE. Every time, it’s " we need to confirm your insurance". I get that they do an insurance check every 6 months and at the beginning of every year, but when i ordered a month ago??? Seriously??? Add to that, that their insurance verification script that the Dexcom reps speaking with my insurance use, obviously don’t take into account the possibility that an insured patient might not be subject to a DME deductible. When i say script, I mean script. My insurance company records them, and I have heard them. Have double insurance? Your headaches are going to get exponentially worse, even though traditionally the 2nd insurance just follows the UM Guidelines the primary uses/ pays for.
I have never in 3 years had an order that took less than 4 weeks from phone to receipt (and I live 1 day away by FedEx/UPS/USPS). Dexcom - love the tech, hate the company, growing pains or no. Just my 2¢.
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What insurance do you have, specifically? company and type of plan. Any chance the issues are insurance related and not Dexcom?
@Dave44 Sutter Health HMO and Anthem PPO . Funny you should ask about the insurance end. That was my primary conclusion. However, Sutter is just a management holding company/pay portal for a group of medical clinic/hoispitals under the Sutter Health umbrella. They force the individual clinics to weigh the benefit/risk assessments of their assigned patient group, and are focused on less is more type therapy (as the clinics bear the brunt of a DME Rx cost in their budgets). I have watched my DR fax the requested info, and Dexcom for the next 10 days denied having it. I emailed a copy of the fax receipt, and they verified the phone number, yet still denied having it, then bingo 10 days later it miraculously arrives. Add to that, I have had conference calls with both insurers on the line while speaking to a Dexcom rep who is giving everyone the run around. My secondary insurance was fed up, and said that they needed to speak with someone who was shipping the product that day, or they at Anthem would be reconsidering their contract with Dexcom. Low and behold, my sensors shipped that day.
I think the Dexcom reps are in an untenable situation, and my guess is that they are working a logistics product availability ebb and flow while trying dealing with the increased product demand. However as @Steve_Henry said, it’s inexcusable for a medical supply company who provides a product for people who have hypo-unawareness to leave a customer without product due to internal company failings. The product is great. The company has room to improve.
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I can’t imagine that Anthem would leave their customers w/o coverage for Dexcom supplies simply because they are having issues with your order. that sounds like a very empty, childish threat on their part, and very unprofessional, regardless of what snafu’s are occurring between Anthem and Dexcom.
@Dave44 i think the Anthem rep was just fed up with the runaround from Dexcom. It was a 40+ minute call that was a circular conversation of both insurers saying we sent you the requested info, we are verbally verifying coverage for our insured at X level for insurance 1, and x level for insurance 2, what’s the hold up? Why is this process taking 3 weeks? When is our insured getting his delivery? and on, and on, and on. All the Dexcom rep had was excuses, even though the insurance reps escalated up several levels. It was something out of the Twilight Zone, or a Kafka book. This has happened at least 1x yearly for last 3 years. Every other order cycle takes 3-4 weeks as they need to verify the insurance they just verified. It;'s almost like I am not welcome as a customer. This is the major reason why I am exploring the Senseonics CGM.
Well, good luck on the next company you’ll be dealing with. So sorry that your experience is such a disaster and I don’t blame you one bit for being ticked. Your luck has GOT to change w/ the next company–it doesn’t sound like it could be any worse.
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agreed… Dexcom has been a major fail service wise
I bypassed a lot of the issues by getting my sensors and transmitters through my pharmacy instead of from Dexcom. Haven’t had an issue with delivery since I switched and don’t need to prompt them in any way. I know others have had similar experiences. I think this is why Dexcom was offering the incentive to customers if they would start using their pharmacy. Dexcom knows they have a major customer service issue. If they move customers to their pharmacies a lot of the headaches go away. The pharmacies do a better job managing their inventories so delivery is reliable.
I have had problems getting a refund for the G5 transmitter Dexcom mistakenly shipped me in May. I’m dealing with Dexcom in this case. So far despite three calls calls, no refund. I’ll call again this week.
Anyone have experience with their tech support now that they’ve made the move to Manilla?
I get my sensors and transmitters from Solara DME and so far not a single issue. About the time that the last sensor is going to be started I get an email asking if I need a shipment and within a few days it’s at my post office.
I called in a few weeks ago to tech support for a question about what phones would work with the G6 app since I was looking for a new phone and while they weren’t able to answer if the specific phones I was asking about were compatible, they did open up a ticket with the department that does the testing for the app. Wait time was minimal and the tech was as helpful as he could be without actually having the information he would have needed to completely resolve my question. I ended up going to a phone store in person and got the staff to test out if the various phones I was interested in were compatible (turns out they weren’t so got a different phone that was listed by dexcom as compatible).
Great to know they were responsive! Did you get an answer based on the ticket they opened?
Same.
Works great.
Just called twice to Dex Tech Support yesterday. I did not ask what call center picked it up but I did not notice an accent typically associated with the Philippines.
In any event, both times the hold time was right around 4 minutes and the Tech resolved the issue. Two bad sensors in a row. First time ever for that. Replacement sensors are (hopefully) on their way to me.