After I received my pump a couple of weeks ago. I became concern about protecting this very expensive investment. I know that my homeowers insurance would cover for fire, flood and all the other homeowners coverage things.
But they do not cover. Oh crap I dropped it in the toilet! When I was running it fell on the ground and in the sewer! Someone stole it out of my gym bag. Or whatever!
When I called for a quote for a add on in coverage on my homeowners policy. The company quoted an additional $330. You have got to be kidding me!
Having had the pump for 8 months now, I’m pretty sure that there is no way that anything like what you describe will happen to me…the pump is always connected to me, and the only times it isn’t is during my shower. Unlike a cell phone, my pump is always tethered to me and that makes it very hard for it to be lost.
the pump company will warranty it against any damage (i am unaware of any damage that is not covered. drop it in the toilet? they’ll ship a new one. gets run over by the car? can be replaced. puppy gets a hold of it while you’re in the shower? covered.)
They will not cover it for loss - it depends on the company, but i believe that most will replace a lost pump for a fee (i want to say that minimed charges $500 or $800 for a lost/stolen replacement)
Mine is not insured - it’s too expensive to insure, and it is connected to me at all times. only times i disconnect are when i’m showering or swimming, and if i’m swimming it goes in my bag under the lifeguard’s stand.
If you are really concerned about it, I would call the pump company and ask them to clarify their warranty for you, and ask them what to do if your pump becomes lost or stolen.
(I’ve been wearing a pump for 6 years, and never lost it. ONE time i left the house without it, realized it on my way to work - after a while, you tend to feel “naked” without it. i always hate it when the endo takes my pump to download the data, i get this anxiety over being away from the pump)
I’ve opted to insure my daughters pump - $117 per year under my home owner’s insurance which covers any loss, or damage for any reason. I read through the Animas Limited Warranty which states…
“This limited warranty does not extend to any damage as a result of …
…negligence, misuse or abuse of the pump by the user or any other third person, including, but not limited to, improper storage of or physical abuse such as dropping or otherwise damaging the Animas insulin pump.”
I’m not usually one to go crazy with insurance but my daughter’s only 10 and it is possible that she might drop it or see it fly off of her in gym class.
if you were to go pay out of pocket, anywhere from $5000-7500.
most insurance companies have negotiated a special rate, and you usually pay only a percentage of their cost (when i got my current pump, we had to pay a $200 deductible, and they covered the remainder. n the future, if i want a new pump, i have to pay 10% of the negotiated cost. it really depends on your insurance company)
that really only applies to intentional damage - my brother has dropped his ping and cracked the screen, they replaced it. the key words are “negligence, misuse, or abuse” - if you intentionally destroy it, they reserve the right to deny a warranty claim (but in all reality, they will most likely replace it anyway, as long as it isn’t a recurring issue - they stand to make more money on future business from you and your insurance company, and don’t want to deal with getting dropped from an insurance plan)
The tubeless pump Omnipod costs little - around $1000 retail, I guess - but the supplies cost a lot and over time, it ends up being costlier than the regular pumps like Minimed or Animas.
I’ve had 3 pumps in 15 years. I’ve thrown one down a flight of steps (accidentally), I’ve dropped one into a spinning wheel of a bicycle (40 mph), I’ve dropped it in a swimming pool… I got hit with a line-drive at a softball game (I was pitching) right on the pump that was tucked into the front of my pants, I ended up in the hospital with an abdominal injury and a beautiful pump-shaped bruise. My MM pumps have survived it all, only to be replaced when upgraded.
Which makes me suspect that the insurance language would have to be very carefully read - anything that you can do to it to damage it might not be covered with all of the exceptions.
i’ve had my pump for 12 years (actually two pumps if you count routine replacement) and both have proven to be very rugged. i had it during trips to iraq and other challenging places; i’ve banged it, dropped it, abused it and it has never failed. i honestly can’t make any case for insuring it.
I am A firefighter and my Mini med pump goes with me on all fire calls and medical calls I have yet to see it damaged even with all the heat from a fire or the mini of times my infusion set has been ripped out by a patient most of the time when it falls out of my pocket it seems to just dangle from my infusion site with no issues. I figure if it can with stand all that then I am good to go.
WE had this same discussion right after we got our pump, except our quote was $500! At that time, renters felt that it was covered under their renter’s policy, and home owners went without. We have a Ping, and I called them. They were not familiar with any insurance options and assured me that they would always try to work with me if anything happened. I decided to save my $500 a year.
I was aware pre-pump from another parent that her son’s pump was stolen from a hockey change room and this left me somewhat worried, as I was concerned about coverage against theft or accidental damage by a teen dropping his pump.
My son plays alot of hockey and while Dad is often involved as team trainer, my only concern, has ever been what would happen if the pump were stolen due to a change room lock not being used (error) as typically one of the adults will be certain to lock the room. I fiddled around with insurance, back and forth, providing invoicing, answers to quesions, etc., for no less than 3 months to have the insurer finally come back and say that the comprehensive portion of our existing household policy WILL cover his pump, at no additional charge. This takes into account that the device is typically worn 24/7, exception being certain contact sports, and the pump manufacturers 4 year warranty info that was provided which confirmed to our insurer that damage from an accidental drop, or a teen being pushed into a pool or something, would likely result in a replacement by the manufacturer.
So far, we just started a third year of pumping over March break. Hockey change room not locked one game, result being 3 kids, including my son, losing their ipods. Pump was where he left it, thank God… zipped in a small pocket of his hockey bag, while the ipod was in the pocket of his slacks.
Add in the roughly $200 a box for 10 infusion sets and $45 for reservoirs. Typically meant to last (3 days), that seldom if ever last three days in children, so roughly $245 a one month supply. I have seen my son change his infusion set three times in a single day because he is stuggling with insertion problems. Kinked cannula’s that don’t deliver, bleeding at the site that is interfering with insulin delivery, whatever… all resulting in soaring BG’s. He is very lean at 17 so site changes alone can be frustrating and when you add in tape/adhesion sensitivies… that is a whole other challenge.
I ALWAYS bite my tongue and withhold comment. If I ever told him what the sets cost… he would cringe and I don’t want him to look at the cost as more important than his own personal D care. I know when he is having a problem… with a site… he is really having a problem. Not just being frustrated or pissy about things and just wasting expensive supplies. We order our supplies through a standing three month order so that we can get a 15% discount. Every three months is an approximate $1,000 charge to the visa for pump supplies, of which ADP covers the first $600, then I ■■■■ around with the insurer for anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months (once as long as 6 monts) for the balance to be reimbursed. Add in the non pump supplies such as test strips, glucagon kits, insulin, alcholoh prep, syringes, etc.and there is always a medical supply, or two, in limbo, waiting on my visa to be reimbursed.
you also need to take into account the economy of scale in pumps vs. cell phones - while minimed might sell 50,000 pumps per year,* Apple sells millions of iPhones in a year (they sold 4.4 million in Q1 2009) - the “overhead” costs are spread over those millions of phones, but the overhead in pump production isn’t spread over as many.
You also need to take into account the greater level of R&D costs - a new pump must be approved by the FDA, which includes several levels of testing. A cell phone really doesn’t have any “approval” procedures. On top of that, the pump manufacturer wants to be positive that their product will not fail - they run routine QA checks. If a pump fails, there will most likely be a lawsuit, stemming from bodily injury claims. The chance of a cell phone malfunctioning and causing bodily harm is much less.
Lastly, the cell manufacturers do not provide you with training (My mom is a pump trainer for one of the companies, and gets paid $300-500 by the company for a pump start) or 24/7 customer support - if you are lucky, you can call an 800# for Apple or LG and talk to someone in india, who is reading off of a script. The pump companies have trained clinicians on staff 24/7 - these are people that went to nursing school, and are making well above the $2/hour an indian tech support person makes. Also, try to get LG to cross-ship a replacement product overnight - they just won’t do it. i think the warranty on my phone was 6 months or a year - the pump is fully warrantied for virtually anything that can happen to it, for a full 4 years.
so while the cost of materials might be lower than a phone, there is a LOT more overhead in the production of a pump, spread out over a much smaller target market.
(That being said, the insurance companies still pay the $5k-7k to purchase a pump)
*i have no accurate data on the number of pumps minimed ships per year, but given the number pf people with type 1 diabetes, it is far below the average sales rate of 1.4 million iPhones per month
g, that’s why i got the animas: i wear it swimming. but then, i usually go to the beach alone and there’s no one to watch my stuff on the beach. it NEVER leaves my body except to sit on the bathroom counter while i shower.
i wish my endo was up to date enough to download the data - i have to print reports for them!
Our ping with the first round of supplies was $7280.5 ($6146 pump, $200 for the handheld unit, the rest was the cartridges, sets, etc.) The negotiated rate the insurance paid for the pump? Nothing. Zero. The negotiated rate on the handheld was $5.34. The rest of the supplies came to $529. Amazing.
Here are some things to think about. Please read your homeowners policy it may not include coverage on your pump. A pump is a specialty item that may or may not be covered on your homeowners policy. Do you have your cars and your home on the same policy? Did they include the discount in the price? Did they quote you for the price of a totally new policy or a rider on the homeowners policy? What did the policy include? Did it include loss, fire, flood, theft etc? Did the policy include replacement cost? Is the replacement cost at 100% or is the replacement cost at a depreciated rate? Will you be able to get a brand new pump or will it have to be a refurbished pump? Will you have to redo the policy every 4 years when you get a new pump? What if you put that $330 in a savings account each year and put it toward the cost of a new pump every 4 years when your warranty runs out. If I were to insure a pump it would only be for a lost or stolen pump.
