I have been investigating switching from MDIs to an insulin pump for about five months now. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this site, as you have been instrumental in helping me make the decision to try the Omnipod.
I was successful in having my insurance company overturn their denial of the pump and I am now working on my coverage. The Omnipod is considered out of network, so insurance will pay 80% after I meet my deductible. American Diabetes Wholesale (americandiabeteswholesale.com) has agreed to accept the 80% as full payment (after my deductible), which would be a substantial savings to me if I order pods through them rather than directly from Insulet.
I would love to hear from all who have used this distributor. I am especially interested in hearing about their reliability and customer service. When ordering from a distributor like ADW, CCS Medical and Edgepark how are pod failures handled? Do you speak with the distributor or directly with Insulet. Do you set up training directly with Insulet?
I use CCS Medical. When I have a pod failure I call Insulet (it’s their equipment that has failed and they’re the ones that need to log it / check for any consistent causes of failure). Insulet runs down their “what did you do this time” list, takes the info for the pod and the error, and then starts putting together a tally. At the end of the month / beginning of the next month they send out a box with pods to replace all of the ones they’ve deemed replaceable (the pod didn’t work, not user error). My CDE scheduled my training for me but if you’re in a hurry you can call Insulet and they might be able to give you the contact info for your area rep.
I order my pods through Edgepark and if I have an issue with a pod I call Insulet. Like Rebecca said they replace bad pods once a month. I’ve been getting them like on the 3rd day of the next month. I just write on my calendar when I have a bad pod and called it in so I can keep up with how many pods I should be receiving. I set up my training through Insulet. Once I received my kit from Edgepark I called Insulet and they notified the trainer in my area who got in touch with me. Everything worked out great and I didn’t have to wait very long for the training.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I’ve decided to give American Diabetes Wholesale a try and order the Omnipod. Now waiting for my endo to write the script for it. Insulet will then set up the training for me.
