Over since my job changed insurance, the insurance company does not cover the insulin pen so I had to switch back to the syringe and vials again. My doctor suggest switching to Exubra to replace my humalog. Is any one using Exubera or knows some one who does?
If your insurance doesn’t cover pens, it is VERY unlikely they’ll cover Exubera which is far more expensive than pens.
It is very tough to dose it, as you can’t match it to the carbs in your food. The company tells you to dose it by your body weight! If that isn’t nuts, what is?
BTW, because the endocrinologists have been refusing to prescribe Exubera because of it’s flaws, the company that makes it is marketing it very heavily to less sophisticated family doctors without explaining that it is obscenely expensive and very hard to use properly.
I agree with Jenny, far fewer insurers are covering Exubera than insulin pens. Some insurers still have thoughts that it saves money to prescribe only syringes in vials (even though compliance is reduced significantly, thus increasing their risks for short-term emergencies including DKA, hypoglycemia which would wipe out any such savings, but I digress …).
In the interim, I would strongly suggest looking into a pre-filled syringe case as a low-cost alternative that enables you to carry your insulin dosage around with you even without a pen. Many Symlin users claim they use these because pens are not yet available (supposedly soon). A word of advice, however, is to draw a few extra units than you are likely to use, as you can always squirt some of the extra insulin out of the syringe before injecting, but cannot come up with extra if you need it otherwise!