You can see my comment below on this. Animas is giving me so much grief this go around I cant begin to describe it. First of all they messed up my eStore order, then they finally got the thing in and approved and still have not shipped it (four weeks later).
Then after I have been ordering five boxes of sets and cartridges every six months, they say the policy is to cover set changes every two to three days, limiting me to three boxes at a time.
So if I really changed sets that often, then it wouldnt even be enough would it? Or if you mess one up then what? I have a back stash of older stuff, which I saved for emergency. But I know a lot of people run really close on supplies and this might not work for them.
I have never had any issues with my insurance and all of a sudden everything is some kind of big mess.
I dont get it at all.
I was doing site changes every 1 1/2 days - it was rare that I managed to get 48 hours out of a site. My doctor had to sign paperwork to get that, but I never had a problem with the insurance company. My guess is that it is Animas, not your insurance. That doesn’t count all the bad ones that got pulled after a couple hours!
Three boxes is still only 60 days if you change them every other day.
Laura, have you called your insurance company yet? About a year ago, I know someone on another message board that had a similar problem with her supply company. She was told it was her insurance company but when she called them, she found out it was not her insurance but the supplier. Someone from her insurance actually called the supplier and got it straightened out for them.
I just sent a letter three ways. One to the rep (local) one to a guy in insurance at Animas who supposedly was trying to help me obtain a pump. All he did was send me to Edgepark, which is no help at all because of Carecentrix. If it is Animas’ fault, well he needs to admit it. If it is Carecentrix policy they need to admit it. I cannot imagine my HMO has changed at all.
I have been placing the same order every six months for years. Through my Cozmo and prior Animas pumps.
I also sent the same Email to the head of the HMO system (they own two health plans/hospital systems in two states.
I pretty much have had it.
Never had an issue ever.
And btw, now a rep tells me the estore has issues.
Be warned everyone.
Btw, this does make no sense. If there are folks who change every two days (and the rep indicated it was required to be two to three days) then three boxes doesnt even cut it. Someone somewhere is screwing around with my account.
It is not up to Animas or the pharmacy to decide how much to send you it is up to your doctor. I get 50 changes for every 90 days. I go through a supplier and they call to make sure that I have my order within 72 hours of placing the order. They also make sure that I received everything that I ordered and make sure that the order was correct.
Please send the email to the HR department of where you work. You want them aware of any problems you have so they can make more informed decisions when it comes to renewing the policy.
I change my set and cartridge every three days. Since May 2007 when I got my first Animas pump, they have always shipped me 5 boxes of infusion sets, 5 boxes of cartridges, 1 box of IV Prep pads and 1 box of IV3000 frame delivery bandages (tegaderm type). Never had a problem with Animas or CareFirst (BCBS of Maryland) regarding my orders. Maybe it’s something new I’ll run into when I place my next order in about a month. Up until now I’ve had no issues at all. From day 1 Animas just sent 5 boxes of each because I had no idea how many to order.
LOL, I am the HR dept. where I work. We are self employed and I choose my own plan for us.
My husband and I had to go with a half decent policy, good coverage on some things and bad on others.
At nearly $900 a month it was the highest premium we could afford, and are struggling with even that.
No insurance broker has been able to do any better. They try, but end up saying I know what I am doing and I am picking the best choice for our situation. (except the lousy DME part.)
You are right though, now apparently they are saying my doctor wrote the prescription that way.
Though for the last ten years, no one has changed it.
I think they are trying to say that there are new regulations requiring more set changes?
not sure though…
I’m just the type of person who tries not to abuse the system and order more than I need. Since I was always running a bit ahead, I always ordered five boxes of each supply twice a year. I figured it saved them money and shipping. Someone started me on five, years ago, for some odd reason. But it always worked!
Laura,
I change my site every 3 days and BC/BS allows me 5 boxes of 10, every 90 days.
Thank you Phil! That makes me feel better.
I knew they went with five, they started it way back with my orders and I have been pumping 11 years.
Minimed used to send five, and so did the Cozmo folks. Animas picked five, and always sent five. In my case, I let it go to twice a year, but I think at one time I ordered in three month increments.
Yeah, you have confirmed it too.
See my note to Phil.
All of a sudden Animas says I can only get three boxes every three months after 11 years of getting five? Justifying it by saying they want you to change every two days? Two days, three boxes. Do the math huh?
People are playing weird games with my account, which is interesting.
Until I started asking why it had taken a month for my order, and until I started trying to figure out financing I never had a single problem ever.
I even went back to track my order history on estore.
It has five boxes for just about every order over the years, in some instances every 90 days.
I dont get it at all.
I don’t think Animas wants you to use less. If you think about it they make more money the more boxes you use. Perhaps they got denied by an insurance company recently and wanted to “clean up” any accounts that were using close to the max recommended. I don’t know. But it seems Animas would have absolutely no vested interest in you using less infusion sets. I do know insurance companies change the coverage determinations frequently and may not have necessarily alerted you to these changes. The whole thing is weird though.
POssibility…
If you get to the bottom of why this is happening please let us know.
Weird I just called last week to get my supplies and the guy on the phone told me that if I change my site every 3 days that the insurance only gives me 4 boxes but if I change my site every 2 days I get 5 boxes of sets and cartridges. Another thing is that I get new supplies every 3 months not every 6 months. I’m not sure if that makes a difference.
When I was using the Insets, my prescription read to change my site every 2-3 days and BC/BS allowed 5 boxes every 90 day. Now that I use a steel set, my prescription says change site every 1-2 days, but they still let me have only 5 boxes. 5 boxes of course are a little more than needed for every 2 days, which is a good thing since I usually can’t go more than 2 days between site changes
Funny how they calculate these things. My test strip Rx said 6-8 times a day so they sent me enough for 6.66 times per day 
I had the doc change the script to 8 times per day.
Yadie and Carman got me thinking, something aint right.
You see, every time I call Animas I get one story. When I call Carecentrix I get another story.
They are currently closed (I think they are in Phoenix). I will call them in the morning.
Something is just plain odd.
Three boxes is an odd number, which most people do not seem to be limited to.
I had a problem with being only allowed ONE box per month… If i messed up a set, or had an occlusion i would be having to fumble/beg/ for a spare infusion set… (not every 30 days, every month)… so if its a long month i could be short a set…