Uncertain as to the best way to do this…trying to get answers for someone. Does it go through pharmacy? Healthplan? Or another service or company? Which one is best? Or is it easiet to have them pick up in pharmacy with everything else. Can it be tied to medication rx? Are there more efficient services by meter/strip type. Is all based on insurance coverage? Sorry if these are silly questions…just new to this.
I get mine through my insurance via my mail order pharmacy. My endo writes the prescription for 90 days worth and three refills which gets me through a year. Whoever prescribes for the person’s diabetes meds is the one to do it. It is like a medicine prescription. Mail order pharmacy service supported by your insurance is usually, but not always, the cheapest approach.
You still need a prescription regardless of how you buy it.
Some people buy it outright if they have no insurance that covers it. In that case, I would search for the cheapest source for the strips you need by calling around or googling. I have always used OneTouch Lifescan strips. But to each his own. They are fairly expensive so it is best to try through insurance.
i order mine from Diabetes Club. They call me each month and check and see how the supplies are, lancets, strips, etc. They ogtained an order from my doc and approval from my insurance co…for 6 months. They do all the work, and I get the supplies about the 10th of the month. If for some reason I run lower sooner, I just call them and the supplies come out the next day or at the latest two days. They’ve been very good to me, gave me a new meter, and let me try it out for efficiency and accuracy before I accepted it. I’d recommend them, very friendly, very knowledgable about all aspects of diabetes, and available 24/7
You can just buy testing supplies in any pharmacy without a prescription at all but they are VERY expensive that way. People who don’t have insurance find cheaper alternatives such as EBay and WalMart. If you are buying over the counter you want to get a meter with cheaper strips as that is what costs so much.
If you have insurance you would get a prescription from your doctor and then use whatever resource you use for the rest of your prescriptions. Your doctor needs to be sure and write the prescription for test strips for the maximum supply your insurance allows. I’ll use my own example. My prescription coverage is much cheaper if I use my mail away option (medco) and get three months supplies than if I just go to the drugstore for one month. My doctor writes my prescription for 900 strips for the 3 month supply (10 a day) as I’m a type 1. My insurance is ok with this amount.
Hope this helps. Everyone has a little different system. Check with your insurance for your prescription coverage for testing.
Actually in the U.S. (and many other countries ) you do not need a prescription. Anyone can just buy them in the pharmacy
Check costs and allowable quantities through multiple methods. Some insurance plans will give you (relatively) unlimited quantities for a one-month co-pay – whatever your doctor prescribes. (Some plans cover all or part of this with no out-of-pocket costs at all.) Other plans will limit the quantities your doctor may prescribe (1 test/day for non-insulin-dependent, 3-4 tests/day for insulin-dependent, no allowance for control tests). Depending on your plan, you may be able to pick this up at the local pharmacy or you may need to order through their pharmacy benefits fulfillment plan (e.g. Medco or ExpressScripts).
Compare your per-strip out-of-pocket costs with the listed price from a reputable Internet mail-order company like Hocks.com or American Diabetes Wholesale. These mail-order companies do not accept prescriptions, but depending on your coverage, it may be cheaper to buy 200-300 strips at a time through Internet order than to go through the pharmacy benefits part of your insurance plan. One bonus of not using the prescription benefit is that you are not restricted to whichever brand(s) and device(s) your insurance plan deigns to cover (my current only covers OneTouch Mini and Accu-Chek Aviva; I use Freestyle Lite).
For what it’s worth, unless I’m getting unlimited strips with zero co-pay, I find it cheaper to go through the Internet order than use my pharmacy benefit.
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i get mine mail order and they are fine. but as another poster mentions you can walk right in to a pharmacy and purchase them. As far as quality, both are equal. Now of course my plan pays for the mail order test strips, so that is by far the lest expensive way for me to purchase them.
rick phillips
Strips and lancets for me are covered 100% through my DME portion of my plan through mail order supplier (not pharmacy) Edgepark. They fax an Rx to my endo once a year that covers my supplies for the year. I can go through my pharmacy plan, but it would cost a copay for me.
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It really does depend on your insurance coverage. My test strips are considered DME and I have to get thru a
DME provider. I can get insulin for MDI in my regular pharmacy but insulin for my pump has to get thru a DME provider. There is a pharmacy about a half hour from me that I get my pump insulin from but then get my other scripts (including insulin in pens) from a closer one. The pharmacy I get my pump insulin also carries testing stuff but she can’t afford to sell me the strips I like.
We have insurance but we have to meet a high deductible before they cover the strips, so I don’t even run them through my insurance. I shop online for the cheapest strips. I am currently using Bayer Contour USB because I got a free meter with 25 strips online. I usually buy my strips at an online pharmacy or at Amazon. I have never had problems with them. As said you do not need an Rx to get strips or meter.
Thank you for all your responses you all have been very helpful. And have given me some things to consider. I can get my strips 300 strips for 80.00 which is for 3 months thur my insurance he just want right my script for that amount. So i still have to pay the 80.00 even though i only get 200. Really upsetting when your paying for insurance thru my husbands work and you can get what your allowed. FRUSTRATED! Thanks again to you all.
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I’m relatively new to the Type 2 universe and to testing. I had Freestyle Lite meter for a year, but then got the Freestyle Insulinx meter to take advantage of Abbot’s diagnostic software. I like the software very much. I am a techie/data type person, so lately, I’ve been testing 3-4x daily to understand my BG
fluctuations. I asked my Dr. to refill the test strips, turns out Medicare/insurance limits me to 1 test/day based on my A1c, currently 6.1. Some questions:
- what are A1c limits for various levels of testing?
- Someone in thread used an acronym “DME” discussing strip supplier. It means what?
- I can get Freestyle lite strips free, they seem to work in the Insulinx meter. Anyone similarly experienced?
I look forward to participating in this forum.
I agree that the Medicare strip limits, especially for T2Ds, is poor policy. More testing leads to more info which can lead to concrete changes to improve blood glucose through med dosing changes, food adjustments, and exercise changes. I get my doctor to appeal the Medicare strip limit based on medical necessity. I receive 14 strips per day. I’ve always tested a lot, long before Medicare even had a strip limit policy. Living with diabetes and only testing once per day is like driving a car with a bag over your head and only removing it once per minute!
Medical insurance for diabetes supplies break down into two types of coverage: a pharmacy benefit for pills and insulin and a durable medical equipment (DME) benefit that covers things like insulin pumps. Some insurance policies blur the line between the two benefits and cover what seems like should be a pharmacy benefit with the DME benefit. It depends on your insurance policy and its respective coverage whether it’s an advantage for you or not.
I get all my pump supplies through Edgepark because they are considered a different class of prescription. I get my test strips at target pharmacy since I compared and it was cheaper to get them at my local pharmacy.
I check with my insurance provider every year to see which test strips have the highest coverage and same for my pump supplies. Things change. I have noticed with my insurance- Blue Cross/Blue Shield Federal the copay for test strips and other diabetic supplies and crept up every year.
Busybee
hallo dear, this is not a stupid question, i got meins through insurance,although it deepens on the country you are and the health policies.thanks
When you get test strips through edgepark do you know if they run them the same way as your pharmacy benefit does? I have found out that I can order the max amount of test strips through my pharmacy and then also order more test strips through edgepark the same time and insurance still covers them both. Not that I do that but I was wondering how that is even possible.