Looking for best 2013 meter & test strips. Also, how do you get BCBS to give you more! Don't understand the resistance.
Your doctor can write an override to increase your strips. I am Type 1 with Anthem Blue Cross and I get 900 for 90 days.
For what ever reason, by Endo seems to be hesitant. I dont know why. I started with Endo, then went to BCBS, then went back to Endo. And Endo just says: BCBS will only allow 300. I know that's not so, so why the hesitation?
300 for 3 months or for one?
I told my doctor that I needed to be able to test up to 8 times a day if necessary. I don’t always test that often, but if I want to I can. It comes out to 725 tests in a three month period or roughly 8 boxes of 100 strips.
300 per month. 10 per day.
This is a 15 year old boy. Went directly into honeymoon. Therefore we are looking for 15 plus per day.
Awake
Breakfast
Snack
Lunch
Snack
Dinner
Snack
Bedtime
2:00 am
Then, let's not forget the lows and rechecks every 10 to 15 minutes or the extra one in the middle of the night. So it adds up!
That's what my doctor wrote the waiver for; I think that's a good number! But if you want more, you could try having him write a waiver and maybe it will work.
That's a lot of snacks. Why so many?
I was thinking the same thing. Also why a regular 2AM testing if the basal is set right?
From what I've heard, many parents of kids with T1 test their kids at 2 AM or so, no matter how good their basal is.
I put together what I consider a very reasonable amount of testing that comes out to **AT LEAST** a dozen/ day.
1) wake up, test bg
2) before eating test BG
3) before driving to work test bg
4) 2 hours after eating test bg
5) lunch test BG
6) 2 hours post lunch test bg
7) drive home test BG
8) get home, run 3 miles...oh wait, don't forget to test your bg!
9) post-exercise maybe, maybe not, maybe eat dinner and, you guessed it, test BG
10) 2 hours post BG, test BG ****AGAIN****
12) stay up late? Maybe squeeze in another one, what if you have errands to run, what if you want to exercise more (when it's nicer out, I'll run 6-7 miles during the week, more on the weekends...a lot of times, I'll run a long run on Saturday and then a 20ish mile bike ride for fun, speed and recovery on Sunday...there's several extra strips in there...).
I think that the medical and/ or insurance industrie should get together to see what a reasonable amount of "overage" for "emergencies" and or "safety" e.g. driving might be. If we say 10%, that'd be 30*12+10% or about 400/ month. In the past, before I had the CGM (which wants you to be testing every couple of hours, to make sure the pump is chugging along ok...), I had a few odd periods, where I was working out 2x/day and tested as much as 17x/ day, exercising my (in the US...) constitutionally granted right to pursue happiness. I thinkt that if your endo is "chicken" of Blue Cross for whatever reason, I would lay out your regular schedule (and, if it varies, it would seem reasonable to toss in a couple of extra tests!) and say "look, this is what I need" and get him on board. At that point, he should be willing to provide an override or he should be replaced with someone who will support your standard of care and financial health.
At one point, Blue Cross referenced my "old" need of 7/ day, what I'd been rx'ed during my years of well, not paying that much attention to it after the doc had tried to increase it. I got the doc and Blue Cross and the pharmacy all on a conference call (BCBS first, to make them wait while I rounded up the others) and I explained "I need > 7 strips" and Blue Cross said "only the doctor can say what you need..." so I said "ok Doctor, I need more strips..." to which the doctor replied "how many do you need?" so I said "14/ day" and he said "he needs 14/day". That was a GP who was instrumental in getting me moving in the right direction and I respect his willingness to participate in such an absurd waste of everyone's time a lot.
Re the meter, I've always used One Touch and have 2x One Touch UltraMinis which I like because they work for me and they are the most compact for running.
Wow. I thought I tested a lot... One question though, why do you feel "the CGM (which wants you to be testing every couple of hours, to make sure the pump is chugging along ok...)" Now I know...but the MM CGM only requires calibration every 12 hours. I probably calibrate 4 times per day times (I test more like 6 times per day regularly and more if needed,) as I have been told that too much calibration can make the CGM wonkers.
By "wants", I wa referring to the "Check BG" message that comes up 2 hours after you eat. I am still a big snacker so I have breakfast and then a yogurt mid-morning, lunch and then some trail mix mid-afternoon so it's wanting post-prandial BG then anyway although I don't always test, eat, forget yogurt, etc. I don't think that's "a lot" but it probably helps me keep things running as smoothly as I do. I cut out some of those tests too, if things are where they are supposed to be (e.g. driving to work, I just ate, I know where my BG is, it's only 15 minutes, I have a 1/2 lb of jelly beans in the car, etc.) but probably recycle them later if I need an extra test to confirm the situation here or there. I think that's a reasonable number to make sure I'm ok and that's the number that should be covered.
If I don't use all the strips during an Rx period, I would think that Blue Cross would have evidence that, guess what, I don't get the Rx refilled until I run out!! If they are going to accuse me of being a strip dealer, they should try to find evidence of that.
It also is very important for me to have good BG in the early evening as I usually am working out, driving junior to dancing classes and other activities, cooking dinner, etc. I don't have time to get zonked out of my gourd nor am I inclined to say "gosh, I'm busy, I'd better run up to 150 to make sure I'm safe" which is probably what "the manual" would suggest.
No pump. Less than a month ago diagnosed. In honeymoon. Lot's to learn and experience.
Thanks for sharing,
I think the insurance world see's Diabetes as one world. Testing on less strips would be most often applied to the Type 2, in which this world revolves.
I am shooting for more than the 300 they want to give!
That's just a reference point. Not actual. On an active weekend he may need a snack between breakfast and lunch. Between lunch and dinner for sure (school hours). And after dinner before bed. He is in honeymoon phase and it looks like his body is looking for food every three to four hours. In the long hall he may have to eat six times a day. Smaller meals.
I am shooting for 15 to 20 strips. I have heard the name One Touch quite a bit. And I guess the only other question would be do I want one that will hook up to the computer? He is only into this less than one month. Lot's to learn.
I agree the meters that are connectable are very useful. I haven't used one but the One Touch Verio IQ I think is the model that will give you the most data processing from that "family" but a lot of meters will track things for you. Before I got my pump, I had a OneTouch UltraSmart that had some of that type of data management, syncing, reports, etc. Eventually, those led to a pump and then the CGM for me.
RE the strip question, I totally think that a new patient should be provided extra strips as there's a ton of "shaking down" to do. Testing frequently will give you a much better idea how you are doing and may help lead to better results. I don't have links to studies, etc. but am very certain of this. It's annoying and bothersome but there's no reason not have have enough strips to do the experiments to figure out where to make productive changes.