Lots of posts. I am so sorry you have had all this trouble. I had regular insurance for 5 years before I turned 65. I don’t remember a problem getting my supplies for those 5 years. All my supplies came from DME providers and they did require a minimum number of office visits (every 3-6 months) with prescriptions for 1 year’s supplies sent every year along with copies of notes. Periodically, I had to change DME providers due to the network of the insurance company. Since 2020, I have had Medicare. The requirements are a little more strict but similar: 1) Office visits with the provider managing your diabetes every 3 months. The provider should send those notes to every DME provider you have, 2) Prescriptions from your provider for 90 day supply with 3 refills to cover 1 year.
My experience with Walgreens has been a disaster and I will never ask them to provide Insulin, Dexcom sensors, infusion sets, or cartridges. I suggest you find the DME providers in network with your insurance company and get all your supplies there. Regarding insulin, I guess sticking with a pharmacy that follows the rules regarding your maximum cost is your best choice. Good luck.
We don’t do DME out here for Dash and Dexcom. It was all reclassified as “Nondurable medical supplies.” I tried that.
It’s kinda interesting that when I have spoken to the insurer, they don’t know who a supplier is for Dash. The first time it was filled, it came directly from insulet to walgreens via a pharmacy in Fargo. It was strange.
It is strange and obviously a huge problem.
I have private insurance and I also never have these issues.
I mean yes I need to see my doc and get blood tests done at least twice a year, and I do it 4 times a year anyway. I need to have my scripts redone every year too
I’m trying to get setup via Walmart incase Walgreens is failing. I’m gonna get syringes so I could fall back on NPH and R at a moments notice.
You guys know that we are trying to topple the pharmacy monopolies via the PBMs, right? This is all making me very nervous about access and I would feel a lot better if you guys verified that you had your manual injection backup prescriptions in place and ready to go in case we see failures in distribution of supplies. You are ALWYAYS supposed to have that ready for a pump failure anyway. I never do. It’s taking me AGES to get that stuff setup. Get it situated now…just incase.
You just need the insulin already in your pump nd a bottle of long acting with a few syringes. If you were once on MDI then it should be pretty easy to switch back if you needed to.
I go off my pump when I go to a vacation with swimming and hot weather. I switch right back feet and I don’t have ny issues.
It’s only the extra correction injections that is a pain. With no algorithm I’ll take at least 10 injections in total per day.
That’s why I started pumping in the first place.
You know, it’s been a while…I don’t do MI that often, and I forget just how many syringes you use on MI. When I’m on MI, its like there’s a syringe fairy throwing handfuls of syringes out like confetti all over the world - they fall out of my purse, my car, my pockets. Its bad.
There’s only ten syringes in a pack. The pharmacists might sell you two packs (in MN) w/o a script. You can reuse them, but this great plan I had to survive using totally over the counter supplies wasn’t actually very practical. You need a script for BOXES & BOXES of syringes to do MI. I think I just got one. The Docs have forgotten how to write these old fashioned scripts, so there’s a lot of communication required back and forth - a lot of script re-writing.
The really interesting thing is that I made them write me a script for a glucometer (out of spite). I haven’t had an RX for that in 10 years. It’s the worlds most accurate machine ever. Super Cheap. Its a Accu-Check Guide Me and look how closely it follows my Dex, so far. The OTC Walmart brand is no where near as good as this:
I found something on DTS where you can test the accuracy of your machine and submit the results. Is there any way WE could do this? You have to test it against a lab. You need a LOT of lab readings, but the machine is only 8K. SEG Software
I use a syringe several times each. I only travel with 1 or two for emergencies. In California, I can get syringes by showing them my insulin script. I’ve heard they also accept medic alert bracelets. It’s kind of loose in cali. I don’t know why they are restricted really, a person isn’t going to take it drugs just because syringes are available. But maybe they wouldn’t share them in which case, I wish they were available with no script like they were when I was diagnosed in the 80s
That’s amazing! I want that!
It makes so much sense because what good is the insulin w/o a mechanism to deliver it? W/o a syringe, they are essentially restricting access to the insulin. That causes harm and shouldn’t be allowed according to the Hippocratic oath.
So today, I go to Walmart to refill blood sugar strips and verify a Dash script exists.
Walamart says the Doc sent the strips to the wrong pharmacy and that pharmacy filled them and sold them to someone. That person was not me.
Walmart says they’ll let you view your scripts from their website or their app. Better than asking a kid at the counter and getting a crazy story. Your insurance or PBM website can also show you a list of claims and you can see if Walmart billed your insurance. If both show someone paid for your test strips file a board of pharmacy complaint against the location that sold them. Doesn’t matter it was only test strips, giving a prescribed item to the wrong person is a big deal. But more likely the person you were talking to needs to be tested for syphilis.
https://www.walmart.com/help/article/pharmacy-services/1492076e585c4c63a53b0a73c156611d
Just to resolve that specific thing.
The O5 takes over the functionality of the Dexcom receiver; it becomes the receiver. Consequently the receiver can’t get a look-in, or if it does all hell might break loose.
The O5 doesn’t take over the activation function. It could but it doesn’t; probably Dexcom didn’t want to be cut out of the loop completely. So you need an app, possibly not Dexcom’s, I don’t know anything about that (literally, not sarcastically, I really don’t).
This is part of the Dexcom design; they only permit two connections to the G6 and three to the G7. The connector has to nominate which one it will use and if that “slot” is already in use nothing happens.
You know that syphilis makes you go bat ■■■■ crazy if you don’t get it treated. I was warning all the young guys at work with syphilis came knocking on our door. I was scared.
Every time an RX isn’t properly filled, I start plotting against the system because I get mad. I’m gonna post my newest plottings on a new thread.
Well, I live in Oregon and I buy my syringes on Amazon, but FWIW:
Possibly they want to avoid the pain, for you and them both, of:
- Provide written information or verbal counseling to customers at the time of sale on [the subject of]:
[druggies, HIV, California’s exact laws on how to throw something away]
I don’t know what the Oregon laws are but I suspect they might involve paraphrases of “Looks suspicious”; at least the CA laws are clear.
I want this to be my state law. I have a mind to make it so.
Love you. I vote for everyone who votes. If there were a politician who stood on the platform, “Execute jbowler.” I’d vote for everyone who voted for her.
LOL, John.
When syringes become over the counter, they don’t go through insurance. Does that make them expensive?
My pharmacist said $6/pack. That’s a pretty expensive daily expense. Like, $200 per month.
Every cost is manipulated.
I should add, and this is politics, my politics, so may be forbidden; I’m a capitalist and my definition of my capitalism is a fair price for a fair product. (Note, I don’t say a “good” product; you get what you pay for in my dreams.)
So, no, going OTC doesn’t make them expensive. Going through the pharmacists lobby, now owned by WalMart, not WalGreen, might make them so. Although I’m not sure - I just got my HbA1c test kits for $35 from WalM, maybe that is reasonable. Fair can wait for another day.
And I can get 100 insulin syringes from Amazon for $20. Here’s the link:
Oops, that doesn’t work. Or maybe it does? It depends on who you are and how you look; it’s very easy for Amazon to change the answer depending on who you are. Same for everything else on the web.
So, yeah, Amazon charge 20c for one syringe, plus shipping, and WallyX charges 60c including shipping. The “block” that TUD provides for my Amazon link sums it up perfectly; “eligible purchases.” I count it as a privilege that I am eligible.
That’s pretty affordable. Lets see what I paid with insurance.
For the same quantity, at Walmart I paid $9.19. But the cash price was $58.95.
$58.95 is technically higher than what state law allows with insurance.
Would we estimate a box like that would last about a month on full time manual injection? Maybe you use 5 or 6 per day. That’s 150 syringes per month, on the low end. So, you might need 2 boxes per month. That’s a lot of syringes.
Right: on a day Amazon would have sold you the same box for $10, even including shipping. But Amazon is into the whole US health insurance stuff now, so all the rules must be obeyed, i’s dotted, t’s crossed no obcomments etc.
Where do we go from here?
I suggest we pack our paddles.