Test Stripe Relabel Game

1

Test stripes are big business and for some companies it is even bigger. They just take a stripe produced in Korea or China and relabel it with a fancy logo.

There is nothing wrong with the quality of these stripes. It is just the revenue along the way that makes it uncomfortable for me. Stripes are the fundament of our control and unjustified revenue is wasting the money of our insurance companies. The result is that we get in trouble because insurance companies start to argue about our use of stripes.

Now the game part. I assume that many stripes are relabeled. This can be proved by taking photos of the stripe. One ordinary photo and one where the stripe has been opened. This is important because the inner working shows their relationship (just look at the following examples).

New stripes will be posted as a reply to this discussion. BUT relabeled stripes are posted as a reply to the similar stripe. So the discussion will look like this:

NEW
-RELABELED
-RELABELED
NEW
-RELABELED
NEW

I will start with four different types of stripes I have used. I will state NAME, COMPANY, ORIGIN and PRICE PER STRIPE in dollars. This way we can also compare prices…

2

Name: Accu-Check
Company: Roche (www.accu-chek.com/us)
Origin: Germany (I presume)
Price per stripe: $0.67 (in Germany)

3

Name: GlucoCheck comfort
Company: GlucoCheck
Origin: unknown
Price per stripe: $0.59 (in Germany)

4

Name: CareSens
Company: i-sens (www.i-sens.com)
Origin: South Korea
Price per stripe: $0.46 (in Germany)

5

Name: GlucoCheck
Company: Acon Laboratories (www.aconlabs.com)
Origin: USA
Price per stripe: $0.50 (in Germany)

6

Name: Optimum
Company: 77 Elektronika
Website - meters produced for Hungary
Website - Meters produced for export (perhaps under different brand name? Roche is one of its main customers.)
Origin: Hungary
Price per strip: $0.27 (in Hungary)



Apologies for the low quality photos. I'll try to get better ones. I think that this strip is based on a quite different technology. It looks very different from other strips that I have used, but it is the cheapest and most accurate test strip that I have used.
7

They are slightly different from the ordinary OneTouch stripes added by Danny. But the inner design looks identical to me. I heard the advantage is that the variations in the production line of these stripes is very small. This way all blue stripes will have the same code 25 and this means no more coding of the meter and less mistakes with calibration. Do we always have to pay for convenience or is the price difference of $0.69 to $0.58 just a coincidence?

8

I think it may be where he priced them - Amazon - definitely has mail order prices because you get the mail order package from them. Retail I am sure would cost the increased rate.

9

I have used this company which is alot less than many mail order companies I have found and less (about 1/2) than what my insurance is paying CVS Pharmacy in the US. My insurance company will only pay for two types of stripes. I assume that is common. Any way here is the link. I use the Accu Check drum meter so I have no idea if they are relabeled. I assume they are proprietary.

http://www.biousa.com/ditest.html

10

You go, Holger!!!
My BG rises ea. time I get an error message & have to discard a strip… like throwing $$ in the wastebasket;)
My one touch strips have been posted.

11

The blue strips were supposedly made to distinguish between the “foreign” remakes. AND 1 touch is claiming a double test result???

12

This is so cool! Thank you Holger!

13

Name: FreeStyle Lite
Company: Abbott
Origin: Germany maybe
Price per stripe: $0.69 (in Germany)

They just came out a few months ago. If I find one of the old ones, I'll post them too. Maybe I should check under the couch :).

It’s very interesting how different they all look. I guess it’s to avoid lawsuits.

14

Name: Freestyle (original)
Company: Abbott
Origin: USA??
Price per strip: $1.19 ($119.99 per 100 @ Walgreen’s in Oklahoma…apparently I pay WAY too much per strip!)

15

Guess I don’t have to go hunting for the old strips since you just posted them. But wow, $1.19 is a lot. You can get them on Amazon for $0.58 for example.

16

It’s true, I could get them from Amazon. My insurance covers them typically and I usually just have to pay a co-pay…and I also use the freestyle promise program so my fee for strips is usually $15 for the 600 that insurance allows every 3 mo. I just listed the face value b/c I happened to be at the pharmacy this morning and saw it.

17

I agree with you there Janny.

18

Thanks for this information
see how people are playing with lives of innocents
i am getting different rating for my strips
it is confusing
i go to lab every month for rutine tests

Since at the beginning and end of our lives
We are so dependent on others,
Kindness, how can be in the middle that we would
Neglect kindness towards others.
Dalai Lama