Which Test Strips are the most accurate? My insurance is making me change!

Type 1 and LADA
1

My insurance plan is making me change from One Touch Ultras to one of these below. Which ones should I choose? Or has the best accuracy?

ACCU-CHECK AVIVA PLUS STRIPS
ACCU-CHECK GUIDE STRIPS
ACCU-CHECK SMART VIEW STRIPS

2

I’ve used lots of different meters and strips over the years. I used to routinely test them with at the lab using the same blood samples drawn. From the expensive to the cheapest meters/strips they all tested the same as the lab test of within 5%.

Long before I got Dexcom I began buying my strips out of pocket. It was generally cheaper than the co-pay on insurance provided supplies.

In my opinion any of those Accu-Check are good. My meters are Contour Next One because of the size. They fit nicely in my daily kit and bicycling kit.

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I’ve had great accuracy long-term with both of these Accu-Chek meters.

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4

Whenever you are getting your lab tests done, like when they do your A1C and all the other stuff, do a BG check at the same time with your meter. Record that number. When your labs come back, see how close your meter was to the lab number for your BG.

Since we don’t have frequent access to lab BG tests for comparison, one of the best alternate ways to check a meter is to do several tests at the same time, and see how close the numbers are to each other.

If your meter tests are all within a few points, that’s great. When you see differences between the tests of 15-20 points or more, that starts to get sketchy.

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5

Generally the Contour Next series of meters and test strips perform the best in the hands of users when compared to other meters per https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/41/8/1681/36377/Investigation-of-the-Accuracy-of-18-Marketed-Blood

@Luis3 is right, check that insurance is your lower cost option. If Accu-Chek with insurance is cheaper than Contour Next without then here is the FDA submission for the Contour with clinical trial data https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/reviews/K160682.pdf Compare it to:

Follow up study from 2024 on Accu-Chek meters
Monitoring of the Analytical Performance of Four Different Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems: A Post-market Performance Follow-Up Study - PMC
BGM1 Accu-Chek Guide BGM2 GuideMe BGM3 Instant BGM4 Instant S

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I can get One Touch Ultras essentially free on my insurance. I find they have slightly more variability than the AccuCheck Guide, which I like for the slightly smaller package and smaller blood drop requirement, but they’re ridiculously expensive on my policy.

I generally only use strips the first 24 hours of a new cgm sensor, or if something wonky is happening, or traveling and had multiple sensor failures and ran out, that sort of thing.

This is just anecdotal from my experience, but it seems like the Accucheck lancets are a little more precisely milled, and of course once you have a lancet system you like you can use it for any of the strip brands.

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I used the Accu guide test strips for awhile, but switched back to Contour next test strips, not because of accuracy but other reasons. Both new meters are about the same and used batteries so no worries about charging them. Just change the batteries. Accuracy was about the same. The advantage was an extra bonus try using the same strip when my blood droplet wasn’t big enough. I like second chances

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This only works if our BGs are flat. The lab tests use veinous blood, the finger sticks use capillary blood. The veinous blood circulates completely in about 90s IRC but it takes longer to get to our capillary system (this is why skin-injected insulin is also delayed).

That said it is unlikely that the meter itself will fail at this test; the individual strips or or, more likely, our skin is liable to contamination, a much more likely cause of error. A blood draw less so.

I did once notice that a local lab did a fingerstick reading when doing a blood draw. I’m still trying to work out why, I suspect they were paid and that I was a correspondingly unpaid experimental subject. Give Me My Money.

My own experience with Abbott vs the various invocations of Bayer/Ascensia etc is that Abbott consistently ran slightly different to the other guys. I suspect they were concerned with LBG and lawsuits, since they are based in the US, whereas Bayer were concerned with maximal accuracy as this is a viable marketing technique (“We Are More Accurate”) Standard Deviation notwithstanding.

At present I use the Contour strips and, as has been observed, I, because I am in the US, buy them myself as required. I use them to sanity check my G7 and, yes, indeed, my G7 is both pathological and certainly out to kill me. Trust your fingerstick; it may be wrong but it is not that wrong.

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My favorites for accuracy and consistency have been the acc-chek guide or the contour next.

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My Ultra Touch are within a few points of the Contour Test strips. Medicare won’t cover test strips and a CGM so I buy test strips out of pocket. My Part D insurance does cover Contour test strips and I get 300 for $40. But I like the Ultra Touch because they require less blood and the first couple of days of my CGM I do a lot of finger sticking. So I just watch for deals and get some Ultra Touch to use along with the Contour Test Strips from my insurance company.

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This is one of the really odd things since the device, the CGM, invariably says to use test strips to double check the readings when in doubt. So test strips should be covered up to some limit on Part B when using a CGM and since Part B with a Medigap Plan G means that the costs per year are fixed (at USD 257) the test strips would then cost nothing under Part B.

It’s clear that test strips are a necessary Part B supply for the use of a CGM, but maybe there is some ridiculously low limit?

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@John_Bowler I posted a reply and latest links under a old Medicare/test strips thread. I didn’t want to derail the OP’s post!

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For what it’s worth, here in New Zealand we have one meter that’s funded by the national and that’s it, the CareSens Dual which does blood ketone tests as well. I don’t think the are any others to purchase. We have more choice in cgms than glucose testing!

The good thing is that all of it is provided at no out-of-pocket cost.

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I have a prescription for ketone blood test strips but they aren’t covered in the US.

Ketone test strips should be available to every T1. Instead we get an unusable glucagon kit here.

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Accu Check is a good line. Much better than anything from the One Touch line. I’ve used Accu Check for quite some time and like it. Guide is my favorite of the 3.

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I’ve used the heck out of mine!
:joy:

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18

My ketone meter with strips were covered by Part D. I’m not sure how much of a savings it was because I have a copay and they aren’t that expensive. I use the urine tests more just because it’s no pain and easy. I figure if ketones ever show up I’ll use the meter to check but they never do so…

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Ooh. I didn’t even think to check when I signed up with Cigna for Part D; I checked everything else (Cigna do my Medigap too). I expect to spend OOPMax (i.e. $2000) on Part D because I use the Omnipod; I’m already almost halfway there after my first 90 day supply of pods along with the $105 for the insulin:

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 E
Prescription Billed Plan paid Patient responsibility
LYUMJEV 100 UNIT/ML VIAL , Qty 90, days’ supply: 90 $1,928.39 $1,823.39 $105.00
OMNIPOD DASH PODS (GEN 4) 5PK , Qty 30, days’ supply: 90 $1,608.85 $825.27 $783.58

I just checked Cigna and they do list blood test strips but not, apparently, Precision Xtra (only, curiously, the control solution), just three dubious sounding companies. Some research is required :slight_smile:

I found Precision Xtra blood test strips on Amazon at prices ranging from $4 each to $8 each (in quantities of 10). On the other hand the non-US Abbott product, the Optium, is $10 for a box of 10.