Insurance isn’t
In other happy news UPS just brought me another foam sarcophagus. This is my SECOND box of sensors subsidized by my almost-worthless insurance. This Red-Label box arrived nearly three weeks after I ordered it. Seems MedT is having trouble keeping up with demand for their sensors. This could be a huge set-back for our fiends in California. It’s not like falling short on the manufacture of insulin, which would actually kill people, but not being able to make enough devices that chronically ill people depend on to stay healthy is a serious problem.
At the clinic, I spent months fighting Medicaid to get a particularly hypo prone T-1 approved for a Guardian. I finally got it approved then MedT tells me that they don’t even know when they’ll be able to ship. Could be a month!
Turns out this box, and the one before it, will actually set me back 175 bucks each, not the $161 I was told it would. It seems the insurance company’s negotiation on price is only for their half of the sensors. I still have to pay half of the full retail price. So screwed yet again.
What perverted world it is where the insurance company makes the co pay and the patient pays the balance?
So now I pay $17.50 per sensor. I guess that’s a real bargain over the $45 each I paid way back when this adventure began almost two years ago. The price of being a pioneer, I suppose. If I wear the sensors as indicated it would cost $5.84 per day or $2,132 per year with insurance coverage.
At the clinic, I spent months fighting Medicaid to get a particularly hypo prone T-1 approved for a Guardian. I finally got it approved then MedT tells me that they don’t even know when they’ll be able to ship. Could be a month!
Turns out this box, and the one before it, will actually set me back 175 bucks each, not the $161 I was told it would. It seems the insurance company’s negotiation on price is only for their half of the sensors. I still have to pay half of the full retail price. So screwed yet again.
What perverted world it is where the insurance company makes the co pay and the patient pays the balance?
So now I pay $17.50 per sensor. I guess that’s a real bargain over the $45 each I paid way back when this adventure began almost two years ago. The price of being a pioneer, I suppose. If I wear the sensors as indicated it would cost $5.84 per day or $2,132 per year with insurance coverage.
posted by Wil | 6:32 AM
2 Comments:
That is messed up... they negotiate their half?! It happens if you are uninsured with "negotiated rates" for ER/or hospitalization costs. The insurer would pay about $1000, for a $3000. bill. All they offer the uninsured, if you are not totally destitute, is a payment plan for the $3000. I don't think the hospital gets free advertising or a membership fee, so why the benefit to the insuror?
If it makes you feel any better, I currently pay the equivalent of a little over $100 per sensor. Yes, you read that right, a little over ONE HUNDRED dollars per sensor.
True, I don't pay for private insurance, but I do pay A LOT of National Insurance contributions. I'm getting screwed over by my hospital, my PCT/local NHS and, to cap it all off, Medtronic as well.
It doesn't help that without the competition of Dexcom, Medtronic has the market cornered. It really won't matter to them if they can't fill sensor orders in the UK, we don't exactly have a choice to go elsewhere.
At least, not yet!
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