Wednesday, March 18, 2015

MedEQUIP partially reedems itself; Dexcom comes down a peg

I blame my insurance for not being cool and amazing and doing all it can to make life easy for someone with a chronic illness. Let me explain. My insurance doesn't allow for automatic refills (ie: they just autosend you your supplies every three months). I was getting auto refills when on the AMAZING MASSHEALTH PLAN that will live on in my heart and mind as the single best plan I have ever been on. They checked the insurance every month and shipped me supplies if all checked out. The other time I had auto refills was on Kaiser. They did NOT check my coverage for changes before shipping the supplies, and I ended up with a $780 bill (of course I disputed it and WON, because I am the dispute mistress!).

So this insurance plan, which is amazing in almost every way--trust me, I read through the Benefits document front to back, doesn't allow for automatic refills. They require that you call the company (or the company calls you, before shipping out the supplies. This would be fine if the company did it (they are, after all, making money off of this service). I'm less likely to remember to refill my supplies on a regular basis and end up running out and going without a sensor, or worse, without pump supplies, until the new supplies arrive. I'm sure this is why the insurance company does it: to save money when people like me forget to refill regularly.

I was SO FRUSTRATED with MedEQUIP for not calling me when my supplies were up for refill. It happened many times, and they always CLAIMED that they did call me. Uh, in that case, there would be a missed call on my phone, and anyways don't just call once!

Pro tip: Type 1 diabetes DOES NOT GO AWAY. I will always need insulin and supplies. Why the eff do I have to continually deal with refills? There should be an exception when it comes to chronic illnesses.

Anywho, I went through this whole thing where I switched my CGM supplies ordering to Dexcom. They assured me that they would call me every 3 months to get my refill authorization. They have a vested interest in getting more products out the door, right?

I trusted them, but ONCE AGAIN found myself out of sensors, right before heading to Boston for a long weekend. This was not going to be good. I called Dexcom to ask "What the hell?" and the ordering department told me, "Oh, no, we don't call customers to refill orders. We have a lot of customers! We do have an auto-refill program."

SO, who did I have to turn to for last-minute sensors? That's right, MedEQUIP. I called and begged them to refill my sensors right away, as I was heading to the airport and had literally 15 minutes to spare. They totally came through! I swung by the office and grabbed the sensors, and made it in time for my flight. Still, I will stick with Dexcom, just knowing that I will have to call my sensor order in every three months (MedEQUIP would make me do it every month). Dexcom also sent me two free sensors to make up for the loss in my overflow. But, I will no longer shake my fist angrily every time I drive by the MedEQUIP office.

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