Btw:
The FDA approval is for ages 18 and older, meaning it’s not officially allowed for children.
But I am sure it is possible to get it off-label from the right pediatric endo. Although, to be clear, I would never use it instead of a Dexcom for my kid.
Dexcom Fan Club here
But - I am a big fan of competition.
Ouch, maybe a buying opportunity for DXCM?
I think so too!
Or maybe the beginning of their death spiral. Who knows… all it would take is a few of the major powerhouse insurers to cover abbot instead of Dexcom and they’d be ruined-- and abbot is a big powerful company that knows how to pull strings. Individual stocks are too risky for me.
Unfortunately - that was my thought also as in “Are we going to hear from UHC now?”
Hopefully not. Multiple companies producing good quality CGM systems benefit all the users.
Here is general info about the device:
And here is @Kenrick’s review of the most well-known third party transmitter:
The Libre, as it stands from Abbott, is not a CGM! It replaces a lancet and a hand glucose meter, not a CGM.
I wouldn’t argue that it is. I would however suggest that big pharma companies have an awful lot of ability to pull strings and influence what the standards of care are and what insurers will cover. I don’t really foresee this happening, but it certainly wouldn’t shock me
That is true for sure. But I think this is too far a reach, because it would be simply and totally false that you can replace a CGM by a Libre (unless you use 3rd party devices etc.).
Stranger arguements have been won by lobbyists
How much do Dexcom sensors cost? I don’t mean the jacked up price the insurance pays, that a person pays a co-pay off of, and then they write-down the remainder, in some confusing math mess.
I mean legitimately, out-of-pocket? Anyone here buying them on their own?
With Dexcom, I think the contracted price the insurance companies reimburse Dexcom and the price that cash paying customers pay is actually quite similar. Following are my insurance contracted prices:
G4/G5 Sensor - $80 (7 day usage). These come four to a box @ $320 / box of four sensors.
G5 Transmitter - $287 (115 day usage). These come two to an order @ $575.
G5 Receiver - $470 (durable). One. lol.
If anybody is paying cash for a substantially different price - it would certainly be interesting to hear how much different.
This likely true— the big industry secret though is that they all pay the list price but then they negotiate for the rebate that Dexcom gives them (same with every other drug/device/ product covered by insurance.). They say it costs x amount and hand that over, then they turn around and the mfg stuffs half of it back into the other pocket— these rebates are what are driving cash prices through the roof because they no longer have any legit bearing on what something actually costs… of course the rebate amounts are all confidential
Topic of frequent rants of mine
Dex says 7 days but I get 20+ on average due to restarting the sensor. Can you do that with Abbott?
Also, since it’s NFC do you only get points plotted when you scan it? Does it hold a history and then plots on every scan?
No, not with the Libre reader. With apps like xDrip you might be able to get readings for some more days.
Yes, that’s how it works.
You have to scan it every 8 hours if you don’t want to miss any data.
I thought the advantage of the Libre was supposed to be cost.
But, for Dex:
And for Libre
Since you can’t run the Libre longer, and almost everyone does run the Dex longer than 7 days, there doesn’t seem to be a big cost advantage.
Your not factoring in the transmitter. The transmitter is included in the Abbott system. With that said, they are for different audiences.
Transmitters for the dex aren’t cheap either
It is not, though - there is no transmitter in the Abbott system (unless you buy the Ambrosia BlueCon, which still does not have alarms). You have to hand-scan. You are out of luck at night. Huge differences.