I’ve been working for a particular company as a dispatcher for over 6 years. The pay is okay, but one of the things that has kept me working there is that all diabetes stuff so far has been FREE of any copays thanks to a special program!
Well, due to increasing healthcare costs, effective 1/1/2023 we will now be responsible for standard copays for EVERYTHING!
TOTALLY Sucks!
Right now I’m on:
Ozemic
Fiasp pens for bolusing
Novolog for insulin delivery via Omnipod 5
Dexcom G6
All of that used to be free! Now I have a $45/115 copay for either 30 or 90 day supply EACH! Ouch!
I’ve done some research and Ozempic seems to have a copay card bringing it down to $25 for 90 day supply
Fiasp and Novolog seem to have a copay card for $25/each/monthly
But I can’t find anything for Dexcom G6 nor Omnipod 5.
If anyone knows of any programs or copay assistance grants or anything, I’m all ears!
Sorry I have no help to offer as far as assistance programs go, but I am wondering about the bolusing with the Fiasp pen. Is there a reason you don’t just bolus with the Omnipod 5? If you were able to do that you could potentially remove an entire prescription co-pay from your cost calculations.
If you aren’t bolusing with the Omnipod because that will exhaust the pod reservoir before the 72 hours are up, it seems like you could still work with your care team to get the number of pods you actually need covered. Since the prescription co-pay covers a 30/90 day supply, if your doctor determines that you need a new pod every 2 days, then you might be able to get the full amount of pods you need for the time period covered. (I know that probably won’t be as simple as just saying it, since there is an assumption in the calculations that a pod lasts for 3 days, but hopefully if you push hard enough and have a doctor willing to push with you, you might be able to get an exception.)
They both have different terms which may/may not be current that are posted on their respective websites. Personally I have had very good luck just calling and asking. Sometimes there are ancillary programs available that are not listed.
Man I hear you loud and clear. At the moment we are very fortunate with our insurance situation. I work in public education, in KY and that means I’m a state employee. Thankfully they offer a plan for people with chronic conditions. $0 copay/co-insurance for anything related to diabetes including all of the OTC supplies. I am dreading the day they decide this isn’t as cost effective as they had predicted. I’m sorry you are already looking at this situation.
I’d start contacting DEXCOM and Omnipod for every sensor/pod that didn’t function the full time. Dexcom is easy (but time consuming) to figure out but just look through whichever software you use to track data have them send a replacement for those failed devices. Personally, I’ve gone back 90 days and haven’t had an issue getting replacements.