To begin with, I goofed. I keep a spreadsheet of shipments with “Date to call” for the next one, and I missed the date to call. Forgot to put it on my calendar. It was July 25 for a G7 shipment due on July 30. Came and went. Then my supplier Advanced Diabetes Supply/Northcoast Medical sent me a message saying they would ship on August 31. Ouch!!! A month late. Three sensors down.
Over the weekend I sent an email with a pdf of their shipping document showing the previous April 28 ship date. But then called of course today, Monday. At the second level up the nice woman understood the issue immediately and rescheduled my shipment for today, August 17. So I asked what we could do about the two weeks delay time since my G7 stock was going down two sensors. And to my surprise she said “Well I am able to send you one complimentary G7.” Holy smokes! Who knew!
Moral to the story–always ask, you may be pleasantly surprised. Now I’m only down one sensor. And you can bet I will put that next call on my calendar.
When I signed up with Edwards Health Care Services for my new Medicare supply at the start of April last year the first 90 day supply was 10 G7 boxes, then they sent 9 every 90 days until a couple of months ago (around April) when the option was for 1 extra.
This could simply be because there are just over 365 days in a year, so rounding that means 37 G7s a year, not 36.
When Edwards did this I saw no indication it was a freebie; I assume they billed Medicare.
I also don’t use as much as 1 G7 every ten days. It’s not because they last longer, it’s the reverse; I have G7 failures often enough that I build up my supply through Dexcom replacements. Consequently I tend to delay the re-order to more than 90 days.
Other things to do if the supplier is not so responsive… I asked my endo about the G7-15 and said I wasn’t sure as the G7-10 didn’t reliably last 10 days. He gave me two G7-15 samples and I tried both, they each started to fail after 12 days but to be sure I ran both to 15 (along with much fingersticking of course). The result of that was I got +1 month so I delayed my first order at the start of the year by almost 2 months.
Edwards also starts pestering me a month or more before the refill date. They don’t refill until that date; they just sit on the order if I do it early. Nevertheless it’s pretty hard to ignore all the “time to refill” emails. Just like Walmart and my Omnipods and insulin.
I also get my G7s (and Mobi pump supplies) from ADS and I have never had to call them to schedule a shipment. They always text me to confirm my order and that is it. Is there a reason why your arrangement is different? Everything like this should be automatic
@funk I used to get my G6s from a civilian pharmacy provider who had them mailed (MedWell? My first Endo set it up). If memory serves, Tricare started covering CGMs as pharmacy benefit in early 2022, so I started getting CGMs thru the local DOD pharmacy, it reduced my reliance for long-term meds to a single source, cost is still $0 due to mil career. If you have a mil pharmacy near-by it may be worth your time to ask if they can access everything you need. Availability and type Medicare you have (A,B,C,D) is key. Obviously, if there’s not a benefit or cost advantage, it may not make sense for you.
That’s interesting…I moved up to the PNW in 2020 and I remember asking at the local naval hospital (where I get all my non DME prescriptions filled) if they provided CGMs. They said no so it must have been before 2022. I pay zero for them right now so not much incentive to change.
Yes, TriCare changes everything, as does Part C. In both cases the extra insurance can cover things that Medicare itself does not cover, prescription CGMs in this case. For me DME is much better firstly because I don’t believe my UHC Part D will cover the G7 and secondly because my Medigap (supplement, plan G in my case) covers everything after the Part B deductible ($257), and that is less than my endo visits.
The downside is that the provider may not do auto-fills (I have to call or go online), may not refill unless I say I have less than (IRC) one month of the G7s remaining, has to ask me if I’m still using it and has to have my endo confirm that I’ve been to a recent appointment (one every six months for CGMs IRC, 3 months for a Part B pump).