Medicare did what now? test strips issue

i always make an appt before i leave. you have to walk right passed the appt making area. there is two areas one to check in and the other to check out and you have to walk by that one so its easy to make an appt. i see my cde when my endo tells me to…i see her again in a few months i think. i update her via email on whats going on, etc. so she is in the loop along with my endo. just in case i need to make an appt with her she knows whats up. i guess ill give ccs a try again for the test strips. i need to figure out how do i get them to send them and how my endo sends over the script, etc. or even my cde. she can write a script too

have you tried other pharmacies for your test strips? when i got bumped down from CVS, my endo suggested Walgreens/Duane Reed; he said that MANY of his patients were having the same problem and that the other pharmacies were still honoring the 10/day supply.

im not in nyc anymore so i cant use dueane reed anymore. we have a walgreens but they messed up my prescriptions in the past that i dont trust them anymore. plus they were rude to me. i dont care for rude ppl. i dont know why it got changed for cvs when earlier this year i was able to get the number of test strips i needed…

i still use CVS for everything else. for whatever the reason (cost, most likely), CVS changed their policy with medicare regarding test strips. personally, imho, i dont care if they are rude to me at walgreens; i am only going there to get my prescription filled. they do their job, and i have what i need. thats the end of the transaction. :persevere:

Seems like they were trying to follow official MC rules, and possibly had system updates to force it. (Having to provide doctors notes and bg logs to fill for greater quantity.)

Pharmacists are the same as any other medical professional. . . some are good and some suck! After all, that’s why I see an endo at one clinic, and a podiatrist at a different unaffiliated clinic. A good pharmacist, even more so than a physician, knows the value of the volume of business I bring as a diabetic and courts my business accordingly.

I use CVS, BUT, I don’t use the one closest to my house because the pharmacist there sucks. All my prescriptions are also filled by same CVS pharmacist. I know his schedule, only go to the pharmacy when he is working, and if on a rare occasion I don’t see his name on the slip under “filled by . . .” I hand the prescription back to the pharmacy tech.

I also don’t allow my diabetic meds and supplies to be called in, or sent electronically. Over the years I have learned there’s a big blame game between doctors offices and pharmacies. I look at the paper Rx I receive so I know, and can monitor, who is at fault if there’s an error.

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something weird happened to me this past week. we’ve been busy talking about cvs/medicare and the coverage of test strips. but i experienced something even more bizzaar : i was prescribed a medication called Xifaxan. OOP a 14 day supply (42 pills) would cost me $2,600. i had to have my doctor get pre-approval through Medicare. i really did not expect them to pay for 1 penny of it, knowing Medicare the way i do. they wont cover insulin, they may or may not cover test strips, so why on earth should they cover this particular antibiotic when there are so many others that might do the job efficiently enough.

but they did! OMG. my co-payment was $196 for the brand name drug (there is no generic in the USA) i was all ready to buy the generic from Canada (which would have come to the same price as my co-pay). but i lucked out.

anyone have a clue as to who is making the executive decisions in the Medicare offices these days? :money_mouth_face: :crazy_face::thinking:

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that is bizzaar. it seems that someone in medicare doesnt understand how we are and what we need, etc. right now im having an issue in getting a prescription filled that ive been trying since dec and gave up in may and now we are trying again and still cant get it filled. its not like there are any other options for me to take. and this is the generic brand too. im wanting to see how much it will be to buy it from canada…im not sure to even find out

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best (and cheapest) Canadian pharmacy i have dealt with:

RX COUNTER (Canadian Pharmacy) in BC
phone: 877 292 0545 customer service
FAX: 855 882 9307
Pharmacy : 604 275 3279

hope this helps and best of luck; fingers crossed :crossed_fingers::pray:

Daisy Mae

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thanks for the info…ill give a call on tueday when im not overwhelmed with the phone calls. i made a few and a bit overwhelmed

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