I’m on Medicare and got my current pump, a Tandem X2, in March 2023. As with virtually every pump maker, Tandem’s warranty is 4 years, meaning starting next March I’m going to be out of warranty for a whole year. Not only won’t be covered if the thing bricks–which has happened once so far–but I won’t be able to download any firmware updates that come along. Has anyone else run into this insane situation? What did you do?
ON EDIT:
Aaaaand then he answered his own question. If you bought the pump through Medicare, the warranty extends to 5 years. Which is better than the alternative tho it means you’re not eligible for a replacement for an extra year. Because Medicare is an “entitlement” but don’t go feeling all entitled about it. OTOH, if you didn’t originally get it under Medicare you are SOL.
Actually if you didn’t get your current pump on Medicare you aren’t SOL. I had gotten my pump on my employer health insurance plan a year or so before I was on Medicare. At 4 years when the warranty expired I was able to get a new one - now with a 5 year warranty under Medicare. I don’t know how the paperwork went as Minimed handled all of that.
Interesting thing was I had been on Minimed’s replacement plan that required sending the old pump back, but with this replacement they didn’t want the old one back for some reason. So now I have a backup pump if I ever need it.
Yes. This applies to other things as well. For example the Dexcom “receiver” has a 12-month warranty if bought privately but this extends to 3 years if bought through Medicare. Medicare products are better!
This should change; Medicare is moving to a “rental” model for precisely the reason you refer too:
That was identified as a big problem in, IRC, 2025; pump technology is changing so rapidly that people on Medicare end up locked into pumps that are out-of-date for years. So the model will change to “rental” I think in 2028; there’s a set of multi-year consultations, notifications and adjustment periods that have to occur. In the “rental” model we don’t ever own the pump but can drop it at any point in favor of one that is better (or, I guess, worse.)
I wasn’t able to work out the exact details of the current model. It seems to be hire-purchase, like a cellphone; we effectively lease the pump for a period of time (18 months?) after which we own it. The period of time seemed to be so short that most of the payment happens in one year but at least if the thing doesn’t work there are a few months when we can stop using it and swap to something else (or back to MDI).
Since I don’t use a Part B pump I’ve not had experience of how this works in practice. People thinking of swapping to Part B pumps might like to wait to avoid the lock-in, though Part B pumps are much much cheaper than the Omnipod.
I’ve had several Tandem pumps now, and same thing! They don’t want the old ones back when the warranty ends, they only want them back if they’re replacing it under warranty (which has happened twice for me). Thank goodness, because I pay a lot of money for them. Not fun to go back to a “dumb pump” without CIQ when a warranty replacement is on its way, but still not too bad either!
Because you bought it. If you get a replacement under warranty the warranty will only last until the end of the original pump warranty and, at that point, you own the pump. That’s actually good; you have a spare but it’s only a year or so old, so less likely to fail.
It’s perhaps less clear what happens on private insurance when we change insurance companies. What I’ve seen is that the old insurance company and the new do not talk, so procedures and devices which will only be supplied every few years become eligible immediately with the new insurance. That happened to me when I swapped from BCBSO to moda, I had to go through the “prior authorization” stuff with the new insurance but that was all. It happened when I went on to Medicare too; I could immediately get a new Dexcom G7 receiver and Edwards tried very hard to give one to me.
Not fun to go back to a “dumb pump” without CIQ when a warranty replacement is on its way, but still not too bad either!