I have a question about getting pump and Dexcom supplies…
I have used both Edgepark and Byram Healthcare to get supplies. They ship to me, they bill my insurance company, the insurance company pays a portion, and then the supplier bills me for the remaining amount.
All sounds good…except that sometimes dealing with those suppliers sucks. Like when they don’t ship on time, or don’t notify you of something.
Anyway, I think you can just go straight through Insulet to get your stuff in the same way, instead of . And also I believe you can go straight through Dexcom.
Is it easier to deal directly with Insulet and Dexcom to get the stuff? Are there any issues I should be aware of?
We deal directly with Insulet for our PODS, and Edgepark is the “preferred” provider for our Dexcom supplies. We’ve never tried bypassing Edgepark and going directly through Dexcom for our Dexcom supplies? I guess, for insurance reasons we only assumed we had to follow their procedures?
Working with Insulet is extremely easy. They have been great, they let us carry a balance and they replace everything with no questions asked. Working with them is the standard, imo, for how companies should work with customers.
We were getting our Dexcom supplies through Byram.
They aggravated me on a call so I hung up and called Dexcom. Asked if they worked with our insurance. They said yes. We are now ordering direct from Dexcom. I like this MUCH better.
Figured I would try the same thing with Tandem. I called Tandem but they do not work with our insurance. So we continue to go through a different distributor (CCS Medical) for our Tandem supplies.
EDIT: I saw the notes about balances in previous comments. For Dexcom, I gave them a credit card number to keep on file. This allows auto-orders to process with my portion of the payment being auto billed to my credit card. Makes it really easy.
The auto order can still be wrong so I have to stay on top of it. The last sensor re-order from Dexcom, when I went to call them, the sensor reorder had already been auto-initiated the day before so that was great. But the reorder date on the transmitters was wrong so somebody (Dexcom Customer Support) had to manually correct the reorder date then put the order in. They said the next transmitter reorder should go through automatically on the proper date.
I think it depends on what arrangement your dme supplier has with the company—- eg with Dexcom I deal only directly with Dexcom for orders. But then they send the bill to carecentrix, who then sends me the remainder of the bill… I could not order through carecentrix even if I wanted to, and Dexcom can’t deal with me regarding the billing…
I used to deal directly with both Dexcom and Insulet, but for the last four years or so I’ve had to go through suppliers.
Edgepark would have been fine but their system is not configured to handle two insurance policies so I’d have to call them over and over and over to get them to correctly submit my claims in order to avoid getting bills two years later when they finally got around to auditing…at which point I’d be out of luck for reimbursement through my HRA. They were real jackasses in that process. I do not say that lightly. They earned that assessment. I loved breaking up with them. And the extra 17 times I had to break up with them because they would not stop calling me.
Today, I use a different supplier than Edgepark since I now have a choice.
Insulet was always fine to work with directly. They screwed a couple things up here and there, but nothing was insurmountable. They were always nice about it.
Dexcom tended to be the best to work with directly, if I remember correctly.
I get my medtronic pump supplies and dexcom from Byram, for last 5-6 years. No issues. I use their online site to reorder. But today I called and wanted to make sure I got my last order for this year in system by year end. With the 90 day rule and year end holiday, wasn’t sure what date it should be entered. So in this case, i talked with Byram rep, and she set it up to process and ship the right dates for insurance to cover, and best shot at it being completed before year end.
In past I had one Byram billing error, but that was due to error in my insurance not reporting correctly that I had met deductible. So Byram was overcharging me. But it was resolved quickly.
However, my best experience was with Foundation Care when Dex and pump were covered as pharmacy co-pays. I miss those days. FC can’t process as DME.
I get both my Dex and POD supplies directly from Dexcom and Insulet. Aside from a few recent issues with Dexcom customer service since they launched the G6 (that appear to be pretty common), I’ve been very satisfied with both companies).
I don’t have experience getting Dexcom supplies from any supplier, since all three I tried to work with (Byram, Edgepark, and Pumps it) couldn’t figure out my insurance coverage…but I have had other medical equipment ordered through Byram come 3 months late (when I had assumed my tired mom brain just hadn’t completed the order), with no warning, no contact in advance informing me my insurance wouldn’t cover it, etc. I didn’t even need it anymore by then…
EH didn’t use the Dex for years because of how sucky Byram Health was. So, for us, way way way better with Dexcom directly. The customer service is 100x better.
Dealing with Insulet has been better also. We had lots of hoops at first with their preferred provider of pump supplies here in California. But this year we go directly though them and stuff tends to show up.
With both companies I wish there was a little more forewarning they were shipping AND I HATE that it’s not signature required for delivery. Our UPS/FedEx guy will leave it on the front porch for anyone to steal. We’ve been lucky so far but I’m sure that won’t hold. If they required a signature it wouldn’t be left baking in the sun or soaking in the rain.
I have registered with UPS for location of delivery but that does nothing.
I have ordered Dexcom supplies both directly from Dexcom (when I self funded) and from Edgepark (after my insurer decided to cover the CGM). The difference is like night and day in terms of attention to detail, communication of order status, resolution of red tape, etc. with Edgepark flunking badly on all counts. The Edgepark people I dealt with on the phone were 100% friendly and seemed to want to resolve issues, but I got the sense that their hands were tied by working for a lame poorly managed company. The late billing issue you had is typical, I had a similar issue last year.
The main issue to watch out for is whether your insurer allows ordering direct from Dexcom as a part of the DME network. Mine does not so I was stuck with Edgepark, which was the only in network DME supplier available to me from my insurance. One of the problems I had with Edgepark was their markup on prices, in excess of 200%, which was reflected in my 20% copay being more than double what (I believed) it should have been. If money were no object, I would order direct from Dexcom forever based on their vastly superior customer service and Edgepark’s pricing but because of reimbursement issues with insurance I was stuck with Edgepark.
My last order with Edgepark was 11/12/18 and was held up by a renewal of a pre authorization from the insurer. It was like the Keystone Cops trying to get that done, with faxes going to the wrong fax #, approvals sent to Edgepark that somehow got lost there, customer service reps passing the buck to others, callbacks from supervisors that never happened, etc. This dragged on for over a month. Repeated long phone conversations with the insurer and documentation of Edgepark inadequacies finally resolved the situation for me. My insurer agreed that Edgepark was not capable of fulfilling their contract to supply me with DME and allowed me to order Dexcom supplies from my local pharmacy. I am partly into that experiment (waiting for my first order) and hope to settle into a routine with my friendly local pharmacy for all of 2019.
I have not seen the foam cooler used for Dexcom but have noted that temperature specs for storage of the Dexcom sensors are noted on the box, 36 to 77 degrees F. Maybe that’s why they’re doing it?
