Patients have a very hard time navigating the world of medical supplies and medications. Frankly, physicians do as well. We went to school to be doctors and help people, not navigate insurance contracts. Nothing frustrates us more than to prescribe a regimen we know will help someone and then get a phone call saying that isn't possible for financial/insurance purposes. Happens all the time.
To combat this, I've started doing some of my own research to find ways to keep things affordable for patients. My love for generic medications and the $4 list is well documented. Today, I'm going to lay out an extremely affordable strategy for someone that has just been diagnosed with diabetes. There are a few assumptions I make, but the strategy is fairly generalizable to most new diabetics and involves only two different stores that most folks have within driving distance of their homes, Wal-Mart and Publix, as well as Amazon. I've broken this down into three parts.
Medications
The mainstay of therapy for new diabetics is a medication called metformin. The vast majority of folks will be started on this and will be controlled well for some time. Publix has this medication for FREE. Yes, that's right. $0. Make sure your prescription gets sent to Publix, or you just get the paper prescription to take it yourself.
Total Cost: $0
Diabetic Supplies
The main supplies required for a new diabetic are the items needed to test your blood sugar. If you are just taking oral medications, then your doctor will typically tell you to test your sugar daily in the morning and as needed. To do this, you must have a glucose meter, test strips, lancets, and alcohol wipes. The key to understanding how to price these items lies in the test strips. There are tons of different brands of glucose meters. All have corresponding test strips that ONLY work with that particular brand of glucose meter. Many companies will heavily discount the meter itself to lure you in and then charge crazy prices for the test strips. Never buy a glucose meter without knowing the test strip cost because that is what you will be continually buying every few months.
The cheapest, most convenient option here is the basic Wal-Mart brand. Here are the links and relevant prices:
ReliOn Prime Blood Glucose Monitoring System: $16.24
ReliOn Prime Blood Glucose Test Strips(100 count): $17.88
ReliOn Lancing Device: $5.84
ReliOn 33G Micro Thin Lancets(100 count): $3.74
Curad Alcohol Swabs Antiseptic Wipes(200 count): $4.66
One Time Cost (Meter + Lancing Device): $22.08
Ongoing Yearly Cost: $87.42
Labs
Besides your regular blood sugar tests, your physician will likely see you about once per quarter to check your Hemoglobin A1c (A1c for short). Current American Diabetes Association guidelines suggest to have the A1c checked every six months if under good control or quarterly if not controlled. Your A1c is a measure of what your average blood sugar has been over the prior quarter and is used to help determine if your diabetes is under control. I don't know about you, but labs can be downright expensive, even with insurance. Wal-Mart has come through here again with an at home test that you do yourself and send off. There are tests that give you instant results as well for a bit more money.
Reli-On A1c Test: $8.98
Yearly Cost (assuming 4 checks per year): $35.92
If you're keeping track, here are the totals for initial investment and ongoing yearly costs:
Initial Investment: $22.08
Ongoing Yearly Costs (averaged over 365 days): $123.34
There you have it. Diabetic supplies, medication, and necessary labs for an up front cost of about $20 and ongoing yearly cost around $125. No insurance involved. When you think about how this doesn't even touch the average deductible, its pretty amazing to me that more people don't do something like this. You wouldn't drop $50,000 on a car when your neighbor got it for $5,000. Don't treat health care any differently.
*All figures are as displayed online and do not include applicable taxes or shipping and handling fees.
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