7 Steps to Uninterrupted Diabetes Supplies

HELP US HELP YOU!

Insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor supplies are essential to managing diabetes.

Help us help you by considering the following information to reduce the possibility that your supplies are interrupted!

Diabetes educator showing how to get uninterrupted dibetes supplies.
1. Ensure that you have regular visits with your health-care provider.

You are responsible for having regularly scheduled provider visits to get ongoing pump and CGM supplies. Missed or infrequent visits can result in our staff not having required documentation for you to get your supplies authorized based on your insurance requirements. Notes from your visits take 2 business days before they are available to send. Please note that research, lab only, and education visits do not count for these requirements.*

Insurance Requirements

Medicare/Tricare – Pump Supplies

Must have a visit every 90 days

Medicare/Tricare – CGM Supplies

Must have a visit every 6 months

Idaho Medicaid – Pump and CGM Supplies

Must have a visit every 6 months

Private Insurance Plans

Varies but must have a visit at least twice per year

2. Bring and upload your pump, CGM, and/or meter at every visit!

We are often asked for blood sugar reports by your insurance to recertify you to get additional testing, pump, and/or CGM supplies. We can’t send what we don’t have.

3. Don’t wait until you are out of supplies to place your orders!

You are responsible for calling your supplier to order pump and/or CGM supplies. Know your insurance requirements. Some insurance plans require insurance approval for every order and others only require it once a year. Some insurances allow you to set-up an automatic shipment or reminder service which can make this easier. We send documents and signed medical necessity forms to the distributors of the products when they request them from us.

TIP:

mark calendar.

How Soon Can I Reorder?

Check your packing slip that comes with your orders. The ship date listed is the “date of service” for those items and lets you know when you can order again (30 days or 90 days from that date depending on your insurer).

Put a reminder on your calendar or smart device to remind you a week early to call and place an order. Sign up for text reminders from suppliers that offer this.

4. You can get replacements for supplies that fail.

If you have a failed pump infusion set or sensor, call the manufacturer to troubleshoot and obtain replacements for your failed item. Ideally, you should call when the failure happens and not wait until later. This will reduce the chance of running out before you can order more. It’s important to note that your insurance will NOT cover failures of any kind.

TIP:

store diabetes insurance phone numbers in your phone.

Store the helpline numbers for your device(s) on your smartphone making it easy to call when you have an issue.

5. Notify us and your suppliers of any insurance plan changes.
Different insurance plans often change who you can get your supplies from. By letting the current suppliers know of any changes, they can tell you if you can still get your pump/CGM supplies through them. If your current supplier is “out of network” for your new or updated plan, not telling them about the new insurance can result in the supplies being a much higher price or not covered at all. Also, if you know your insurance is changing at the beginning of the year, please let our device coordinators know as soon as possible so that we can start the process of getting you switched over to another distributor if needed.
6. Respond to phone calls or messages left by your supplier.
Make sure you check your voicemail messages. Many insurances (especially Medicare and Medicaid) require your verbal confirmation to ship an order.
7. Please respond to calls/messages from our care coordinators that handle paperwork and authorization for your supplies.
We need to reach out to you if we are missing items needed to get your supplies reauthorized. This could include for blood sugar logs, CGM/pump downloads, or even scheduling a more recent provider visit. They will make 2 requests via phone. If there is no response, they will not continue to pursue the request until you contact them. We realize how frustrating this can be. If we work together, it will make things much easier for all of us.

 

Office Contacts

Device Care Coordinator:

Christine: 208-523-1122 Ext 525

Care Manager:

Chelsey: 208-241-3291

View all 7 Steps/Tips

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