Test Strips - Get them by prescription!

[jdog]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but tonight when I stopped by the drug store to pick up another month of test strips for my Contour meter, I was shocked to see the difference.

Of course, the 'script wasn't ready, even though they called. How hard can it be to put a label on a box anyway. The pharmacist seemed puzzled, saying he hope he had them in stock. I pointed to the shelf to show him where they were.

The box of 100 test strips had a shelf price of $119.99, and when he ran the prescription through, my cost was $18.12, or 16.2% of the shelf price. INCREDIBLE.

I'm wondering if this is like phone calls. Remember 15-20 years ago, that long distance phone calls were almost a buck a minute, now a penny a minute seems high. I'm hoping in the future that that the cost of strips will be uniform for everyone.

Diabetes is a daily condition, and monitoring is one of the best weapons we have to control and fight it. We need to have the monitoring tools at a reasonable cost so that all of us don't have to think twice about testing more if we need it.

Sorry, just had to relate my story and vent a bit.

jdog

[Doodle]

Boy, I hear you on that. I was quite shocked at how expensive the test strips were when I was first diagnosed. I got lucky, though, and I'm able to get my test strips through my sister-in-law's friend and I get them for free. She just gave me 80 test strips and told me to let her know when I need more.

[sarahspins]

I think we'll eventually get to the point where they're free with an RX, and retail pricing dropping to about 10¢ a strip ($10 for 100). Compared to 10 years ago, when ALL of the brands were well over $1 per strip, things have improved a lot - there are several brands that around around $40/100, which is better than it used to be.

[foxl]

I think we'll eventually get to the point where they're free with an RX, and retail pricing dropping to about 10¢ a strip ($10 for 100). Compared to 10 years ago, when ALL of the brands were well over $1 per strip, things have improved a lot - there are several brands that around around $40/100, which is better than it used to be.

Not if they have to improve quality control to give better accuracy ... ;)

But it is kinda like phone calls -- there is competition, but I do suspect there is also some price-fixing going on!

[art]

at over $1.00 each do you think we'll see the bloodless meter anytime soon?

Just cynical me.

Art

[suedivan]

I get test strips for my Contour meter in two ways. I get some through my pharmacy which are paid for 100% through my insurance. But, I only get enough to test 4 times per day. I was diagnosed about three months ago and I am in that phase where I am trying to test a lot more frequently so I can learn how different foods affect my BG levels. My doctor agrees that I should be doing this, but getting my insurance company to go along with additional testing is much more of a hassle. So, I decided I would just bite the bullet and pay for the extra test strips myself. If I bought them through my pharmacy, they would be around $115 for a 100 strip box. I did some looking around on the Internet and I am now buying my extra strips through Amazon.com. I just ordered a 100 strip box for $38.50 and got free shipping. That still isn't cheap, but it is better than what I would be able to get at the pharmacy and it allows me to test as much as I feel is warranted without having to worry about running out of strips.

Cynthia

[foxl]

at over $1.00 each do you think we'll see the bloodless meter anytime soon?

Just cynical me.

Art

Art we still could if it has some other disposable part they can soak us for!

[inkvisitor]

Yeah, I get as many as I need for $20/month through insurance.

Does anyone remember what they cost say, ten, twenty years ago? I can't remember. I have a feeling since this is a cash cow, we won't see any relief except for generics.

[buddy7]

You can see where they're coming from, some company literary give the meter away free, but the test cost the earth to buy. Are we being rip off or what?

[eskimo]

Once again, with the Breeze2 system, my insurance copay is $25. Then Bayer further discounts them by $20 so my final copay is $5.

[sarahspins]

Does anyone remember what they cost say, ten, twenty years ago? I can't remember. I have a feeling since this is a cash cow, we won't see any relief except for generics.

When I was first diagnosed (2000) they weren't any cheaper an there were very few low-cost options. The store brand meters were still around $75-80 for a box of $100 strips, only about $20-25 less than the name brands.

I didn't have insurance when I was first diagnosed, so I tested as much as I could afford to.. I'd often buy boxes of 25 because that's all I could buy at once.

[SteveFromIowa]

Received in the mail yesterday my 3-Month supply of 700 One-Touch Ultra 2 strips for two monthly co-pays totaling $70 making my contribution 7 cents per strip.

From the sounds of it, that makes me fairly fortunate.

Since we have this huge health care debate going on in the USA, I'm curious what our international friends are paying and what monthly limits exist for test strips under other systems. ??

[jer.lawrence]

Do many people buy online? Amazon has a deal going through DAB Nutrition right now (seems like an odd site, but has a 96% positive out of over 80,000 ratings) for 50 One Touch test strips for like $28.

That's awesome. I pay full price out of my HSA for the test strips and so don't see the lower prices -- I feel like cutting costs should help a little. How are sites like this, though?

[Subby]

Since we have this huge health care debate going on in the USA, I'm curious what our international friends are paying and what monthly limits exist for test strips under other systems. ??

Steve, to answer your question, we have ours heavily subsidised under a universal fund called National Diabetes Supply Scheme (universal for all diabetics, that is) which means that 50 strips come in at around $7.50 Au ($6.40 US), and below $1 for pensioners or veterans.

Some years ago, I did receive letters from the NDSS asking about high strip usage when it became clear from their records I was using 10+ a day. It requested a justification from the doctor, which I gave, and no problems.

These days this cap seems to have changed and it seems the limit is a threshold of 4 boxes, or 200, brought in any given transaction/week. I assume they would be on your case if you got more than that, and really the only reason could be excessive hording or buying for a number of other people (who should just apply themselves), or some other unsavory reason, etc.

[Ti-Jae]

Do many people buy online? Amazon has a deal going through DAB Nutrition right now (seems like an odd site, but has a 96% positive out of over 80,000 ratings) for 50 One Touch test strips for like $28.

When I was first diagnosed, I didn't have any insurance. I was given a Contour meter at the hospital and found a website called American Diabetes Wholesale where I could buy strips for a better price than Walmart, which was the cheapest local pharmacy that I could find. I don't know if the same is true for all the strips ADW offers, but it certainly helped me. It's also where I bought my multiclix lancer because I didn't care for the one that came with my meter. I've ordered from them several times and never had any issues receiving my orders or with the products themselves. (Else I wouldn't mention them.)

100 strips at ADW: $57.30 + shipping VS. 50 at Walmart: $58.33
50 at ADW: $28.65 + shipping VS. 25 at Walmart: $28.87

I haven't bought any OneTouch strips to date. I have an UltraMini that's a backup meter, but it came with 10 strips, and I've not gone through them all yet.