Blood Gluclose meter Question?

Although the One Touch system is wonderful, you do need perscription coverage for strips. If you can’t get that, then you should get a generic brand meter. You can buy them at your local pharamacy, and the strips should be about 1/5 the cost of the One Touch. The meter isn’t as fancy, but it works just as well.I hope your husband feels better.

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Check with the company who makes the meter. Some of them have programs that will help you pay for strips or even give them to you. Also ask at your local clinic & doctor’s office to see if they know of any programs to help pay for the supplies. As a fellow diabetic, I have yet to find a better “deal” than what you are getting. All the monitors are about the same price, and (free) and the strips are where they get you. I wish I could help. Your only other alternative, I suppose, is to find an insurance company that does cover the cost. I wish you luck. I havent found one, yet.

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I have seen some “generic” store brand meters at Walgreen’s and other drug store chains that may have slightly cheaper strips, but I can’t vouch for the quality. Edit: I just found this answer in a LiveJournal Diabetic community and thought I’d pass it along:The TrueTrack Smart System (made by Home Diagnostics, resold by almost every drug store under a different label) seems like what you’re looking for.I picked up mine at Walgreens for I think $18, and the strips are about $40 for 100 strips. It uses capillary action to pick up the blood, doesn’t need a huge amount (and you can visually see whether you gave it enough), and gives a reading in 10 seconds. and, it’s not too massively huge or anything. It uses a “chip in a cartridge” for coding, a new chip comes with each vial (or pair of vials if you buy 100 at a time) and you just snap it into the slot, throwing away the old chip.And it has a fairly long memory, and has an (undocumented) download port, which I just bet would work with just about any standard download cable.All in all you can’t beat it, I think. (and I know Target carries it too, I’ve bought strips there plenty of times.) if your husband is on Medicare pt. b will pay for it. Also the new pt. D will. Some churches in our community (very few) have a clinic for people who cannot afford meds or medical help. Possibly try a free clinic etc. oe talk with your doc and possibly he could talk with the pharmaceutical company who makes the meter and they could possibly sing u up on a plan they have for people who cant afford to buy them. Also call the American Diabetes Assn and they could possibly help you with it.

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Are you able to contact the person who gave you the meter? Here at our hospital, we have discharge planners that help set you up with things like that, and that person should be able to recommend a way for you to get affordable strips, or a plan on how to get affordable strips. If not, maybe the pharmacist can help recommend a way to help you out. It reminds me of the way printer manufacturers will sell the printers cheaply, and then make a bundle on the ink cartridges. Anyway, you might want to try ebay to check on the availability of the test strips for your glucose checker. Often they can be gotten less expensively there than retail. Good luck.

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If you call your insurance and ask about a meter and strips, some will tell you which they will pay for. If that happens then you can go get a meter and strips and lancets and the only thing you will have to pay for is the meter. Sorry to say but i have only heard of one kind of strips fitting that meter. Good luck .

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I’ve been a type 1 diabetic for 39 years and since glucose meters came out, I’ve used One Touch meters because all the hospitals I’ve been in used a hospital version. I’ve never found a different strip but the machine can save his life or at least extend it. He should keep his BS between 149 and 100 as much as possible. For years I had mine averaging at 110. My doctor of internal medicine asked if I was sure I was diabetic. I blame my One Touch for my excellent control. I never used the new one your hubby has, I have an Ultra Smart. Download the software for the meter from the company and you have to buy a patch cord to download the information from the meter but it’s worth it. Unfortunately, that’s how the company makes its money. It’s just a fact of life. See if you can get insurance, if you have any, to cover the cost of supplies.

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Double check with your insurance company. I thought that once, too, but the prescription has to be submitted a different way than a regular prescription (like your insulin or antibiotics). The best way that I found is mail order. The mail order company’s know how to submit it properly to the insurance company. I’ve found that the store brand meters are good enough. They are not too pricy for the meter itself, and the strips are about $10-20 cheaper for the same number. The only drawbacks are that they usually require more blood, don’t have all the bells and whistles, and occasionally are slightly less accurate then the name brands. Upside though is a ballpark figure for BS at slightly less cost. Source(s):diabetic going through insurance change