When Do You Need A Prescription for Diabetic Test Strips?

Whether or not you need a prescription to purchase diabetic test strips depends on one thing. Read this article to find out how it all works.

If you’re one of the 29 million Americans living with diabetes, you likely have a lot of questions about how to get the medication you need. We’re sure you also have questions about how you can keep the costs of supplies, test strips, lancets, and hospital visits down. Even if you’re working out and taking care of yourself, you may feel like you can’t do much to fight back against the rising costs of life with diabetes. In this post, we’ll talk about whether or not you need a prescription to get diabetic test strips.

We’ll also talk about how the cost of diabetes is different for the insured and the uninsured diabetes patient. No matter what your coverage is like, it’s always a smart idea to look for bargains, ways to save, and ways to make back some of the money you’ve spent on diabetic test strips. Read this post to learn how to save better.

The Costs Of Diabetes: Insured vs. Uninsured

There’s no getting around it: life with diabetes is costly. In fact, recent figures show that the average yearly cost for one person living with diabetes is about $13,700. Unfortunately, that same study showed that those without health insurance who are living with a diabetes diagnosis get 68% fewer prescriptions, and 79% fewer doctor visits, than those that are insured.

Though most states have made sure insurance companies are required to cover medical costs and supplies, you still have to do a good amount of work to get certain things covered by your plan. You may even have to write them letters just to make back a small portion of what you spend on supplies like diabetic test strips. In some cases, Medicare and Medicaid will also reimburse you for the costs of certain supplies. But not always.

Is A Prescription Required For Diabetic Test Strips?

Here’s the short answer:

If you want your insurance company to reimburse you for the costs of your diabetic test strips, then yes, you will need a prescription. However, that doesn’t mean you can just get any brand of diabetic test strips you like. Instead, you’ll have to make sure you’ve chosen diabetic test strips that your insurance company will cover. If you choose another brand, your co-pay will likely by much higher.

Also, if you want your insurance company to cover your strips, you’ll have to get an exact prescription for the number of strips you will use each day for the length of your prescription. The number of refills you’re allowed to have covered will also depend on your insurance company. If you don’t want your insurance plan to cover your diabetic test strips, then you do not have to have a prescription. The reality is that, whether or not you’re insured, you’ll likely incur a high cost of diabetes supplies and medications that will come out of your own pocket.

The Limits Of Coverage

Many patients with diabetes go into their own pockets to cover the costs of living with diabetes. If you’re one of them, you may have noticed that its difficult to get reimbursed by your insurance company. Plus, you may have started to see an increase in co-pays and even higher deductibles on your insurance plan when you were diagnosed with diabetes.

Why is this happening? Some insurance companies will claim that there’s not enough evidence for frequent blood sugar level testing to take place for those with Type Two Diabetes. Also, today people change their healthcare plans fairly often. That means that many insurance plans don’t want to cover your diabetic test strips because they’re afraid that doing so won’t be “worth it” to them.

Not testing as often as you need to, or as your doctor instructed, really isn’t a safe option. So, what can you do?

Ways To Save On Test Strips

Luckily, there are ways to keep costs down on your diabetic test strips that don’t rely on your insurance company – and can help you lower the out of pocket costs if you’re uninsured. If you take a look in your medicine cabinet, you may notice that you have extra test strips that haven’t expired, but that you likely won’t get to use before they do. It could be because you don’t test as often, you’re on the road to recovery, or simply that you over-ordered.

Trust us: if you don’t need your testing strips, there are lots of people out there who do.

Instead of losing money and wasting valuable supplies, what if you could make back a good portion of what you spent? Good news: you can.

Sell Your Unused Test Strips

All you have to do is sell your unused test strips to a professional strip buyer and you can get cash back from them in as little as one day from the receipt of the strips. Of course, if there’s a selling side, there’s a buying side, too!

Buy Unused Test Strips From A Buyer

If you’re not covered by insurance, or if you’re tired of spending hours on the phone with your company trying to get reimbursed for your diabetic test strips, listen up. Working with a buyer means you’ll get the supplies you need to keep you feeling your best – without paying a markup. Sometimes, these same buyers will even give out extra strips free of charge at local diabetes clinics, to help those who cannot afford their supplies.

Skip The Prescription, And Save On Diabetic Test Strips

We know that life with diabetes can sometimes be tough emotionally, physically, and financially. We want to help you keep costs down, so you can have peace of mind and body.

Stop fighting with your insurance company and constantly trying to figure out what your plan covers. Instead, cut out the middleman and get strips when you need them – not when your insurance plan says you can have them.