Fifty small plastic stripes. One small box. A price tag that delivers a punch to the gut each and every time.
You already know what this is all about Diabetic Test Strip Relief, because you have stood at a pharmacy counter and been performing silent, desperate calculations in your mind, strips vs. groceries, strips vs. rent. Diabetes is relentless. Its generated bills are even worse.
The Number That Should Embarrass Everybody.
One box of 50 test strips costs between 80 and 120 without insurance. Test four times a day, as most doctors advise and that box is in less than two weeks. Add that up to the end of December and you are out of pocket 3,000. Maybe more.
Three thousand dollars. To check up on your own body. This was not a request made by a body.
In the meantime the strips themselves are pennies to make. The markup is possible since it can be. And because the majority of patients do not know that there is any other way.
It is also possible to do it another way. Several, actually.
Copay Cards: The Coupon No-One Told You.
Walk to the websites of OneTouch, Accu-Chek, or FreeStyle right now. Search for “savings card” or “copay assistance.” What you will have are programs that will limit your monthly strip price – in some instances to 15 dollars, in others to less – no matter the box says at the pharmacy counter.
Such programs are not secretive per se. They simply are not marketed the same as the promotion of a new meter launch. The brands have a financial incentive to you paying at full price. But these programs were created in the face of competitive pressure, and they are there, waiting to be used.
Hundreds of dollars a year could be saved by ten minutes of clicking. It is difficult to dispute that ratio.
ReliOn Strips: Cheap, Unsexy, Effective.
Nobody puts ReliOn on a magazine cover. No smooth marketing campaign, no professional athlete, no slick packaging. Walmart has the basic meter that takes only $9 to 50 strips.
That’s not a typo. Nine dollars.
The strips work. The meter works. Unless brand loyalty is a medical requirement to you (and in most cases, it is not), perhaps the easiest method of ceasing to hemorrhage money on supplies is to switch to ReliOn. Individuals that switch usually question themselves why they have taken so long to do so.
Make One Call to Your Insurance and Ask Them a Question.
Which are the test strips that have the lowest-ranking on my formulary?
That’s it. That’s the question. You can make whatever name they assign to you, and take it to your doctor and request that they change your prescription.