Mike Hoskins of DiabetesMine just posted: Stuck Waiting for Medicare CGM Access, about the saga of Medicare coverage (or not) of CGM, ever since their ruling to cover CGM was announced on 12 January 2017. It’s been a rocky roller coaster for all Medicare-covered T1s trying to order their Dexcom G5 supplies. And the end is not in sight.
He cited my posts on this topic:
Another PWD caught up in this is our D-blogging friend Joanne Milo in California who writes at The Savvy Diabetic and has shed some light on a new ruling on this Medicare CGM coverage issue recently.
“The new article indicates that if Medicare beneficiaries use their Dexcom G5 with a smart phone, even if such use is in addition to using the receiver that comes with the Dexcom G5 system, all the CGM supplies will be non-covered,” she writes. “…This novel restriction appears to be designed to ensure that the only CGM that is covered by Medicare will not be covered for those individuals who use it to its full functionality to monitor their glucose levels.”
Read more: Stuck Waiting for Medicare CGM Access
So Dexcom-M5 version? The M meaning Medicare, with special dumbing down of the system? I can understand not making Medicare buy iPhones for everyone. But I can not understand some thoughtless person figuring out this rule.
For me the best regulation should be, Medicare will not buy iPhones or devices used for texting, emailing, or calling another person place or thing. See how my two degrees in government management come in handy sometimes?
I’ll be starting my last G5 transmitter the first week of July. Will contact Dexcom at that time and start process to get a G4 System w/Share.
I don’t have a warm fuzzy that CMS will get things ironed out to make the G5s available for us anytime soon.
Still makes me very mad that I can no longer purchase the G5 products directly (like I have been doing for 2+ years) now that CMS/Medicare has approved the G5 for our use.
Damn political bureaucracy to say the least.
Oh well … another day with T1D/CGM/CMS/Medicare … Sigh!!
I couldn’t agree with you more … it’s not looking great.
Hi Joanne,
Well its mid-July, and my wife is STILL waiting for her CMS Approved CGM device. On 3/24/17 – CMS announced formal approval of the Dexcom G5. Three days later, 3/27/17 my wife’s Endo sent an order to the local Dexcom Sales Rep so my wife could have this needed device. Now 4 months later, she still can’t get a G5 because of Dexcom’s management fiasco in choosing a third party supplier (Liberty Medical) to distribute THEIR medically approved device. What a way to run a railroad as the saying goes. In the interim, my DW has ongoing episodes of unaware hypoglycemia. If I weren’t close by to check on her, she most likely would be in an ICU in diabetic coma, and CMS would be paying out more money in hospitalization costs.
I see people on Medicare complaining about not being able to use a smart phone with their device, but I don’t even care about using a dumb phone as I like to call them because I’m old school. I absolutely hate using cell phones because to me they cause more trouble than they are worth. They cause accidents, hackers can steal your identity, thugs mug people to steal one, and having one costs so much money in fees alone. But, the young folks today love, and absoulely have to them, and are constantly scrolling everywhere you go. They can’t live life without them! Oh how life was so much simpler before cell phones. JMO!
Lastly, yesterday, we were informed by Dexcom hopefully by the EOM she may receive one? LOL! So I want to personally THANK DEXCOM for their great concern in getting an approved life saving device out to the patients that REALLY need a CGM. – NOT!
Totally NOT! I’m disappointed in them as a company. I got a call this morning from my doctor’s PA for help in filling out yet another Medicare form for CGM. The question she didn’t know how to answer: How many shots of insulin do I take every day? WHAT?!?!? I wish I could talk to the folks at Medicare and help them actually understand living with diabetes and what we do.