How to Lower Expenses for Diabetes Medication Management
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Diabetes medication management is expensive, but there are things you can do to lower your expenses.
Right now one in ten people in the U.S. have diabetes. If the trend continues as it has been going, in 2050 one in three people in the U.S. will have it. That's mind boggling. Another fact: diabetics spent twice as much for diabetes medications in 2007 as in 2001. That does not include medications for the other things that go along with diabetes, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
That means type 2 medication treatment is big business. But the saddest fact is it's estimated that only 25% of diabetics are getting the treatment they need, and the biggest reason is the expense.
There Are Things You Can Do About That
First you need to know you can fight diabetes with lifestyle changes. People have proven it when they began to exercise and educate themselves about better eating habits and change bad ones. If they smoked, they quit. Those three things can remove you from a prediabetes status, or put you in a category of controlling diabetes with diet and exercise. It's the only true diabetes cure right now.
And it's basically free. If you need help with exercise, a gym membership is much cheaper than diabetes medications, and so is the Wii if you like that kind of thing. You can run, walk, step, dance, play tennis and go bowling, among other things.
And if you need medications, there are things you can do to save money. New kinds of diabetes medication are coming out thick and fast. The problem is that most of them are just new versions of old medications. And studies so far are showing that the older drugs are just as effective as the new ones, and some of them have fewer side effects too.
The great advantage of older drugs is that they have become generic. Generic is the least expensive form of a prescription medication. And places like Walmart have put some of them on their $4 prescription list, making them the bargain of the prescription world. An example is metformin, a widely prescribed drug for type 2 diabetes treatment.
Some pharmacies are providing free generic diabetes medication. Shoprite, Pricechopper, Meijer and Publix are the ones I checked on. They seem to be hoping this will give them a competitive edge, but the offers are legitimate and require nothing except a prescription.
Free glucose meters are available too. But be cautious about free meters from pharmacies that offer them with a rebate. Rebates are notoriously slow to return, and some never do. In my experience it's better to get a free meter directly from a major company like Bayer or OneTouch than a generic one with a rebate. Make sure you check into what you're going to get.
Another way to save money on diabetic supplies is to look for clinical trials. Universities, hospitals and labs are doing clinical trials all over the U.S., especially around large cities. There's a lot of money available for this kind of research. Diabetes medication management is a huge industry. They are looking for people from all walks of life, and they will sometimes prefer test subjects who have not been diabetic very long, but it's worth checking out.
If they accept you, you might get your travel expenses paid for to and from their testing site, and you'll probably get the best diabetic care you've ever had. Diabetic researcher doctors are on the cutting edge of diabetes treatment, and they are going to be thorough. Their standards of care will be high.
Test subjects will get free medicine, although about half of the test subjects will just be getting placebos. Either way they will monitor you closely to see how the medications affect your diabetes and look for side effects with care, something your doctor probably never had time to do.
They'll probably give you a new meter free and all the testing strips you'll need during the entire testing period (and it might be years). There will be free lab tests regularly and lots of checkups too. You'll be treated the way you would if money were no object, because for researchers in diabetes money really is no object.
The downside is that you'll have to stick to whatever diet regimen they ask for, and that might be tough. Also, you will have to keep more records than you might be used to, and journals about things like how you're feeling.
If you'd like to know more about what to expect from clinical trials, there is a good video at the website for Clinical Connection, one of the places you'll find information about open trials for diabetics.
Don't forget the old standby of contacting the drug company that makes the drug for which you've been given a prescription. Some doctors will help you do this. All drug companies have assistance programs to make sure you get the drugs they are making.
One warning – when you go searching for free diabetic supplies, whatever you do, double check and make sure the offer you are getting from someone you find on the internet is legitimate. And free should mean free. Don't let anyone talk you into giving financial information, I don't care what they say they need it for.
And beware of anyone who says they have a cure. About 99 out of 100 of those are looking for your money. I've already given them enough of mine. Diabetes medication management for type 2 diabetes treatment needs people like Dr. Banting who gave away the patent for insulin and changed the face of diabetes for all of us.
For more great tips and information on diabetes reversal and exercise for diabetics, visit www.DiabetesReversal.net.