At the local dive BBQ take-out joint they had a bulletin board full of business cards left by various small entreprenuers. Home remodeling, lawn services, Mary Kay, used cars, etc.
So far, so ordinary. But … I found a cheaply made one like this:
We Pay Cash for Diabetic Test Strips!
Any Type, Most Brands
Up to $17 Per Box
Call 24 Hours
(local mobile phone number)
(someaddress)@gmail.com
WTF???
If I’m diabetic I need my strips and won’t be buying extras since they cost . If I'm not diabetic I'd not be buying them because they cost .
I don’t think I’d be real inclined to buy strips second hand from this guy, assuming he has a resale business to go with his purchasing angle advertised here. So that doesn’t seem an obvious winner of a business plan.
So what gives? Is there some black market in glucometer strips I’ve never imagined? Are they, like pseudephedrine, useful in illicit drug manufacturing?
Some people get them free via various programs, insurance coverage, etc. Think of it as similar to people getting baby formula on WIC then selling it on Craigslist.
Not all meters take the same test strips. Even the same company will use different test strips on different meters. If you change meters would have to change test strips. You would also have some left over.
I purchased test strips for a friend with no insurance coverage (plus very little money and no internet access) last year off of Ebay. They were within 3 months of the expiration date, but worked fine.
I have since found a discount source online that doesn’t involve Ebay and has expiration dates a little further out, but they are about the same price.
For 200 strips I pay $62. The same number at the nearest Walmart pharmacy - $220 ($55 per box of 50).
If I don’t purchase them, he would be injecting insulin “blind”.
I have also been making the trip to the nearest Canadian Walmart (about 20 miles) to buy him insulin every few months. Canadian cost - $22 per vial. U.S. cost - $82.
There’s definitely a black market for them, as they’re expensive items, and not everyone who uses them qualifies for reimbursement, Medicare/Medicaid, or insurance. The pharmacies for which I work had a series of brazen thefts when we kept test strips out on a shelf for customers to buy; someone would walk by with a bag or basket, sweep the entire contents of the shelf into the container, and run out. When we went to a security system where people had to crank a dial on a locked cabinet (which made a loud clicking noise to attract attention) to dispense a single box at a time, there were even more brazen thefts-- people would come in as a group, lift the entire cabinet, and run out with it. A group was busted a few years ago selling stolen strips at a flea market.
We have the same issues with nicotine replacement products, because of the same high-cost issue.
Test strips are a billion dollar business and provide much gravy for the drug companies. The folks who need to test (insulin dependent) can’t really live without them. For the companies, the more diabetics the better.
As was noted earlier, some folks, due to their insurance plans, have a surplus and need to augment their income so they sell them. It’s a way for those without insurance to lower their medical costs and not have to pay outrageous costs for the test strips.
Test strips are still good waaaay past the expiration date, like as long as a year or two. I had some that were a year past exp and tested them alongside some brand new ones and they were very close. (if you test two or three times in a row with brand new strips, whether on the same finger or different fingers, you’ll get readings a few points different).
Even non-insulin dependent diabetics use the strips, sometimes a lot of them, because they want to see what various foods do to their blood sugar. From what I hear on the Diabetes boards, insurance companies sometimes want to limit the number of strips people use in a day, and therefor they end up paying out of pocket for them.
And it’s a racket. Retail price on the stupid things are around $1/each for most brands. When you’re testing 10 times a day, that adds up fast.
And yeah, there’s lots of discount places. I’ve bought from them, not because my insurance won’t cover as many as I need (they do) but because I’m just disgusted at the whole industry. In a given month, I spend more on test strips than I do on insulin and other medications. You can’t tell me that those strips cost more than a few pennies to make, if that.
Add in the fact that meters are crazily inaccurate (Federal regulations allow something like a 20% error) and the whole thing just drives me nuts.
Those mail order diabetic supply companies automatically send the number of strips you will need IF you are testing as your doctor ordered (frequently 4 x day) Frankly, a lot of people only test once a day, if that, especially if they are Type 2 and on oral hypoglycemics. Sometimes quite a little surplus builds up, especially if your supplies are covered at 100% of the cost.
Type I diabetic here: I test between 4 - 8 times a day, so my monthly supply is about 200 (Thankfully only $5 with my insurance). They pharmacy won’t dispense more than a month’s worth, I figure, because they don’t want me selling them off.
You’ve probably heard all the diabetic testing supply commercials, that offer to send you a new meter for free if you use their service. Big whoop! In the 4 years I’ve been diabetic, I’ve had 6 meters. (Unfortunately, I bought my first meter for $72 because my insurance wouldn’t cover a day-of prescription for a meter. Had I known how to get a free meter…) I bought my original meter, got a second when I called and complained that my first meter’s supply of strips was only about half of what was advertised. A third used a new kind of strip, and was given to me to “try out”. My current doctor’s office gave me two, and finally, my new insulin pump comes with a combination meter/control unit for the pump.
So yeah, the money’s in the strips, not the meters. Kind of like when Bill Gates negotiated with IBM to keep the rights to MS-DOS. The IBMiots thought the money in PCs was going to be the computers themselves; BG realized that software was the cash cow.