# We Buy Diabetic Test Strips - Huh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361 "2011-01-29T01:39:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/21 "2011-01-29T17:54:13Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > 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. Oh, yeah…they give away the meters because they make their money from the strips. I keep hoping someone will invent a meter that doesn’t need strips…like a permanent probe that you just clean off or something. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/22 "2011-01-29T17:56:57Z")
Oh, and the way my insurance covers test strips is really messed up. They’re not covered by my regular medical, they’re not covered by my prescription insurance, and they’re not directly covered by my medical supply insurance. I have to jump through so many hoops to get the supply place affiliated with the supply place that’s primary-affiliated with my medical supply insurance to send them to me, or else pay for them out-of-pocket. I STILL haven’t figured out exactly which hoops, so I’m paying for them myself right now. Ridiculous… ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/23 "2011-01-29T18:33:29Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Oh, yeah…they give away the meters because they make their money from the strips. I keep hoping someone will invent a meter that doesn’t need strips…like a permanent probe that you just clean off or something. Why? It’s proven in this thread that that’s where the money is! Has any company anywhere in the history of anything done something because it saves their clients money while at the same time is quite detrimental to their bottom line? ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/24 "2011-01-29T20:24:09Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Oh, yeah…they give away the meters because they make their money from the strips. I keep hoping someone will invent a meter that doesn’t need strips…like a permanent probe that you just clean off or something. Kinda like printer ink for your inkjet, eh? Walmart has the Relion Ultima that has 50 strips for $20. The others are ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/25 "2011-01-29T21:29:07Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > Why? It’s proven in this thread that that’s where the money is! Has any company anywhere in the history of anything done something because it saves their clients money while at the same time is quite detrimental to their bottom line? I get information on every electric bill about how to use less (and actively encouraging me to do so), and occasional similar info on other utilities. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/26 "2011-01-31T23:16:35Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > Why? It’s proven in this thread that that’s where the money is! Has any company anywhere in the history of anything done something because it saves their clients money while at the same time is quite detrimental to their bottom line? Some new company will come along, see that the market for readers+strips is saturated and making a ton of money, and start offering generic strips, or a reader that doesn’t need strips. Kind of like what has happened with printers and either generic ink cartridges or refilling old cartridges. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/27 "2011-01-31T23:22:35Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > I get information on every electric bill about how to use less (and actively encouraging me to do so), and occasional similar info on other utilities. But that doesn’t cost the electric company anything, as a matter of fact it helps them. If people are saving too much electricity, they will apply for a rate increase from the utility board claiming that they are losing too much money from frugal consumers. Then, their profits skyrocket because they make the same amount of money selling less electricity. I’m not even joking. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/28 "2011-01-31T23:31:38Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > But that doesn’t cost the electric company anything, as a matter of fact it helps them. If people are saving too much electricity, they will apply for a rate increase from the utility board claiming that they are losing too much money from frugal consumers. Then, their profits skyrocket because they make the same amount of money selling less electricity. > > I’m not even joking. I concur. I recall that happened a few years ago in California. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/29 "2011-01-31T23:37:54Z")
Ah, yes, [here it is](http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3177892): > [@](#): > > Last week, [Sacramento Municipal Utility District] officials announced a plan to raise customer rates 13 percent over the next 18 months. The two-stage hike – a 9.5 percent hike comes Sept. 1 – would be the nonprofit power provider’s second in two years. > > Fully implemented, the average residential customer’s monthly bill would increase $8, officials said. > > A decline in power usage – the result of customer conservation, retail bankruptcies and utility disconnections – is just one of the justifications for the rate increase, but it’s definitely part of the equation, SMUD spokeswoman Elisabeth Brinton said. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/30 "2011-01-31T23:46:01Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Oh, yeah…they give away the meters because they make their money from the strips. I keep hoping someone will invent a meter that doesn’t need strips…like a permanent probe that you just clean off or something. They do have continuous glucose monitoring devices, which attach for a week at a time and send results to a remote unit you wear on your belt. Unfortunately, it needs about a daily calibration by testing your blood with an independent meter and inputting its readings. My insulin pump, a Ping, is planned to have a CGM addition, but FDA testing has delayed its introduction by about 2 years. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/31 "2011-02-01T03:13:50Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > They do have continuous glucose monitoring devices, which attach for a week at a time and send results to a remote unit you wear on your belt. Unfortunately, it needs about a daily calibration by testing your blood with an independent meter and inputting its readings. > > My insulin pump, a Ping, is planned to have a CGM addition, but FDA testing has delayed its introduction by about 2 years. ☹ I have a CGMS. It was useful and fun for a while, but overall I quit wearing it after about 4 months. Overall, the hassle outweighed the benefits. First off, they’re not accurate enough (yet) to obsolute a real meter. Seeing as the meters are only accurate to 20%, that’s saying a lot. The one I had needed a calibration (from a meter) at least twice a day. If it was just that, it still would have been useful. But the stupid thing was wildly, crazily inaccurate for the first 24-48 hours after I changed the sensor. Like it kept waking me up in the middle of the night telling me I was at 40 (which is really, incredibly dangerous) or 400 (also dangerous, though not quite as horrible as the 40). When the reality is that I was at a nice, safe 90, that wasn’t all that fun. It’d get more accurate for a few days. You’re only supposed to wear the sensors for a week, so that was 2 days out of each week that were a pain. I’d push it to 2 weeks, but still, 2 days out of 14 days was enough that I never quite trusted the thing. Then add in that it was yet another thing stuck to my body, and another electronic gizmo that I had to carry around all the time, and overall, it just wasn’t worth it. I still have it, and might use it again if I start having issues, but the technology has a long way to go. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2011, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/32 "2011-02-02T12:13:03Z")
> [@loshan](#): > > 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. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of insulin? Most of the ones I can think of are either cheaper than that or more expensive than that. ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/33 "2011-02-02T14:31:54Z")
Maybe they meant “We buy diabetic test _strippers_.” ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/35 "2017-05-23T17:08:38Z")
> [@GeorgeKellog](#): > > I have friend who sells his used test strips to [http://www.cashnowoffer.com/sell-your-strips/](http://www.cashnowoffer.com/sell-your-strips/) - I think it’s pretty common. Hope this helps! Reported. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361/36 "2017-05-23T17:34:38Z")
> [@GeorgeKellog](#): > > I have friend who \*\*sells his used test strips \*\*to [http://www.cashnowoffer.com/sell-your-strips/](http://www.cashnowoffer.com/sell-your-strips/) - I think it’s pretty common. Hope this helps! (bolding mine) No. They buy unused strips. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-buy-diabetic-test-strips-huh/569361.md?page=1)