[Diabetes-talk] Getting Started with Medicare and Mail-Ordering Diabetic Supplies

[Alan Lemly]

Eileen, this is very helpful and thanks to you and others who have replied
to my thread.

I'm beginning to appreciate the difference between Medicare and the private
group insurance world I'm leaving. I've poked around a bit on the Medicare
website looking for suppliers but find it unusual that the process starts
with giving a zip code when I'm wanting mail order suppliers that I would
think could service anyone in the country. I know I need to look for
suppliers that accept Medicare and that accept assignment. I plan to get on
the phone tomorrow to call some of the names I'm familiar with such as my
pump manufacturer and American Diabetes Wholesale to see how they answer
those questions.

Alan

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
eileen scrivani
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2014 4:24 PM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] Getting Started with Medicare and Mail-Ordering
Diabetic Supplies

Alan:

You have similar if not the same coverage I have for same reasons.  I am 
afraid you will have to use 2 different mail order companies because both 
pump and test supplies fall under durable medical goods.  Other prescription

medications and your insulin will be covered by OptumRX.

I have been using A1 Diabetes for testing supplies. You need to make sure 
your mail order company for test/pump supplies is "Medicare approved."  As I

will soon be going on a pump will look into changing A1 Diabetes, if 
possible, so test and pump supplies can all get shipped by 1 company to 
eliminate confusion on my doctors side as to where what prescriptions need 
to be sent to which company.

Hope this helps.

Eileen

-----Original Message----- 
From: Alan Lemly
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2014 2:34 PM
To: 'Diabetes Talk for the Blind' ; blind-diabetics at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] Getting Started with Medicare and 
Mail-OrderingDiabetic Supplies

As a new Medicare enrollee, I'm looking for guidance on the best way to set
up my diabetic supplies ordering for minimal ongoing effort before asking my
endocrinologist for new prescriptions. I want to do everything with a mail
order provider since online ordering and mail delivery is so much easier. I
would also prefer to only use one mail order provider to make things easier
for my doctor for submitting the prescriptions for my diabetic supplies and
other medications.



I use an insulin pump so as I understand it, all my diabetic testing
supplies as well as my pump consumables and insulin will be covered under
Medicare Part B. I also have supplemental MediGap and Part D drug plans
through AARP and UnitedHealthcare.



Since the mail order provider used by the AARP Part D plan is OptumRx, I
assume I'll need to check them out for my diabetic supplies coverage if I
only want to use one provider. Is the easiest way to do this through the
Medicare website? I have an online Medicare account already set up. I'm just
not familiar with where to go to find the available mail order pharmacies
which are enrolled in Medicare and which accept assignment. I'm coming from
the employer group insurance world where everything was done with one
supplier and users had to set up online accounts with them and I'm trying to
duplicate that in the Medicare world. I assume that once I've settled on a
mail order provider, that I'll need to go to their website and set up an
online account.



Any recommendations on how to accomplish my goal will be greatly
appreciated. If anyone has advice on what to avoid or why what I'm
considering might not make the most sense, I'd welcome that too. I know one
of the first orders of business is to ensure that my supplier stocks the
test strips and insulin pump consumables I use. I just need some direction
on how to start researching this online.



I apologize for the cross-post to more than one list but hopefully there is
not much subscriber overlap. Thanks in advance for any guidance that you can
provide.



Alan Lemly

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