We were at Sweet Tomatoes earlier when I asked one of the gals for the nutritional information on some items. She asked, "do you need the carbohydrate count"? Turns out her 14-year old son has T1D, diagnosed at the age of 10. He is in the hospital for DKA, and an A1C of 11. Their "controlled" A1C is at 9%. This just saddens me. They are on public aid and are only "allowed" to test 4x/day. The mother seemed not so concerned.
Thats is sad and awful. At the same time it also makes me grateful, meaning that we are not limited to how many times a day we can check my son b.s. How sad that a person is limited to checking only 4 times a day..My son checks atleast 10 times a day...It kind of makes me mad also. There should be more help for people that do not have very good insurance.
Most State Aid relys on Medicare as their guidelines. Medicare is very strict on how many glucose strips are allowed per day/month. The ONLY way to over ride this, is to have an endocrinologist write a letter of medical necessity for so many strips per day. And then wait for this to be approved. In some case it can take up to 30 days for approval or denial. On top of that, Medicare/Medicaid in most cases will also ask for a written blood sugar log to prove you are testing so many times a day. Then they take the average of the 30 days then use that to allow how many strips per month. Its a catch 22 IF you dont receive enough strips to being with.
I think the endo bears some of the burden here. I have a friend who relies on medicaid for her daughter with diabetes. Her daughter's endo did the work necessary to get enough strips so the mom is comfortable with how many they receive. My friend was told by the endo at diagnosis that it would be necessary to do that and she was given samples to make up the shortfall until approval came through. I would be shopping for a new doctor if my son's endo thought testing four times a day was sufficient and didn't help get more strips.
it is! I hate this in the long run-those complications are going to cost more money than 6 extra test strips a day did.
That's a good endo. I wish I had time to talk with this lady in length and the knowledge to give her some help. I don't know much about the system here. I'll have to find out more if I want to be of help to others...
The mother seemed not so concerned- I have ran into this same attitude by many.. it's almost as if they just don't know any better- or they don't really realize the ramifications of their nonchalant attutude- or they just realize it is what it is and they accept they can't do anything to make it any better- or they are just lazy and won't do anything extra to educate/help their kids or themselves. Yes.. I agree it's very sad... especially for the kids..
You should have given her the address to this website! By the way, I felt like an utterly useless and crappy dad when a fellow parent at summer camp (hi Sia, if you are reading!) told me that her daughter has a 5.7 A1c
That is so sad. I know I should be thankful for being allowed to test as much as I do, when I know there are so many who don't have that ability. There is a way to get around this the medicare limits and that is by appealing and then you have to send in two months of testing records to prove that you are really testing that often and need to test more. With insurance companies your doctor can write a letter of medical necessity but with medicare it s a different in that you have to turn in your testing records for the most recent 2-3 months. They then make a determination but it is really to see if one is actually testing as often as they say they are. The other catch is that their doctor may not be aware of how to get around or doesn't think that this child needs to test more than 4 times a day. Anyway you look at it, it is just plain sad.
Yes, it is sad, I see this all the time. I ask questions of my doctor but many don't and don't think they should. They put their doctors on a pedestal and don't realize maybe their doctor just doesn't know that it is possible to ask for more strips per month.
