Is it hard to get insurance coverage for Bayer Contour Next strips?

I have heard from the endo that getting insurance to pay for these are a pain. What are your experiences?
Also, any opinion how their accuracy compares?

 

We have an Aetna hmo plan thru my husbands employer, and we are getting them covered, but at higher copay. I got a discount card from Bayer for the strips, so now I pay less copay than I would be paying for the "preferred" strips on our plan. I don't know how long the discount card will continue to work though.

 

Christopher has BCBS and we were notified earlier in the year that the Contour strips were one of just a couple of "preferred" brands they would cover. I don't know what our plan is called, but I know my state employee plan covers different "preferred" strips.

I compared the Contour Next strips to the Accu-Chek strips when we first got the Contours and they were withing a couple of points off. I don't know anything about the reliability of either one, though.

 

I have Caremark and they're covered as Tier 3 this year, which is the highest co-pay. But I've already gotten a letter that they won't be covered at all beginning in January.

 

Regarding accuracy, my daughter has used accuchek (1 yr), freestyle(1 yr) and one touch (current- 2 years) and I never saw much of a difference.. We've had to change many times because of insurance but months ago, they tried to change it again and my endo wrote a letter so now we have a lifetime approval for one touch.

 

My insurance company dubbed Contour as a "non-preferred" brand, but all I really had to do was get them to do a pre-authorization that signaled my doctor was prescribing those specifically for medical necessity. That was in addition to the endo override needed to get more than the limited number they wanted to supply me.

Of course, my biggest issue was making sure that the doctor Rx was for the Bayer Contour NEXT strips, and not just for the Bayer Contour strips - a common issue. Had to get endo to revise the Rx and then had to get this corrected at the Express Scripts end, as well, to ensure I was actually getting the right strip that was needed/prescribed.

 

We have catamaran and the were denied at first but I called and explained that we needed them because it was the meter that communicated with his pump and they approved at the preferred brand price

 

My pharmacist scribbled a note to the insurer stating DD needed greater accuracy in testing and that did the trick.

 

I only tried them because they were less expensive than most other brands for me. Every insurance contracts with different brands, the only way to know is to check your plan.

 

I just called and our insurance covers them. They said it depends on your insurance not just Express Scripts.