Since I have been diabetic, there is one thing that was constant and was very easy to understand, this disease is expensive. One of the more expensive items is testing strips. This is a question that we have all asked before, why do they cost so much damn money? Well, why do they? I know this is a business and they need to make money, I totally understand that. I run a company myself, I understand the bottom line figure that is all so important to the CEO. But, there has to be something that can be done to lower the costs of diabetes testing strips.
What are these things that we can do?
I don’t know or else I wouldn’t be asking. I like to ask questions about things that I don’t know about. I would also like to somehow help others save money on their strips, so how do we work with legislation to get this accomplished?
Thoughts, ideas, concerns, issues, or just general feedback?
I’m also not privy to an answer, but fear that we don’t have a way to reduce the costs – especially in a time when we’re demanding more meter accuracy that would likely only drive the strip/meter costs up. I would like to think that there’s ways to reduce costs through administrative or markup avenues, but I really don’t know. If a solution to better accuracy is at all related to strips and that side of the BG testing, then I think once we start seeing more regulatory and private industry push to improve accuracy the strip costs will just go up even more. Great question, Chris.
Mike
Thanks for the comment. I agree that the push for accuracy may initially increase the costs of strips, but I just feel there has to be some option. In thinking of some sort of cap or ceiling that is put into effect.
I don’t have the answers, and am not criticizing the business. I just want to know what’s out there.