My Denial and Approval Process of the Minimed 530G

As some of you may know, I was offered a free trial of the Minimed 530G (Disclosure Post) and have been using it ever since. Once the trial was over, I made the decision to stay on the 530G system and the process of getting it covered by insurance was about to begin. And it was a long process.

After the first submission to UnitedHealthcare, it was denied. I received a phone call from my local Medtronic rep, as well as the marketing team at Medtronic who was working with me throughout the trial process and my endo. They all explained to me that this was a very typical response the first time around, but that they were going to submit a letter to the insurance company to get an approval the second time around.

However, the team already knew that the second claim was going to be denied as well. They explained to me that usually it takes three attempts and then after that third attempt is when it finally gets approved.

Long story short, that’s exactly how it happened.

Normally, I would have been pretty upset and irritated that every time I received a letter from UHC, it was a denial letter. But, for the fact that I already knew I would receive these denial letters, it made it a lot easier. Also, the fact that I just had to sit back and do absolutely nothing and that my healthcare team and Medtronic themselves were working for me, was pretty comforting.

After that initial denial letter, I was sent the following PDF from the Medtronic team that outline the documents needed from your healthcare professional and the appeal process and what you can do to speed up the approval process.

Download the MiniMed® 530G with Enlite® Coverage Tool Kit

Now that the process is over and the system was approved and that I have received the product in the mail is very exciting. I can’t wait to get it all set up and start using my own instead of the trial demo product.