If you are newly diagnosed with diabetes, you might be floored at how much it costs to test your blood sugar. I have seen strips costing as much as $2 a test and if you are like me and must test 3-4 times day, this adds up to quite a lot over the course of a month. The good news is, there are some ways you can cut costs of this diabetic expense.
How To Save Money on Diabetic Testing Supplies
Purchase in bulk online. When I was first diagnosed, I used to buy a lot of my supplies on eBay. The only problem I found was some sellers were less than truthful about the condition of the supplies and expiration dates. I do not recommend buying from eBay for this reason. However, you can often get some great deals on diabetic test strips from Amazon. Some as low as $5.
Visit your diabetic care Dr or Pharmacy and ask if they have any free diabetes magazines. These are often published quarterly by companies in the diabetic care industry and usually include valuable coupons.
Look for coupons in the newspaper and combine them with savings at the pharmacy. You can often get free meters if you know where to look as well as heavily discounted supplies like test strips, lancets and lancing devices as well as glucose shots and tabs.
Ask your Dr to prescribe you test strips. It may seem obvious, but if you have insurance, test strips may be completely or mostly covered but only if they are prescribed by your doctor. Just because they are available over the counter does not mean insurance won’t cover them.
Ask your diabetes educator, nurse or doctor for samples from drug companies. Often, they will have free meters and test strips you can have occasionally.
Look for local charities in your area that collect unused diabetic supplies for those in need. You may be able to get them free through a local agency.
Don’t be tricked into getting a cheap meter with expensive strips. This was a mistake I made at first. I thought since the meter was cheap, the test strips must also be. Unfortunately, I found this to be absolutely false in most cases unless I went with an off brand like Walmart’s Reli-on.
Ask the company who makes your meter and test strips about possible deduction programs. Many of them now offer programs that allow users to pay very little out of pocket expenses on testing supplies at the pharmacy. It never hurts to ask if the company you use has such a program.
What are some ways you save on your diabetic testing supplies?
