Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

Monday, United Healthcare and Medtronic went one step further on their “preferred agreement” to make the Medtronic 670g the lone insulin pump choice they will approve of without a fight.

Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has now approved the 670g for use with patients age 7 and older, now it’s the only one you can get for anyone 7 or older unless you work with your doctor to submit forms and do things that, under other plans, you wouldn’t have to do to get a new pump.

I wish I could say it in a nicer way. I have friends working at Medtronic, and friends insured by UHC.

I don’t know antitrust law. But… the largest insurer in America linking up with the largest insulin pump maker in America to effectively shut out all other insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor competition? Is anyone, at either UHC or Medtronic, benefiting from this agreement? In what way? How much?

Everyone I’ve spoken to who has used the 670g likes it. I’ve rarely heard anything negative. But shouldn’t patients be allowed to choose what they want to wear every day anyway? If they are allowed, pending certain requirements being met, to choose a different option, why should there be an agreement in the first place?

United Healthcare is fond of saying that over 90 percent of their patients with diabetes who choose insulin pumps already choose Medtronic. That’s disingenuous, because they’re effectively forcing patients to choose the 670g anyway.

Meanwhile, Medtronic has a goal of dominating the market. Until these United Healthcare agreements came into play, I believed it was because they were convinced they had a best-in-class product.

If you believe you have a best-in-class product, why work so hard to squeeze off opportunity for your competitors? It’s clear to see the detrimental effect this will have to Tandem and Dexcom, as well as any new entities working on closed loop solutions here in the USA and around the world.

There is more money to be made on pumps and CGMs in the United States than anywhere else. Medtronic seems to be doing its best to get the most of that market for themselves. Not through competition, but rather by stifling it.

United Healthcare is getting its own benefits from whatever it gets from Medtronic, the ability to streamline paperwork and approvals for 90 percent of pump and CGM patients, and the framework for similar agreements affecting patients living with other conditions.

Do you feel like this is unfair? Do you feel People With Diabetes should be able to freely choose to use any device that works best for them?
 
 
Send your e-mail to United Healthcare telling them this is wrong
 
 
Thanks to JDRF and their #Coverage2Control initiative for the link.

If you’re a person living with diabetes, or a person caring for someone living with diabetes, there is absolutely no good reason for a decision like this to be allowed to go forward without a fight.