One of the most stressful parts of living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) is making sure you have the diabetes supplies and technology that help you manage blood sugar levels 24 hours a day. Running out of sensors for your continuous glucose monitor (CGM) or infusion sites for your insulin pump isn’t just inconvenient, it’s an emergency. 

Reliable Diabetes Care is a family-owned business that understands the urgency and responsibility that comes with being a durable medical equipment (DME) manufacturer. 

With eight locations across New England, Reliable Diabetes Care works with every private health insurance plan in the Northeast, along with Medicare and Medicaid. Their goal is to make the task of getting diabetes supplies less stressful. Compared to bigger DME companies, Reliable Diabetes Care is proud of its exceptional customer service, faster product delivery, and overall easier process for both patients and healthcare providers to manage diabetes supplies. 

Here, we’ll look at what you need to know about your DME needs as a person with T1D. 

What is DME? 

Understanding your durable medical equipment needs is just one part of your healthcare needs as a person with diabetes.  

Within any health insurance plan, there are two parts: medical coverage and pharmacy coverage. 

  • Pharmacy: prescription medications (insulin, oral medications, etc.) 
  • Medical: Doctor appointments, tests of any kind (blood, scans, etc.), planned or unplanned hospitalizations, and DME (insulin pumps, CGMs, sensors, infusion sites, etc.) 

Your CGM and insulin pump devices are part of your DME coverage. (Although you can also get the Freestyle Libre CGM from your pharmacy.) 

Understanding what your DME coverage will pay for starts with the deductible you choose and the list of products approved by your plan. If you’re not sure, call your health insurance company to ask for the specifics—and talk to your DME supplier, like Reliable Diabetes Care. Reliable Diabetes Care can also work with your healthcare team to help you fight for coverage of these life-changing and life-saving supplies. 

Getting the supplies you need isn’t always easy and can require multiple appeals. Don’t give up! Often the manufacturer of the product you’re trying to get (an insulin pump or CGM) also has customer service agents to help you work through this process. 

Reliable Diabetes Care can help make getting your CGM and pump supplies easier and more efficient which means less stress for you throughout the daily challenges of living with T1D.  

We recently surveyed our Online Community about your preferences when it comes to ordering diabetes supplies.  

With over 900 responses to our survey, here are some highlights from the results:

The overall satisfaction level of our Online Community relationship with DME providers is extremely mixed:  

  • 30% of participants chose satisfied  

How do you order your CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) and or insulin pump supplies? 

  • 53% of participants ordered their supplies from a DME provider  

 

What methods do you prefer to reorder your supplies through? 

  • 47% prefer email 
  • 41% prefer text  

On which day of the week would you prefer to reorder your supplies? 

  • 40% of participants said they would prefer to reorder on a Monday  

What time of day would you most prefer to be reminded to reorder your supplies? 

  • 47% of participants said they would prefer late morning (9 a.m. – noon) 

 

 

To learn more and see if working with Reliable Diabetes Care would be right for you, visit reliablediabetescare.com.