Feb 1, 2011 Posted by Kev in My BS (blood sugar)

Getting a Continuous Glucose Monitor Approved by Insurance Company

Today is Tuesday February 1, 2011, three days after Saturday morning’s severe hypoglycemic episode.  Yesterday, my wife and I visited my endocrinologist in an effort to make adjustments to my insulin regiment and to attempt to begin the process of obtaining a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).   A continuous glucose monitor is a device that consists of two parts, one part, the transmitter, contains a sensor that is inserted under the skin with the outer part of it taped to the body.  It wirelessly transmits glucose readings to the receiver, which needs to be kept within several feet of the transmitter at all times.  Readings are transmitted every few minutes.  Alarms can be set to go off when blood glucose levels rise or fall below certain values.  Alarms can also be set to go off if blood glucose is rising or falling at too rapid of a rate.  Given the fact that it has taken my blood glucose levels falling into the 40s before hypoglycemia wakes me up, coupled with not waking up at all this past Saturday morning, I feel that I could benefit greatly from a continuous glucose monitor.  CGMs are something that every Type 1 diabetic or parents of a Type 1 diabetic

should be aware of.  The device could greatly curve the dangerous highs and lows associated with the disease.  The only problem right now is that insurance companies may need adequate justification that the device is necessary.   I’m still in the process of understanding exactly what that means, but the doctor said that they might want proof of hypoglycemic unawareness.

In order to gather data in case the insurance company requests it, my doctor outfitted me with a type of continuous glucose monitor that doesn’t have a readable receiver, the Medtronic iPro Continuous Glucose Monitor for healthcare professionals.  It looks like the transmitter portion of Medtronic’s CGM I described above, but all the data is recorded in the transmitter and then downloaded to a computer to be analyzed at the end of a five day period.  I am to remove the device on Saturday myself and then drop it off at my doctor on Monday.