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If you are considering using an insulin pump, I would strongly advise you to look at alternatives other than Minimed.
Erery time you call, you will get a runaround. They put up new hurdles to jump over for re ordering on a weekly basis it seems. “Customer Support” is an oxymoron to them. Every time you call you speak to a different person, and most of them fail to understand what you need. For example:
My son wears a pump and has worn it for years. I tried to reorder supplies and told them of new insurance I had. They will only let you order every ninety days (which corresponds to when you are running out of supplies). They claimed they needed a letter from my doctor which I made sure they received quickly. I heard nothing from them and called around 10 days later. Now, they needed a “pre certification” letter from the new insurance. They never called me to let me know the order was held up, I had to call and then be told. I found out that the letter had been sent by my insurance company and called Minimed back. They told me that it takes up to two weeks for that letter to get “into their system” for them to send the order. Meanwhile my son’s supplies were running out. I spend hours (no exaggeration) explaining the situation to people at Minimed, but no one was willing to get up from their desk and find the letter so I could get supplies. Finally, I called their parent company, Medtronic. They got a hold of someone who immediately found the letter and approved the order. I still did not receive it. I called back and in all the confusion with the 6 or 8 people I spoke to, the order had been cancelled. Even though they now had all the paperwork, I had to call and start all over. Sounds unbelievable, right?
Now I need supplies. I have had my pump for over 10 years and have always ordered my supplies from them. My stuff is paid for by Medicare which has a rule that supplies must be ordered within 90 days of a Dr. visit. I called and ordered the stuff I needed a week ahead of this anniversary date and was told I would hear within 5 days of the approval and shipment of the order, but they did not begin working on the order for a full week. And they never called me. When I called today, 10 days later they tell me that there has actually only been 3 working days since I placed the order and it can take them up to two weeks to process it. Sor the order was going to be denied, no one called me, and they knew from the call when I ordered that I only had approximately 18 days of supplies left. Now they want me to make an unnecessary visit to my doctor (who won’t be back from his vacation for 8 more days) because it has gone longer than 90 days. And guess what? I have to start the process of ordering all over again after I see him.
This company and it’s staff couldn’t care less about their customers and you should know that before you commit to spending thousands of dollars on their products that you will rely on for your health. Do the research before buying from them. All of their stuff is “proprietary” so you cannot buy supplies from anyone but them. The quality of their supplies is spotty at times and their customer support absolutely stinks.
I received a recall in 2009 and mailed 8 boxes of infusion sets that were defective back to MiniMed. They were mailed on 8/09 and I have receved one box at a time for the replacements. I ordered a total order before the end of the year because my insurance was changing in the new year. I receieved them 12/09 and was just billed on 3/10 for that order and all the replacement boxes also. I called to find out what was going on. They told me to either send back the order or pay. They sent the replacements in the new year and are now trying to bill me for them also. I am going to notify the BBB and the insurance commition, as well as my congressman about this problem. Everyone needs to let everyone know about the billing problems!
I too have found that Mini-Med/Medtronics has slid down a steep slope.
The sensors are less than spotty in quality, I've had as many as 4 of a box of 10 be bad.
Some will start and fail within a days time, others won't calibrate in the beginning.
I've never been able to speak with anyone in customer support, because I'm not willing to be on hold for 30minutes plus.
I did get a sales call a week ago telling me my pump was eligible for replacement, and to be covered by my insurance. The pump is a little over a year old, and works fine, unlike the sensor. I told the sales rep that I wanted to see what else was available before I committed further to Mini-Med. She told me that no one else offered CGMS.
I told her I wanted to get more information about what else was on the market before I replaced what I had.
I have just gotten off the phone with Minimed (for the 3rd time in a week). I submitted my order well over a month ago and it has arrived in piecemeal. I have requested that they contact me via email when there is a problem with insurance, doctor's note, etc. but to no avail. I waited 3 weeks before I found out that they were waiting for my doctor's signature. I called my doctor who told me that he had faxed it to them 2 weeks before. I called the company. Yes, they had received the form but the box for sensors for CGM had not been checked off. I called the doctor's office who told me that the company had sent the same fax back to them 5 times without any directive as to what was wrong. I am now down to one sensor and still waiting for an order which was place 5 weeks ago. I like the Medtronic pump and CGM system but they need immediate help with their supply system.
Be careful od CareCnetrix - they ARE brain dead - the whole lot of them.
Also - hoipefully you didn't get the piece of junk continuous glucose monitor. Mine broke after the first week & it took a month of Medtronic telling me that it was how I was inserting it (I followed their instructions and even had an experienced diabetes educator/pump trainer watch me). Only when I said "RETURN FOR REFUND" did they want to look at the possibility that their piece of junk might be at fault. Then comes the (doesn't) CARE Cenrtix issue:
I returned the CGM in March. By July they finally sent me a portion (less than half) of the monies I paid for the CGM. I called to find out why & was lied to time after time after time. End result is that Cigna (another story all together) put the deductible for the CGM on the open box of sensors. So, although they kept over half my money, they now tell me I owe $100 more.
I hate Medtronic for building a piece of junk.
I hate (doesn't)CARE centrix for thier ineptitude
and I hate CIGNA for hiring (doesn't) CARE Centrix.,
STAY AWAY FROM ALL THREE OF THESE COMPANIES!
I've experienced very similar interactions with Minimed. Before Medtronic bought them out (or whoever owns them now--I think there's yet another company) they had top-notch service, but now it's like negotiating Kafka's castle. I had a whole lot of trouble with a supply order which left me last year in the middle of a hurricane with almost no supplies, despite having ordered them nearly a month before the storm hit. It was a nightmare.
Nevertheless I am in the process of ordering a new pump from them to replace mine that is out of warranty. Why? Because I want the continuous blood glucose monitoring, and theirs is the only pump that supports that technology. Otherwise I'd go with another company in a heartbeat.
Since my MD sent them the prescription it's been over 6 weeks. Today after calling and calling and getting various runarounds I discovered they neglected to fax anything back to my insurance company so the claim could be approved. But Minimed wants to blame something called Care Centrix which is a very very very bad company they hire to process insurance stuff, from what I can tell. I tried speaking to someone there, but she was apparently brain dead. Now we're at the end of the fiscal year and it is pressing to get the pump claimed on this year's insurance, but due to Minimed's gross mismanagement, I'm going to miss that and will be forced to bear the expense of paying down the deductible first.
Caveat emptor.