Ok so I belong to a new diabetes community called Diabetic Connect link is HERE. I just read a discussion and article about the FDA and insulin pumps. Read an article HERE. After you read the article you can read my response. This is what I typed on the discussion reply.
"I am so incensed by this news I am shaking with rage at the FDA. I cannot believe how twisted they have made the pump. If you have uneducated teenagers running around with the pump then it should be the doctors in trouble. You cannot get a pump without a letter of medical neccesity and you have to get that from a DOCTOR. Did they compare any of thier stats to teens without pumps? I know of two teens that killed themselves by injecting themselves with too much insulin. Injecting with needles not a pump. I wanted a pump when I was 13 years old but my doctor made me wait until I was 16 because I was not responsible enough. Now that isn't to say that other kids aren't I just was not exactly a compliant teenager in any aspect of my life. I have a 23 year old brother with diabetes and there is no way anyone should give him a pump he is way too immature and is completly non compliant. Everything is a case by case basis and this study is damaging years of headway made with insurance companys and will potentially scare off doctors and potential pump users. My 8 year old got a pump when she was four years old and it changed her life and ours. If she becomes an out of control teenager? I will take that pump away. That is my responsibility as a parent. She doesnt' get to stay on one just because she has always had one. Oh and one final thought How many lives have the pump saved? I would guess hundreds if not more. Including mine and my husbands!!"
4 comments:
I read the article and I think you are blowing it way out of proportion, but I'm not in your shoes. I agreed with John Crowley who said that it's not so much "dissing" the pump as it is making sure the risks are understood and pump maintenance and insulin is monitored closely. I hope that doesn't come across insensitive...I'm only stating how I perceived the article vs. your emotion.
Geez Katie. So much for the sympathy vote huh. First off I would agree that this was probably the intent of the study. However, the insurance industry will take every opportunity not to pay for anything expensive. I have been fighting with the insurance company for the past year to get Tyler a Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring System, a system which would alarm Tyler when his sugars drop to dangerous levels and we could potentially say goodbye to paramedics forever. There is a downside however in that people would abuse it by not testing (which is still required since it can be incorrect)these people would have several problems. It also took me two years of fighting with my insurance and filing appeals to get my last pump despite the fact that my pump was so old it was in the antique case at the diabetic dr's office. I'm just saying that there is bad to every good and when a powerhouse like the FDA puts out a statement like that it gives insurance companies a reason not to pay for it and it scares doctors into not recommending it for fear of medical malpractice. I just think that if an federal organization like the FDA is going to put out a statement it better be a well rounded statement will all sides being represented.
Agreed, I just don't think people who live without the daily medical issues we do realize just how much weight a statement like this carries with the insurance industry, these companies now have the FDA saying that pumps are dangerous, now the insurance companies have one more reason to refuse the device to someone... it scares me, the insurance companies will do anything they can to save a buck and protect their bottom line, even if it is to the detriment of the very people they are insuring! I feel the FDA worded this release very poorly, but unfortunately you can't unwrite it, and it is us that will have to deal with the repercussions.
Personally I'm not surprised by how the press treated this news. They're always looking for eyeballs, so making it more sensational means more people are likely to read it. For the most part, the media WAY overdid things in how this was written up.
In the wrong hands pumps are dangerous. Brooke I agree with you, injections are just as dangerous. The problem is insulin, not the delivery mechanism.
Unfortunately you'll probably never see a report summarizing the number of deaths due to injected insulin overdose. I'll bet it's not tracked. For insulin pumps, like any medical device, 'issues' are always tracked by the FDA.
I'm hoping this won't change how insurance companies handle insulin pump coverage. The sooner that insurance companies cover treatment instead of intervention the better for all of us.
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