Costs pose hurdle for diabetes monitoring devices
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Monitoring systems that can help diabetics better control fluctuations in their blood sugar levels will take time to catch on because they are expensive and insurers are not yet providing coverage for the devices, physicians and analysts said.
Continuous glucose monitors are an important step forward in diabetes care because they provide more frequent readings on blood sugar levels than current finger-stick tests, allowing patients to better manage the condition through diet adjustments and insulin injections, physicians said.
The systems, however, are expensive, due to the cost of their disposable wire-like sensors, which are inserted just under the skin and must be replaced every few days. The sensors measure glucose levels and transmit the data wirelessly to a pager-size receiver.
“The issue right now really remains the cost. They have not been covered by health care insurance,” said Dr. Lawrence Hotes, an endocrinologist and chief medical officer for New England Sinai Hospital.
Hotes said he has prescribed a continuous glucose monitor to less than half a dozen patients so far because they are too costly for most people to afford on their own, with the sensors costing as much as $50 apiece and needing to be replaced every three days.
DexCom Inc. launched the continuous glucose monitor, its first product, in March. However, the company’s stock fell on Tuesday over fears that insurance companies and Medicare agency will be slow to provide reimbursement for the new technology.
Medical device industry heavyweight Medtronic Inc. also manufactures a continuous glucose monitor, and Abbott Laboratories Inc. is working on one as well
Spikes and dips in the blood sugar levels of diabetics, if not carefully managed, may lead to complications that can include loss of kidney function, sight or limbs.
Doctors said the monitoring systems, on display at a meeting this week of the American Diabetes Association, alert diabetics to rapid and potentially dangerous changes in their blood sugar and can be especially valuable overnight when patients are asleep and vulnerable to a glucose decline.
“The technology, just to have real-time continuous glucose monitoring, that is a big thing. We’ve been waiting for that for years and years, and now it’s here,” said Dr. Robert Gabbay, director of the diabetes program at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine.
Excluding the disposable sensors, the DexCom monitor costs about $800, while the Medtronic device costs about $1,000. Medtronic also recently introduced a glucose monitor combined with an insulin pump that sells for about $2,100.
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