Medtronic’s Response to My Concerns About Price Gouging
Last March, I wrote an open letter, “Dear Medtronic, Please Stop Price Gouging During The Coronavirus” about Medtronic’s price increase for medical supplies.
For those who are just tuning in, I’m a type one diabetic whose life depends on insulin. Insulin pumps are known to be the best method of managing diabetes. Not everyone has access to pumps because of affordability and it can be difficult and confusing to get insurance companies to cover them. The pumps themselves are only part of that issue — the supplies, like the infusion sets that connect the pump to your body, are quite expensive.
To my surprise, Medtronic was listening, and they responded to me directly.
But before we get into Medtronic’s response, first I want to address some potential corrections to my article: did Medtronic raise their prices during or because of the pandemic?
Why I Thought Medtronic Raised The Price Amidst The Pandemic
My last order was placed in January of 2020; one box for $129.60. By the time I had written that article in late March, the price had risen.
As far as I know, I had placed that order without going through insurance, because I wasn’t able to confirm with multiple Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield representatives that they covered the supplies, and I was running desperately low. If I went through my insurance and ordered from a distributor in their network, Edgepark, it would have counted towards my deductible of over $8,000. But Edgepark quoted me at over $500 for two boxes. Plus shipping.
After a 20% discount.
So I decided to order directly from Medtronic and play it safe. It was better than ordering from their distributor. Just to humor myself, I checked Amazon and found that you can also order the same supplies from 3rd party sellers for as low as $64.99.
I placed an order there too. That box arrived in 2 days, Medtronic’s order came soon after.
Both orders delivered the same product, both shipped in a mailing envelope and haphazardly dropped in front of my mailbox. Each box contains 10 infusion sets, which you’re supposed to change every 2–3 days. So each one lasts roughly a month. Come time to order again in March, the third party sellers had doubled their prices on amazon. I checked Medtronic’s website, and the price had gone up from $129.60 to $178.20, an increase of $48.60 or a 37.5% increase from January 2020 to March 2020, if not sooner.
I was looking to place that order on March 23, one week before I wrote the article. I reached out to a representative who had called me in response to my open letter that I had written in January. The result of that phone call was a promise to take my concerns to a meeting with Medtronic’s leadership. When I wrote to her again on March 23, I asked her how those meetings went and about the increase. I offered to have another conversation before writing another open letter. A week goes by, no response.
As promised, I wrote another open letter on March 30th.
Do I Have Your Attention Now?
This time in the open letter, “Dear Medtronic, Please Stop Price Gouging During The Coronavirus” I called out Medtronic’s CEO and other key leaders in their company by name, with links to their bios which are available to the public on Medtronic’s website.
I pointed out that the leaders, not the frontline people like the representatives I spoke to, are responsible for the prices. I reminded them of Martin Shkreli who famously gouged the price of life saving medication Daraprim, and asked if they want to be remembered in a similar light.
Roughly two weeks later, a representative called me on April 17th to ask about the article, why I wrote it and what I was hoping to achieve by saying that Medtronic had raised its prices during the pandemic. He claimed they had not.
Medtronic Claims They Weren’t Price Gouging
One of the first and most consistent questions the representative asked me was why I called it price gouging. He admitted that the price of infusion sets has risen since 2018, and that my estimated 42% price increase was accurate, but since that increase happened over the course of 2 years, how could I consider it price gouging?
I relayed my story of how I tried to purchase in January and saw the increase in March.
He explained that the insurance companies negotiate prices differently, and that may have been what caused the issue.
I’m not sure if that makes sense because in both instances, I was looking to make the purchase as if I had no insurance. The representative insisted that Medtronic cannot control what insurance companies do or don’t cover, and that those prices can change.
That may be true, but I’m looking at the price tag shown on the website. The price has increased, and when I asked him why, whether it was over the course of 2 months or 2 years, and it’s still the same product, he didn’t have an answer.
Seems to me Medtronic increased the price simply because they can.
Convenient Timing
I asked why Medtronic isn’t offering any sort of help, especially during the pandemic, especially when people like me are out of work, many of us have lost insurance, and we still need insulin to live.
Insulin manufacturers like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk unraveled plans of their own to help diabetics during the Covid19 pandemic. The former has a $35 price cap for uninsured and underinsured, the latter is offering free 90 supplies. I haven’t reached out to Novo Nordisk yet, but getting approved for Eli Lilly’s programs was as easy as a phone call.
And when the CVS pharmacists gave me a hard time, one more phone call and Eli Lilly reps were able to walk the pharmacists through how to process my savings card appropriately, so I walked out of there with 4 vials of insulin for $35 instead of $1,295.99.
Why doesn’t Medtronic have something like that?
He did not have an answer, but he did point out that Medtronic does offer a financial assistance program, which is true. He also pointed out that they gave me information about that program last time they called. According to their records, I hadn’t taken advantage of it. Why not?
This is true, I did receive information, and it’s also true that I haven’t tried the program yet. The reason, I explained, is because
- In order to be approved for the program you have to go through the trouble of filling out an application.
- I wasn’t given any clear answer about what sort of assistance I would receive. Am I applying for free supplies? 20% off? $5 cash coupon?
- There was no guarantee I would be approved.
- I was told it can take several days, if not weeks to be approved
- I can buy the same supplies on amazon for a much lower price and it will arrive in 2 days
In January, I was down to my last supplies, and I didn’t have time to wait for approval. Proving my income is difficult because I’m mostly a freelancer and my income changes year-to-year, and I didn’t have time to put that all together while I was working multiple jobs. Plus, I didn’t even know if it would be worth my while to bother because I had no idea what sort of discount to even expect!
But now that they’ve all been shut down by Covid19, I should have the time to apply. I’ll probably write another article about that experience. Who knows? I might be pleasantly surprised.
Still, Medtronic’s process isn’t as easy as it could be. During one phone call, Eli Lilly approved me instantly for their savings card to cap the price of insulin at $95 per order, and this was BEFORE the pandemic.
During the pandemic, one phone call was all it took for them to approve me instantly for the $35 price limit savings card during the pandemic. The reps I spoke to at Eli Lilly about getting my insulin were knowledgeable, friendly, caring, and diligent in making sure I was taken care of.
My friends who are also on Medtronic pumps have hesitated to apply for Medtronic’s financial assistance for the same reasons I gave, but I can’t think of anyone who’s not picking up the phone for affordable insulin.
It’s Always Been Difficult
I reminded the Medtronic rep how difficult and confusing getting access to supplies, let alone affordable supplies is for underinsured or uninsured people like myself, especially for people who don’t have as much education as I do or people who work more strenuous jobs than I do and people who have to raise a family.
I’m not just talking about my college education by the way, but it’s worth mentioning that I did learn a lot from being an English Major at the University of Delaware. I learned how to research, I learned how to debate, and I learned how to write articles like this one from working with the student newspaper.
But the education that I have that most people in my circumstances don’t is my mother, who has fought tooth and nail with insurance companies to get my supplies covered when I was a kid, so I learned a lot from her successes and failures too.
But even with every advantage I have, it’s still unbelievably difficult for me. How can it be remotely possible for someone who has no time, let alone no idea where to start advocating for themselves and their children?
I think based on the two conversations I’ve had with Medtronic reps, Medtronic would agree that given how difficult insurance companies are to work with, we can’t always rely on them to be the financial assistance that gives diabetics access to supplies.
I argue it’s up to the manufacturers themselves to create pathways to affordable and accessible supplies. Eli Lilly has certainly done a great job of that recently.
What I Hope Medtronic Will Do
At the end of our conversation, I was asked what I hoped Medtronic would do to make this right. Speaking directly to Medtronic:
- Make your supplies affordable and accessible.
If you can’t do that by lowering the retail price, simplify financial assistance approval for the uninsured and underinsured so that everyone can have access to their life-saving medication.
2. Go to bat for your customers
If you want to collect the retail price from your supplies by having the insurance cover it, work with your customers to argue with insurance reps to either find your supplies in the insurance formularies and/or pressuring them to make exceptions to policy on behalf of getting your customers emergency supplies. I’ve had to do this on my own, so I know it can be done. But we customers don’t understand the industry the way a representative does.
The Eli Lilly reps I spoke to were able to help me correct the issues I ran into at the CVS pharmacy because they were able to anticipate why the pharmacists weren’t able to process the order, they were able to figure out what was causing the error, and they had the authority and ability to work with the pharmacists to create another solution for me.
Imagine if Medtronic did that for me when I was struggling to figure out how to get my supplies covered.
Yes, we have a broken healthcare system. Yes, it is expensive to create niche medical devices and products and at the end of the day, Medtronic is a business who has a bottom line to satisfy. But at the end of the day, your business will flourish when you take care of your customers the way Eli Lilly does.
It needs to be streamlined because people’s health and lives are at stake — but in honor of the bottom line, we can’t buy insulin pump supplies from you when we can’t get them covered, we can’t buy supplies when we can’t afford them, and we can’t buy them when we’re dead from not using them.
I mean, of course I wouldn’t die tomorrow if I had to go on shots, but then I’ll only be a lifelong lifelong customer until my 60s whereas on the pump I’ll be one until my 80s.
The Outcome
The representative promised to summarize my concerns about making supplies accessible and affordable (especially during the pandemic) in a letter he would send up to Medtronic’s leadership and their social media team. We ended the conversation cordially and he asked me to give Medtronic a chance to make it right.
After several open letters, it’s clear to me that they’re listening. It’s clear to me that we do have a voice, and I encourage every diabetic to speak up for themselves and to help me in speaking up for those who can’t and/or don’t know how.
I am cautiously optimistic that Medtronic will join Eli Lilly in leading the industry towards providing more paths to affordable and accessible care for people who struggle with diabetes, and I hope that these paths last beyond the pandemic.
