The Corner Booth

Of course we've been closely following the hot topic of high insulin prices, hoping to find some answers about how to best address this quagmire. A recent  Business Insider article and this Wall Street Journal article shed light on the "middle men" at work, known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) -- while a Bloomberg piece uncovered the " secret rebates " between those PBMs and insulin manufacturers. PBMs have been under fire for contributing to the sharp rise in healthcare costs; earlier this year Anthem accused Express Scripts of overcharging it by as much as $3 billion a year! In our own Diabetes Community, one D-Mom in Mississippi has taken on the task of "following the money trail" of insulin pricing in her own corner of the country. That woman is Nicki Nichols, who has both a husband and young daughter with type 1 and leads the Living in the World of Test Strips group on Facebook. She is the woman whose predicament made headlines this sum...

For the past five months, I've been unconnected to my insulin pump and have been doing daily injections and inhaled insulin to keep my blood sugars in check. All is well on that front, and at this point I have no plans to go back to insulin pumping in the near future. As some may remember, I've been on a pump break since mid-May -- mostly because of my need to mix it up in my diabetes management, to motivate myself to get back in gear. But also, because of my frustration and disappointment in Medtronic Diabetes and their business decision-making that I, personally, do not feel best represents the D-Community. Anyhow, with that being said... I'm still perfectly happy " playing darts ." This is a phrase my Loving and Supporting D-Spouse uses to describe my insulin injections. Whenever I ask for her help in doing a shot in the arm, she jokes that it's time to "play darts." No, she doesn't actually toss the needle at me. It's just a ...