Dexcom Responds to COVID-19 with New Patient Assistance Program (PAP)

By Jimmy McDermott, Albert Cai, and Kelly Close

If you lost health insurance due to COVID-19, you may be eligible for discounted CGM supplies that last 180 days

Good news in trying times – Dexcom announced a new patient assistance program for current US customers who have lost health insurance due to COVID-19. When the program launches in “several weeks,” eligible customers will be able to receive up to two 90-day supply shipments. Each 90-day supply includes one transmitter and three boxes of three CGM sensors, and costs $45. For many even with traditional insurance, this is such a good deal – high deductibles normally mean the cost is far higher.

Dexcom said that certain eligibility terms will apply, such as submission of a complete program application and documentation showing loss of healthcare benefits. This still sounds easy to move through and we encourage anyone who has lost their job to do so. People that have their Dexcom CGM systems covered under a federal or state government healthcare program (such as Medicare, Medicaid or VA benefits) are not eligible for this assistance program due to government rules.

If you have lost employment and think you may qualify for Dexcom’s patient assistance program, fill out the online form.

At this time, Dexcom does not have plans to continue the program after the pandemic though we are not really sure when the “post-COVID-19” world begins. Dexcom is not the only diabetes device company to launch a financial assistance program to support customers challenged by COVID-19. Insulet expanded its financial assistance program to provide up to a six-month supply of Omnipod (60 pods) free-of-charge for people who have lost jobs and insurance due to the pandemic, who are not covered by Medicaid or other insurance, and who meet “certain financial criteria” and Senseonics has also implemented various programs. On the insulin side, there are patient assistance programs from Lilly, MannKind, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi.

Dexcom is now involved in the pandemic response, making 100,000 sensors to sell to hospitals at low-cost. Dexcom has also donated 10,000 phones and CGM readers to hospitals for scanning the sensors. The company’s new support page helps healthcare professionals use CGM under the current circumstances. Thank you to Dexcom and all manufacturers for trying to understand how challenging it must be lose one’s work in this pandemic, in a country in which there are few social safety nets.