Editor’s Note, Insulin Special Edition, December 2014

Last month I shared an event that occurred in the pharmacy concerning a 22-year-old man with type 1 diabetes who came to see me after his hospitalization for severe DKA. This past weekend he came into the pharmacy to refill his insulin and strips and I took a minute to speak with him. Since he has been able to get his medication and strips he has improved considerably. His glucose is now averaging 155 mg/dL, he has gained 6 lbs and, even though it was only 51 degrees out, he was in a short sleeve shirt and shorts.

I looked up the cost of his monthly medication care and it was about $155. I made a quick call to the county plan program and was able to figure out that his hospitalization had cost the county $47,500, enough to pay for his insulin and supplies for the next 25 years.

It is too bad we could not have given this young man his insulin before he was in a DKA crisis and sick enough to go to the hospital.