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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello and welcome to Episode 203 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is with Amanda. Now we almost called this one a bunch of different things. Let me see what my my notes here, the light inside Amanda, poor Melissa, kick a hamster in the butt. These are all options for today's episode Title I think I've decided to go with Melissa's job is not cherry. But the interviews with Amanda. So that probably doesn't make a lot of sense right now, but it will soon. What does make sense is that we have sponsors, they keep the podcast free. So let's mention them here. First of all, longtime sponsors on the pod and Dexcom I can't thank them enough for being here supporting the show. The podcast is also sponsored by dancing for diabetes. That's right, you guys were so supportive of dancing for diabetes last year, they wanted to come back and do it again. And we have a new sponsor. And I am super excited about this because this one actually has a promo code for you where you can save some money. Please help me welcome real good foods to the Juicebox Podcast, there's going to be more information about all of them throughout the show. But for now know this, all the links you need are at Juicebox Podcast comm in your podcast app, or I can say them so many times that you won't be able to forget them. You want me to try that? Of course you don't. But I will anyway, Miami pod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box dancing for diabetes.com that's dancing the number four diabetes.com. And real good foods is that real good foods.com. And when you get there, see the food gets so excited. And by some use the promo code juice box to save 10% on your order.

So Amanda comes on. And I think we're going to talk about insurance. And we do but we also talk about type one in general. And then we kind of go on this flight of fancy making pretend phone calls to customer service people like insurance companies, pumps, suppliers, you know where you get your insulin pharmacies. We just sort of I don't know what happened, but I

Unknown Speaker 2:07
had fun.

Scott Benner 2:08
I had fun making pretend phone calls with Amanda to insurance companies. I think you might enjoy it as well. It's kind of cathartic. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always consult a physician before making changes to your medical plan.

At the moment, I'm watching as late as it is Arden sleeping and it's summertime, I think she might have went to sleep last night at like 330 in the morning. And so she's still sleeping. And I'm watching her watching her blood sugar in a mic. I set at Temp Basal. I'm like, I don't know if this is gonna hold or not. So we're gonna find out as we're going along, if I might have to run upstairs for a second. But that's neither here nor there.

Amanda 2:59
Hi, I'm Amanda. I am 31. I am type one and was diagnosed when I was 23 years old.

Scott Benner 3:07
Okay, eight years ago, you know, I went and ruin my job by doing the math very quickly. But anyway, so eight years ago, you were diagnosed that's 23. Just you just out of college for a little bit. Did

Amanda 3:18
you like go to college? Yep, just out of college. Probably about a year or so. I was diagnosed when I was in my first job out of college. So

Scott Benner 3:28
and we are talking today this is very specific. You emailed in your life insurance, right? insurance. And so you have a great perspective because you were younger, but still an adult. And you've had diabetes now for a long time. So you've had you know, you've rolled with the the phone calls and I'm assuming the cursing at people on the phone and not getting your supplies and etc. And you just really seemed very interested in wanting to talk about sort of that aspect and a little more. So we'll dig in a little bit and then we'll we'll figure out what's going on. So we'll start at the beginning of 23 diagnosed at your first job were you living on your own?

Amanda 4:11
Yeah, so I was living with my now husband been fiance. Let's see I I don't really remember what led up to it. I just remember that I had an extremely stressful period of time. Like, extremely stressful couple of weeks. And, and then one week, I was fine on Sunday. And by Thursday, my vision was completely blurry. I could not see anything. And so I called the doctor and got an appointment and went in and looking back on it. I had all of the classic symptoms of high blood sugar. I don't know why I didn't connect the dots. I was urinating all the time. I was constantly so It like, you know, just dry mouth. Classic stuff, right? So I finally get into the doctor. And as a fun side note, thankfully, my husband's glasses prescription corrected the vision issue. So I was still able to drive to work during this time.

Unknown Speaker 5:19
So that was my glasses. And

Amanda 5:22
thankfully, thankfully his prescription worked for this issue. I went in, they tested my blood sugar, and I was like, well over 500. They wanted to admit me, and I was like, No, I'm poor, you can't admit me to the hospital stealing other people's glasses,

Scott Benner 5:38
I can't afford health care.

Amanda 5:41
I'm 23. So they gave me insulin brought me down, sent me off to an endocrinologist that got diagnosed me immediately as type two didn't do any sort of tests whatsoever, just diagnosed me as type two. And I didn't know any better. So I started taking the oral meds that he gave me and I was with that, and oh, for about six months before I got fed up with his full hockey. You know, every time I saw this was pretty frequently, early on, he would constantly remind me that birth control could raise your blood sugar, and I said, but so do babies. So I got rid of that guy went to a different guy. And that endo was like, hey, you've never been tested for your type, we should probably do that. And then figured out I was actually type one. So all those oral meds were taking was doing absolutely nothing. Got me on some insulin pens. So I was on pens for a few years and got on the Omni pod about four years ago and got on my Dexcom about two years ago.

Scott Benner 6:53
I'm just imagining the first endocrinologist is very old guy, and he's actually coming on to you by going you know, birth control can make your blood sugar high. You're on birth control. Aren't you a man? Like right, just like being like, like, 1953 slick with you or something like that.

Amanda 7:10
He was definitely ready to retire and I felt like he was checked out.

Unknown Speaker 7:14
Yeah, like,

Amanda 7:15
he didn't even test me for my type. Right? I'm a new patient, brand new patient. Like,

Scott Benner 7:22
fine if you take this pill, the lady that brings the sandwiches in gave me these give these a try. I have

Unknown Speaker 7:28
a bottle of that form and at me and just, it's fine. Right out the door at noon for a long lunch and a golf outing.

Scott Benner 7:36
You know who's gonna die soon? Amanda? Me and you Here we go. Great. Well, so you've moved on to somebody better, which is excellent in pens you did shots for Well, how did you find that the first number of years on on injections were you making out okay?

Amanda 7:53
Um, you know, I don't truly think that my blood sugar was well controlled until actually fairly recently. I just kind of stumbled through those first few years. Yeah, probably not as good of control as I could. And part of it was probably just being young and dumb, and not realizing all the effects that it could have. But the other part was just not knowing any better. Like, I don't really feel like I've ever been well educated. Like I never I've never sat down with a diabetes educator. Like I said, I feel like my entry into the land of diabetes was like a real rough landing, like a crash landing.

Scott Benner 8:42
All dancing for diabetes hopes from you is that you'll check them out. They're a small organization dedicated to helping people with type one diabetes, they're dancing for diabetes, calm, it's dancing, the number four diabetes calm. They're also on Facebook, and they have a wonderful page on Instagram. stop liking that egg that's more popular than Kylie Jenner and check them out. Do you think it's a little bit because you're an adult too. And I you know, when your kids when you have a kid who's diagnosed right and you're the parent, you're standing there and you're all like, Oh my god, everything's horrible and, and in your kids, like all sad looking and skinny and everything. They're like, Well, here's what we're going to do for you. And they, they really throw the, you know, the medical kitchen sink at you like, you know, and but when you're an adult, it's really is like the world's a different place when you're an adult. People were just like, hey, you're sick, here's the medicine go away. It nobody nobody feels bad for you know, Amanda looking skinny. And you know, and you know, you know what I mean? Like, seriously, like, it's adults are treated differently. It's very, it's just very, I don't know, like, I think humanity is taken out of it a little bit, I think

Amanda 9:47
when I was 23, so yes, an adult but a young adult and I like to think that I'm pretty fiercely independent. And you know, I just feel like I probably just out of necessity have had to learn this stuff on my own. But at 23 I'm glad that I just had insurance through my job like, I had the foresight to get the better plan than the rest of my co workers because we were all I really

Scott Benner 10:20
Yes. All. Right, they all bought the catastrophic plan, because that premium was $10 cheaper than the other one. And I at least had the foresight, before diagnosis to pick the plan that I was like, Well, yeah, but if I do get hit by a car, like I need to afford to live after that, yeah, get the better plan, and thankfully, I did, because otherwise, I would have been screwed, you know, and it did. So it did help you beginning i. Okay. So you know, it's funny to go through your progression of like needles and then a pump and then a glucose monitor. It's funny, because it, I mean, it's not that different for a lot of people, but it really mimics Arden's like, we were doing injections for a number of years. And things were not, I mean, you know, she was little, but I was definitely not doing well at all. And then when we added the pump, it did get easier. But things didn't really come into focus until I could see her blood sugar through the through the Dexcom. And and was that a similar experience? She I feel like that's what you were saying when you were talking about in the beginning.

Amanda 11:24
Yeah, the Dexcom has been a real game changer. When I just had just the Omnipod and I would test my sugar, enter my carbs to eat and then a couple hours later test and I was still high. I just assumed like, Oh, I carb counted wrong. That's on me. Well, you know, that's probably also part of it. But at least now I can see okay, like, you know, this food affects me far differently than this food and I should extend the Bolus. I never extended a Bolus until I got my Dexcom because I didn't understand the value of it.

Scott Benner 12:02
I saw it just last night as I was going to bed there was a parent online who said, You know, I we bolus for dinner and kid fell asleep. And blood sugar went to 65. They panicked and shut his bazel off or her basil. I don't remember off for an hour. And then they went back and checked again. And the kids blood sugar was like 270. And I thought oh my god, you were probably they don't have a CGM. Right, so but I'm like that 65 was probably just a beautiful Pre-Bolus for the meal. And the parent kept saying, but there was insulin on board there wasn't on board. I'm like, Yeah, I was thinking you needed that insulin, like that insulin was there doing a job, you know. And as soon as you took away the basal insulin, now you basically, you know, whatever bolus was left behind was now acting as bazel. And there was nothing to fight the food and or, you know, body function or whatever. And I thought, wow, that's such a shame. Like they did it. It sounds like they did it almost perfectly, and then panicked at the end. And that panic came from like a lack of information.

Amanda 13:04
Right? Yeah. Until you can see what's happening with your sugars. It's it's hard to make an educated decision. And honestly, if I had to pick between the pump, or the CGM, I would pick the CGM.

Unknown Speaker 13:17
Yeah, no, I've

Scott Benner 13:18
said that point. I'm not looking to give either of them away. But if you took them back for me incrementally, I'd think oh, I guess I could go back to shots. And, you know, we would just inject more to kind of accomplish what we do. And of course, we wouldn't be able to adjust the bazel. But right, you know, but at least I could still see what was happening. Yeah, no, I agree. So you had good insurance, good enough insurance for 23 year old, you were like you had a like an entry level job. I'm assuming you didn't become the CEO immediately.

Unknown Speaker 13:49
And so Kelly, no, no,

Scott Benner 13:51
he didn't see he didn't see the light inside of you, Amanda and just

Amanda 13:54
just didn't see my potential.

Scott Benner 13:57
So you come in, you come in, first of all, listen, you had a job. I'm sure your family was thrilled. You know, like you didn't come home after college, although where they had a moved in with a boy.

Amanda 14:08
Well, we were engaged before we moved in, at least, Not that it matters. But yeah, we. I actually graduated college in 2009. So it was like, right at the beginning of the recession. My senior year was actually a little crazy. I had three different jobs. I applied for a job, February of my senior year in my industry, just thinking, Oh, get my name across the desk. They're never going to hire me because I don't graduate till May. But they hired me. So I had to adjust my class schedule. Thank God, I had, like, you know, really accommodating professors. And to adjust my class schedule so that I could accommodate that sounds like it's the recession. I'm not going to turn down an industry job before graduation, so I was working like, I don't know, like 80 or 90 hours a week, including class and certifiably insane, that distress you were referring to earlier? You know, this, this came after it. And I honestly like, I can't remember what was so stressful. All I remember from that time period is the diagnosis. So whatever was so stressful must not have been that memorable. Yeah, just the time in your life. But the theory was from my endo Anyway, after I got with a decent one. And he seems to think that perhaps my pancreas was just like limping along this whole time. Because as I look back on my symptoms of high blood sugar, I could have attributed to any number of things when I was in school, I just get really tired. Well, of course, I was tired, I was working all the time, and never slept. And I was in college. You know, weight gain. Well, I was in God. And, you know, so a lot of that stuff, I could contribute to other things. So I was probably like, pre diabetic the whole time. And my endo thinks that perhaps the stress just killed killed it. And Grace was done for and that week, my blood sugar just went crazy. Which is why led to the vision issues, which I've discovered is, you know, something that I can see when my heart when my blood sugar is very high, that affects my vision.

Scott Benner 16:23
Now, I know your vision came back after you got on insulin, everything.

Unknown Speaker 16:27
Yeah. Yeah,

Scott Benner 16:28
yeah. Alright, so what what insurance issues have you lived through? Or there's just a litany of them? Or is it just the overall the did you want to just talk overall about what it adds to your life? Because I mean, I feel like I can talk forever about just what happens because of it. Like, I mean, the days I've spent leaning on a countertop with like, my head in my hand with a phone, yelling at the automated machine, like

Unknown Speaker 16:57
customer service.

Unknown Speaker 16:57
If you'd

Scott Benner 17:01
like to customer service, push three non customers so that you start correct, I did learn by the way, if you curse into it, it moves you through the process faster. I think they must have like, keyed in a couple of certain words, that mean, stop making this person hold, just get them through. So all of my statements start with every question, are you calling for I'm calling about effing this, I'm calling about because it just moves through quicker, but but how about Yeah,

Amanda 17:27
I'll try that next time pro tip. It's just been like, well, I guess as a 31 year old, I feel like because like I said, I had a very rocky intro to diabetes. And you know, who doesn't, but I just feel like I had to, like really fight for myself and learn for myself. And just, it's not like there was any, like, one defining thing that happened, it was just like, I've just learned a lot of stuff over the years having to figure it out for myself, and at 31. I feel like I know, so much more about insurance than my peers, who have functioning pancreas is, and great for them. But, you know, like, they just don't have to worry about all this stuff. And so, you know, I talk about hshs and fa, FSH and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it goes over their head and pays the deductibles and out of pocket maxes, like, you know, they have no, the act might be speaking Chinese to them. You know, so I just I kind of wish that I didn't have to deal with all of it. But on the other hand, I've learned a lot. And so that knowledge will help me going forward.

Scott Benner 18:40
What do you think are some of the, you know, like you said, some of the prototypes about dealing with insurance. When you think about how to explain the Dexcom, g six continuous glucose monitor to someone, the common wisdom is to tell them, you don't need the finger sticks anymore. You know, it's FDA approved, that you can treat without finger sticks. So hey, it saves your fingers. That's great. You know, other people like to know about the share and follow features that you know, with your iPhone or Android, you can watch a loved one's blood sugar, wherever they are. And that's all true. But I don't think that gets to the core of what makes Dexcom so amazing. In my opinion, it's the ability to see how fast your blood sugar's moving and what direction it's going in. And not just for safety, but so that you can make good decisions about your insulin that will stop those rises and falls next time. It's kind of boring to say the data is really important, but it is. It's important to teach you how to use insulin. If you're listening to this podcast, you know that I think that understanding how insulin works is the most important step you can make and the best way to come to that understanding By having a dexcom, continuous glucose monitor, I'm telling you right now, go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box and get started today, you will not be disappointed. As a matter of fact, you'll be elated. We do you see what's going on in your body weight? Do you find out how comforting it is? To know, good decisions come from informed people. And Dexcom is how you get that information dexcom.com forward slash juicebox with links in your show notes, or Juicebox podcast.com?

Amanda 20:35
Well, I have learned that you need to know your plan inside and out. I guess the impetus for me writing the email, too, was that I had just seen, I'm in a lot of diabetic Facebook groups. And I just I constantly see people post things like, Hey, I have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, what durable medical equipment suppliers do they cover? And just it's sort of frustrating that people don't understand that. That's not how it works. You know, I just, I really wish people knew their plans more inside and out.

Scott Benner 21:13
Because we could have the same insurance plan in the same state. But I could have a different level of it than you do.

Amanda 21:20
Well, it's not even it's, you know, you and I could both have the same carrier. But your plan is dictated by your employer, and what options they choose. It's all based on what options your employer has chosen. So you are probably going to have a different copay and deductible than I am. And they might have different in and out in network and out of network providers. And so asking the internet, Hey, does Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas cover by room healthcare doesn't help you. Hey,

Scott Benner 21:56
it's like yelling. I think I've told this story here before, so I'm just going to cut through it really quickly. But when Arden was really little, she had a lot of dental work she needed. And they needed to put her the one to put her to sleep to do it. And she was really tiny, there are baby teeth and all this stuff. But the dentist was uncomfortable putting her out because of her blood sugar. So he said, Look, I want to do this at a hospital. And the insurance company who said no, we're not paying for that. This is dental, and they didn't care about any of the arguments about our safety or health or anything like that. And we went through for a while. And I thought, oh my god are we gonna have to pay for this is $15,000. And it's like, I can't afford that. And I eventually just called My, my wife's company. And it turned out that they were you know, it was a self paying, you know, policy, which just means that every one of their employees uses health care all year long. And every once in a while during the year, they just write a check to the insurance company to cover it all. The insurance company is really just, they're just sort of the middleman for your healthcare. They're not really paying it right. And so

Unknown Speaker 23:06
the third party administrator,

Scott Benner 23:08
that's it. So her company called the insurance company and said, let them, let them do this. And they said, Okay, and then we scheduled it, that was it. Yeah. Then Then at the end of the year, her company just wrote a check that was $15,000 larger than it was going to be to pay for the health care of all their employees.

Amanda 23:25
Yeah, I'm currently dealing with a somewhat of a similar situation. So before I had this, I've been at this employer for almost five years, but I was on my husband's insurance for the first couple years that I was here. And he his employer was a much larger employer. So they had a traditional insurance relationship where you know, the employer pays the premium, the insurance company is actually, you know, doing the insurance. Now, my employer is actually as your wife's self funded. So my carrier is the third party administrator. So basically, my employer just pays them to do all the paperwork. And at the end of the day, the carrier pays for the claims out of my employer's bank account. So yeah, they're just middlemen. But I think it's been kind of a struggle, because I don't know if it's the fact that they're the third party administrator, or if they're just not reading our SPD, or I don't know, but switching has been a very rocky road, they do not understand Omnipod at all, they're like, don't get it. I've like I even had to create visual aids. I had to educate my HR department on how Omni pod works, because the way our policy was written, or at least the way they were reading our spdr summary plan description says you get one insulin pump per year. Well, that's a great policy, right? But on paper, it looks like when I submit my pods that that's my first, my first order pauses my insulin pump for the year, and then 90 days later when I need more, but you're denied because I already gave you an insulin pump. No, that's not how it works. So I had to go through this whole thing, I finally got it covered, and now still having issues because after we got the whole pod thing straightened out, then my warranty and my PDM expired. And now that's an up there. It's just like, Come on, guys. But at least because because it is a third party situation, I can just go to my HR department, once I've hit my limit and say, Hey, like, here's the situation, I really need you to call your reps at the carrier. And they can usually make stuff happen, which is great. You know, in in another situation where the employer didn't have that relationship, I'm sure it would be a lot more difficult and a lot more fighting.

Scott Benner 26:05
Yeah. Plus, it's so much, it's just so much more work. And

Unknown Speaker 26:11
time.

Scott Benner 26:12
It cannot be understated how much time we lose to being on the phone with insurance companies, you know, durable medical cut male middlemen, you know, edgepark are one of those, you know, one of those terrible, terrible suppliers,

Unknown Speaker 26:30
you know, back there shall not be named,

Scott Benner 26:34
it just really I remember there was a time. My gosh, I don't know how many years ago, but freestyle had a recall on their test strips. And they handled the recall. So in so poorly, they were like, Look, just put all your test strips in here, mail them back to us, and we'll replace them. And so like, I contact them, I said, well, there's like, no, like, Wait, how will you know how many I sent back? And she's like, well, we'll count them. And I was like, Well, what if I send back? I don't know, 10 boxes attached your ups, and your person counts them as five boxes of test strips. That's a fair mistake. I get five boxes back and I call you're gonna go Hey, no, I sent you 10. How do I prove that to you? Right. And she goes, Well, there's no way I'm like, so you want me to send you these incredibly expensive test strips that I bought? With no no mechanism in place for you to? You know, but I don't know, like, you want me to take a picture of them? Do you want me to like, what do you want me to do? And I said, because none of that's gonna work. I said, every other medical company in this situation says, tell me how many you have. We'll send them to you. And then when you get the package, you send back what you don't, what what you're returning. That's how everyone else has it. But for some reason, freestyle just couldn't do it. The days and days, and hours and days, I was by the time I was done, I was talking to like high levels of the company just explained to them. I remember saying at one point, I could put my five year old in charge of this, this return, they could come up with a better concept and what you've done here, and the woman was like just put them in a box and send them back.

Unknown Speaker 28:14
And I was like,

Scott Benner 28:16
no, what, why don't you know? And a week later, like, literally a week later, my wife's like, Oh my god, just mail them back. She's like, you're gonna have a stroke. And I was like, You know what? You're right. So I put these 10 boxes of test strips, which is, you know, I think at the time 200 and a box is a lot of test trips, and I sent them back and I just crossed my fingers that they were gonna send me the right amount. And it's extremely frustrating, like, all of these little situations.

Amanda 28:46
I yeah, I feel like I'm constantly babysitting claims I'm constantly logging on to my carriers website to check on the status of this claim. I'm constantly calling to check up on this because guess what, they didn't process it right? Or, you know, it's just, it's so exhausting. It's, it's kind of like, you know, is it not punishment enough that my pancreas doesn't work? In addition, I also have to deal with these people. Oh, my gosh, and

Scott Benner 29:17
this is not specifically insurance related, but my favorite one, my the one that makes me laugh out loud while I'm on the phone is still sick when they say this. Hey, you're out of refills. We'll contact your doctor and get that straightened out.

Unknown Speaker 29:33
Oh, sure. You will.

Amanda 29:35
Yeah. A little lies. No, I actually my prescription is up tomorrow with my durable medical equipment provider. And guess who will be calling them today? You'll be like, hey, so just want to make sure you got my endo updated because I Reese, I recently moved and make sure you got my new doctor. also want to make sure what prescriptions you're going to fax to them that I can give them a heads up that your fax Because for some bizarre reason, we're still faxing things in 2018. Yes, this whole process, I feel like just the length of time it takes for them from start to finish. It's like, I could have like, gotten a carrier pigeon, and to get the forms to you and have it done faster than you did it electronically.

Scott Benner 30:25
Amanda and I are talking now. And you know, kind of the focus of these last few minutes has been the time that diabetes takes up in your life. Right, there's already so much that you have to pay attention to, you need something to be easy, Omni pod is that thing. So you get yourself an insulin pump, not only do you not have to, you know inject anymore, and instead of pulling out needles, pulling out insulin, you know, getting out your pen, dialing it up all this stuff, sticking it in, you know, injecting, pulling it out all the time, just now, when you want to give yourself insulin, you push buttons, it only takes a moment. The other night, I was cooking dinner, and I wanted Arden to Pre-Bolus. So I texted her and I said hey, you have to Pre-Bolus now but she was upstairs and her PDM, her personal diabetes manager for the pump was downstairs. And I didn't feel like running it up to her and she was doing her homework and she didn't feel like running it down. So I just walked into another room underneath of where her desk is on the second floor and held the PDM up over my head and gave Arden insulin through the floor. I guess through the ceiling, if you're thinking about it, from my perspective, that's what wireless gives you easy, you would not accomplish something like that with a tube pump with a two pump, the controller would be stuck to the person. And even changing it on the pot is so super simple that we have it down to a pit stop that only takes three minutes. You fill it, you prime it, you apply it, you push the button, I swear to you It's that easy. The best part, if you go to my Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox Omni pod will send you a free no obligation demo of the pod for you to try. So you don't even have to take my word for it, you can just do it yourself. Check out the links are in the show notes at Juicebox podcast.com. For now they're stuck in your brain. Because I said my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. One more thing, please don't forget to check out dancing for diabetes.com. They're on Instagram, Facebook and at dancing the number for diabetes.com dancing for diabetes doesn't want anything from you, other than for you to know they exist. That's pretty simple for you to do your online anyway, check them out. And it's not as if right? It's not as if every person on the planet isn't getting a prescription filled. It's not as if this is the first day. You know, it's not as if they hired a bunch of people who had never seen the the industry before. No one can figure it's it can't possibly be that difficult. Like when I spoke to a freestyle person like, couldn't have really been that difficult to understand there's no way to substantiate how much I've sent to you. You need to build something into the process or you need to accept the risk not me. Right, right. Like is that?

Unknown Speaker 33:11
Is that a tough concept

Scott Benner 33:11
for a college graduate making what I'm assuming is a six figure salary sitting in a desk somewhere to understand. Back to the idea of like, Oh, don't worry, we'll check it you you need a refill. So this happened to me recently. After years of not every time someone's ever said that to me like no, no, no, we'll I'll call I'll take care of it like, right. But this time, we just switched companies and I thought okay, well, let's let them try. Yeah, and it was right and well, it's gonna be fine. I hung up the phone to my wife is why did you do that? I was like, I don't even want to have hope. And she laughed at me. I'm like, I'm a hopeful person dammit. And I hope they're gonna do this. So I put a little note on my calendar. And a week later, I call back and I said, Hey, you know, I'm just calling to double check that you were able to get the refills and that my product is on its way for my daughter. And they the guy goes, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, I said, Of course you don't. I said, I'm going to take care of it right now. No, no will and I went, man, listen, stop. I actually said stop. I'm like, the next time there's only a game. Yeah, I said the next time there's a meeting and your manager says Hey, what are you hearing on the phone? Tell people we know the game. We know you're not gonna get the refills. Stop saying it. It's infuriating. I said, I'm gonna have the whole thing taken care of in 15 minutes. Just stop. And I said nice email to the nurse practitioner and she sent one back and we were all done. It was that easy, you know, and, oh, three phone calls. Three phone calls for them?

Amanda 34:43
Yeah. Yeah, like I said, My particular supplier still uses fax. And so I have to call them to initiate the whole process and then call my endo and say hey, heads up you're supposed to be you're allegedly getting a fax Today, and then when I call back three days later, because nothing's happened, they're like, No, we didn't get a fax and I gotta call the supplier back and be like, hey, so that fax you allegedly sent What happened? Oh, we didn't send it. And it's like back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And again, like, What? What the heck, like get it together in a world

Scott Benner 35:18
where Yesterday my daughter said to me, hey, the dentist told me I should get a Waterpik. Now that I have braces, and I said, Okay, let me just tell you the text I got while you and I were talking. She told me that yesterday around five in the afternoon. Hold on one second. Let me let me check my text here. Your package with the Waterpik has been sent. It will be delivered on Tuesday, July 31.

Unknown Speaker 35:44
What's today's date?

Scott Benner 35:45
Let me just take a look real quick. Oh, it's Tuesday, July 31. So I can get a Waterpik to my house in under 24 hours for no extra charge, by the way. But a company who is doing the same thing over and over and over again hasn't so what does it tell you? It tells you that they know. They know it's messed up and there's no reason for them to make it any better.

Amanda 36:08
Right? Every time I call an insurance company or a durable medical supplier I like I envisioned in my head that it's like this big Rube Goldberg Machine Dr. Seuss inspired looking machine like right like like this one person initiate the faxes and for my prescription and they just put like a barbell down a chute and it like has to knock over several dominoes and like, you know, kick a hamster in the butt and all this stuff before anything happened when they could have just done it. Apparently,

Scott Benner 36:43
the button and a water picture is up at your house. Just push the button and send me the test drives push the button. Make this phone call the other day from from Mike my company now and because we just switched a little while ago, hey, you ordered land sets for Atlanta doesn't exist anymore. And I was like, But wait, what? And I said I didn't I didn't order Lance. That's I ordered the lance. She here. Oh, yeah, you ordered the lance. And it doesn't exist anymore. It's like, wow, you couldn't even get that right. I'm like, okay, so it doesn't exist anymore. I have, like 1000 landslides here, like, what am I gonna do about that? We don't have it. Okay. So I tweeted the company because I know the person that runs the social media for the company. And we have a fun back and forth all day long while she's taking pictures around the office looking for a lance that they don't make anymore, which was hilarious, but didn't get me a lance. And and then I, Sherry's. And then I went online, and I was like, oh god, I can pay $40 for this plastic Lance on Amazon. And somebody will sell it to me like third party brand new

Amanda 37:53
now, or you'll get it in two days, and sometimes same day. And now

Unknown Speaker 37:57
here's my thought,

Scott Benner 38:00
did I pay $40 for all the lance apps that are in my house still? Where if I just throw them away? Or give them to somebody else? Who can use them? And just reorder a new Lance with the land sets? Will that not cost me anything? Like, am I gonna am I about to spend $40 to be a reasonable person and not waste things when I could waste things and save the $40? Because my plan will cover this out of pocket with no out of pocket. Like how is this the situation I'm being put in? Like, like to like plan that? You know, what if I didn't know a person that I could give these things to like, I'm being told that if I throw these away, it'll be better for me.

Amanda 38:41
And in that a very similar situation is why I stopped using the lancing device. And now I just stabbed myself with the Lancet myself, because I can go buy whatever the heck lancets I want from Walmart, and just stab myself and it's fine.

Scott Benner 38:56
There's a backstory to you that I don't think we're getting to where you lost in the woods for a couple years as a child or anything like that. Parents completely ignore you and your 678 year old years, they just don't even look at her. She'll get along on our own fine.

Amanda 39:15
Well, my mother did teach me how to do my laundry at age 10. And as she I waited till 10 because I couldn't reach the knobs but then she got me a booster seat, like a booster to reach them. You're

Scott Benner 39:28
staring at you when you're nine and she's like, my kids grow so I can stop doing the laundry. I just needed to be like three inches taller. And I'm out of this. Yeah,

Amanda 39:39
no, my parents were very loving, very, very concerned about our well being but just instill this, you know, fiercely independent attitude and us and like, you know, no one's gonna do this for you see? better do it and I'm actually I'm super grateful because like I said, like, I think stumbled into this whole diabetes thing. And you know, it took eight years to get my balance. And I'm just glad that I had the, you know, the fortitude and the stick to itiveness to learn like, Okay, I have to have to fight with these insurance companies, I have to fight with the DMA providers and not going to take no for an answer, because that's just ridiculous. You're just telling me No, because your computer screen says something, you know, like, so I'm glad. And yeah, like, I kind of jotted down a few notes before we talked. And that was one of the things that I did, I did jot down was, don't assume your insurance company or your providers are doing their job. You can't, you have to check on it. Appeal as necessary. Even do as much prep work as you can, like I said, I'm going to go call my provider probably at lunch today and say, Hey, what's the deal with my prescriptions?

Scott Benner 40:55
There it is your job to stay on top of it, whether it should be or not. And that's a fantastic point. And I'll give you another point. This is something I've learned over time, because I'm chatty. Don't talk while they're thinking on the other end of the phone. Yeah, don't give them anything else to do to consider to utter because these are people who are very likely just gotten this job aren't being paid very much, very well could be running it from a laptop on their sofa with the prices right on in the background on mute. Do not distract them while they're working. Because Because if you try to hold like a Hey, how's the weather conversation, because you're trying to be polite or something like that, you will just confuse them. And when you can use them, they will make mistakes, I promise. Take that from a very chatty person who's always like, So hey, Melissa, while you're looking for my land sets a baseball game last night. And you know, because I'm just like, I get bored in the quiet so much I get chatty. And then I'm sure they're thinking this guy should get like a podcast or something. And

Unknown Speaker 42:01
he's got way

Scott Benner 42:02
too much to say. And, and, and I just I've learned over time, like don't talk while they're thinking, don't talk while they're typing. Don't mess with them. Not that I was, you know, blowing a trumpet and screaming and yelling in the background. I just, I just thought this is an adult, they can probably do that and talk about something else no wrong. Don't bet.

Amanda 42:22
Or I'm glad to hear though that you also are short. And Curt with them. Because sometimes I get off a phone call. And I'm like, Man, I'm a I'm a real be stressed like it is my husband has heard me on the phone sometimes. And he used to be in customer service. And he's like, you have to be nicer. Like, I worked in customer service. And when people were that nasty To me, it made me not want to help them. And I'm like, you know, every time I've gotten real nasty with someone, like literally every time I always followed up with with Hey, Joe, I know that this is not personally your fault. And I'm sorry. But you just happened to be the guy I'm talking to. So please make it happen. So I won't have to call you ever again. You

Scott Benner 43:10
never talk to me again. And your husband makes a good point. And I believe in his point. And back in the day when I was younger. And this was more frustrating. And I didn't have Ken This is important. And I didn't have really good control over Arden's diabetes. And I was constantly privately scared that I was killing her. Then all the stuff from this was even more and more stressful, right? I used to say to them at the end, like look, I realized I just got upset. I was like, you don't know what it's like. And I don't want to sound sad or like, like, I'm looking for pity. But my life is incredibly stressful. And there's already so much for me to do. And you guys said you were going to do this, I can't do all these things for you. And back then I really felt that way. Now I have more. You know, I have more compute cycles free in my mind. But luckily, because we figured out the diabetes part, right? But had I not I'd still be in that space. And by the time I was really steeped deep in that space, and that space. I mean, I would just like I always say to people who listen to the podcast, you know, me, and how I think about diabetes. I'm not putting on a show at all. But the part you're not getting is that I love to curse, and yell and do all those things that you would not imagine of me if you listen to the podcasts. But if you were here while I was on the phone with my insurance company last year, who didn't want to continue to pay for my physical therapy for my shoulder surgery, you would have been scared. And so when I'm just yelling, I don't even know how to beat things out. I'm not that good at doing podcast stuff. Or I would just tell you, it's just you mother, boom, you're trying to kill me. I'm gonna just you know, like rip out of my mind. And yeah, and I have it together better now. Like I now start my conversation. Like this, I don't know why I've chosen the word Melissa as the person who's on the other phone. But I'm like, hey, Melissa, how are you? She's like, how are you? How's your day? And I said, well, Melissa, it's going great so far. And I think, how it goes after this is going to be in large part to how you answer this very next question. And it's not your fault if you answer it wrong. But trust me, this is gonna go wrong for you. If you don't say, I don't know what else to do anymore. Let's just put it on Front Street. You guys have been messing me around for two weeks. This is the last time or again, another great tip. If you've made a call or two, and it's not going anywhere, do not waste your time explaining to the CSR for a third time, what's going on? Just go. Hi, this

Unknown Speaker 45:48
is Melissa.

Scott Benner 45:49
Melissa, I need to talk to your supervisor. Well, let me first know, Melissa, do escalate this call. I've explained this three times already. I'm not doing it again. No offense to you. I bet you're the one who would get it right. But I can't take that risk. I can't Melissa, cuz I got three hours into this already. And I can't take that risk. So you just got to put me on the phone call me please push the button, Melissa. Like and then she's like, hold

Unknown Speaker 46:11
on. Trust me, Melissa. Taught me.

Unknown Speaker 46:15
Hold, please.

Scott Benner 46:16
There you go. And then you know, Hi, this

Unknown Speaker 46:18
is Becky. I'm

Unknown Speaker 46:19
the manager. I'm like, you are not the manager but okay.

Unknown Speaker 46:25
Lies,

Scott Benner 46:25
liar. I've actually said this. My wife said this is the most hurtful thing she's ever heard me say on the phone to an insurance person. Let me speak to your supervisor. And then they say, I am the ranking supervisor the room and I go, Oh, you can't be. You can't be the person in charge. This you are not Oh my god, you're in charge. Well, that's why this is going so poorly. You have no power. They've left you powerless and in charge. And you don't even understand what you're talking about. This is why the company's falling apart. Because you're at the top of the chain. Are you sure you're in charge? There's no one above you. You own the company? Do your Billy

Amanda 47:05
Melissa's and the Phillies in the world, go home every night and they're just like,

Unknown Speaker 47:11
I got to get a better job.

Amanda 47:15
No, I do. I do feel bad. Every You know, every once and I'm like, man, I really got to retire my witch's broom for a while. Like

Scott Benner 47:23
you are making me remember you were making me remember? Amanda, you're killing me making me remember these phone calls now. Hi, here's one for you. Here's what a horrible sob I might be in situations like this. Insurance companies when they deny you deny deny you at the end of the call. I'll sometimes say. Let's say you seem like a really nice person. And you seem young. So I'm like in my mid 40s. Let me give you one great piece of advice for life. Do your best to find a job that doesn't make you leave your soul outside in your car when you park. Is this really what you want to add to the world? Melissa, what you've done here today, declining an eight year old from having insulin, an eight year old? Aren't you sitting here right now thinking, Oh, I should have taken that other job. Because most of your right you should have taken the other job, but it's not too late. And then I hang up the phone. I'm like that poor girl just needs to pay her rent. And no one she nothing she said to me was her idea. You know, she was But who?

Amanda 48:28
Maybe Maybe we're feeding our own vicious cycle because I bet those places have such high turnover.

Scott Benner 48:35
I'm not going to tell you an absolutely 100% True story. That is bizarre. My mom went on a vacation last year when she came home. She couldn't stop talking about this pizza that she had. She was going on about low carb and cauliflower crust. And it was great because she was trying to stay away from grains. And I just she wouldn't stop talking about it. I didn't know how to help her. I'd never heard of it before. And my mom's older. She didn't know what to do. So I looked online and I found it and I was like Oh, there it is. Mom, you can buy it there. All's well. That ends well. Months later, I received an email from real good foods, the company my mom was talking about, and they would like to advertise on the podcast. Well, I'm super excited. But I've never had the food before. So I can't just I'm not just going to tell you hey, the pizza is great. Try the poppers and take their check. I want to make sure I like them. So they shipped me samples. Well, first of all the way the food arrived was incredibly impressive. I thought how do you ship frozen food? But oh my goodness, was it frozen?

Unknown Speaker 49:37
I couldn't believe it.

Scott Benner 49:38
So they passed my first test with flying colors. The food arrives in perfect condition. Put it in the freezer, we start making stuff. I start with the enchiladas, which I think now are my wife's favorite. The kids love the poppers. Everyone loves the pizza. absolutely spectacular. But they've got a ton of stuff so you're gonna have to check it out. It's a real good foods.com family size Pizza, delicious flavors that got Margarita pepperoni, there's mix packs available. And when you use the promo code juice box at checkout, you save 10% on your order. So I guess if you want to be as excited as my mom was that day, go to real good foods calm and see what they have to offer, actually, you'll be more excited than her because you'll save 10%

Amanda 50:22
Melissa's job can't be cherry, right? He's listening to you and may like just just the braid her every day and day in day out. So she probably quits in like three months. And then we've got Billy Billy in the door, and Billy has to learn all this stuff. And he's not properly trained. And then he just it's like a vicious cycle, right? Like

Scott Benner 50:42
you're making a good point. And Melissa's job is not sure you could easily be the title of this episode, just so you know. Well, oh my gosh, I'm all upset now.

Amanda 50:55
I know. It's like, you know what, I already have gray hair at 31. And you're giving me more. Okay.

Scott Benner 51:04
I'm on the phone with you looking at my kids blood sugar, because it's nine o'clock in the morning. And she's trying to sleep in on the in the summertime. And all I'm thinking is please get this worked out. Because then I have to go set a Temp Basal soon or, you know, like, I have to get her ups or blood sugars. Like it's just, there's too much for me to think about. And please stop, just like stop. Well, you know, you know what, you know what an aspect is interesting, a good look into insurance companies and what they can do if they want to do and this is sort of gone away now. But, and this isn't something that you or some of the people listening to might know about. But there was a moment in time for a few years. If you had enough Twitter followers in a medical space, all I had to do was send a tweet that said I don't understand why United Healthcare won't help my daughter get her supplies. Oh, and I am not kidding you. Inside of 10 minutes, a direct message comes back, please send us your phone number and your daughter's first name and last name and date of birth. We would like to get this straightened out immediately. And then you get a phone call. Not from Billy, not from Melissa, not from any other, you know, person who they're jamming in these terrible jobs. But from a very thoughtful person who's clearly been with UnitedHealthcare. Whoever your insurance company is, for many, many years, who sits down and says what happened. And you explain it to them just like you expected. When you talk to the customer service person, they go Okay, hold on. Oh, I see what happened. Are you gonna be home tomorrow? You'll we'll fix it. Okay, thanks for calling. So then

Amanda 52:40
you I guess it would have just happened First off, I wouldn't have had to tweet, you wouldn't have had to shame you publicly. I wouldn't have lost three

Scott Benner 52:45
years off of my life yelling at Billy. Like, like, you know, so. So.

Unknown Speaker 52:50
Billy wouldn't be in therapy. Exactly.

Scott Benner 52:54
At Home With a hairless cat. Because she's so nervous. The cat's nervous, you know, and, and so Melissa is at home with a hairless cat easily could read the title of this episode. Now. Amanda dammit. I'm so but but yeah, but so I just sat there. And all I could think was Oh, God. So this is possible. And there is someone here who understands this, and I wasn't asking something unreasonable? Oh, enter the phone call. Is there anything else I can help you with? No. Would you consider taking that tweet down? That's the last question they asked. Now. I don't know if they figured out that Twitter isn't as powerful as it used to be or what they figured out. But it doesn't work anymore. The way it used to?

Amanda 53:32
Well, everyone in their mom has Twitter, right? So you've got more people looking at your feed. And so the honestly, the chances of that one tweet being seen by everyone is now less because there are more people and it seems backwards. But

Scott Benner 53:47
now they caught on. They don't do it anymore, where they'll call you. And they'll the process will happen still, but then it won't get fixed. They'll go know Yeah, whatever. Okay. We're scared. Not that much. mccobb. Interesting.

Amanda 54:02
So I guess just my I know, I know, it's hard when you're first diagnosed and all this is just you, like, you know, stumbling through this and got to learn for yourself. But yeah, I guess a number one piece of advice would be like a figure out who's covered under your plan, call your plan and figure it out. And then you know, you got to double check. You can't just assume these people are going to do what they say because they're liars. They won't do it. And then just know your plan inside it out. Like you and I, you know, could have the same carrier, but we're gonna have totally different plans. And, you know, yeah, sure. it's valid to say, hey, Facebook, like, what's your experience with carrier X, Y, or Z, but to say, hey, like, Who's going to cover my Omni pod? That's not going to help you because the internet's not going to know unless I look at your plan description.

Scott Benner 54:58
Yeah, and here's one To pay attention to to the doctor's office, and the insurance company will play a blame game. You have to be careful about that, oh, we would have sent you your army pods. But your doctor's office didn't send the script. I'm like, Indy, what are you doing, buddy? And I'm like, and I'm like, I'm like, okay. So then you send an email to the doctrine was, Hey, come on, you guys said you were gonna send this What happened? They're like we sent it, here's the receipt. And you go, Oh, they were lying about that, or they didn't see or whatever. It's at the bottom of the fax pile back in 1971. You know, and I've seen the doctor's office do the same thing. You know, they said they wanted this code, but I sent that code. And then the insurance company be like, no, they sent this code, and then they show me and I go, oh, like, either it's either they're buying time off of each other, or they're making a mistake and blaming the other one. But you have to make sure you understand both sides of the confusion before you start asking one or the other to do something. So and that's a hard thing to do. Because it's to get the blame somebody to get the ball rolling, it feels like,

Amanda 56:07
Oh, my God also learn to just check everything like actually call my insurance and check. Hey, I'm thinking about going on Dexcom? I want to make sure like, is it covered? What you know, first, I have to call the supplier and say, Hey, if I want to do this, what diagnosis codes would you send it through? Then I have to call the insurance and say, Hey, if this was sent through with these diagnosis codes, would it be covered? If so at what percentage? What's my, what's my out of pocket? What am I going to pay? Blah, blah, blah, like I've had to do that for everything. I even check. I even double check my formularies if my dad, I go to a doctor's appointment, and they say, Hey, we want to switch your medications, or we want to put you on this, like, nope, timeout, I got to login to my carrier's website and check my formula to make sure that's covered. You know, even little things like that, because I don't want to leave my doctor's office, having my script for whatever sent to Walgreens, then I get to Walgreens and like that will be eleventy billion dollars. I'm like, I don't that's not even a real number. I don't have that much money

Scott Benner 57:07
at all of the money.

Amanda 57:09
Right? Yeah, like, just recently, I was looking at the thyroid medication that I'm on. And I switched, I decided I was going to do the mail order pharmacy, because it does give me a little bit of money. So check my formulary, the generic, which is what my doctor had prescribed on the script was listed as not covered. But the brand name covered. So when I went to Walgreens, they just said, Okay, well, you know, we'll swap it out. But the mail order, they're very strict. And so they're like, no, we're only going to prescribe as, as written by to call my doctor back, have them write a new script as written that I get the brand name because I didn't want to be sent three months of a generic that wasn't covered. You know, so just little stuff like that. And you got to learn to play the game. And it's a crappy game, in which no one wins, and the courts on fire, and everything's on fire. And it's terrible. But you got to learn how to play the game, right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 58:08
the other day they sent test strips, which I don't want now because listen, we're in this gap of time on the on the pod PDM is gonna get phased out pretty quickly. We're going to get the dash PDM. And, and I and we're going to start using a different meter. So I have enough, I think, freestyle test strips to make it through that timeframe. And they just show up at the house. So I call them like you sent me test strips I didn't ask for and she goes oh, well, you know, you ran out of I couldn't believe she said that. She goes, You ran out of refills. So we you know, we ping the doctor's office and they sent new ones. I'm like, wait, it actually worked, and what not when I wanted it. And so it was like, all right, I said, Well, I don't want these test strips. And she goes, Well, you can't return them. And I said, but I didn't ask you to send them to me. She goes well, your accounts on automatic refill. And I said for my daughter's Synthroid not for this, she doesn't know the whole accounts on auto refill. I'm like, Well, can I turn that off? And I swear to you, she goes, and then she starts going into this long description. Oh, yeah. So you could turn this off. And like she's reading from a script. I'm like, I try not to read the whole thing. I went, can you do it? And she goes, Yeah, I'm like, What? What do you What are you reading me the script for like, just turn it? Oh, my God. So I said, so what do I do with these test trips? She goes, Well, you have great insurance. They didn't cost you anything. And I went wrong. What does that have to do with anything? Like what am I gonna do with these really expensive, valuable test trips? We can't take them back. And I was like, but I didn't ask you to send them. So at the end of the call, I said, Melissa, and she goes, Yeah, he said, Are you gonna surprise send me any other free stuff I don't want because don't send me stuff. I don't want. Oh, no, I've gotten all set up now. And I said okay, for the whole account.

Unknown Speaker 59:57
Yeah, Melissa. She goes,

Scott Benner 59:59
she goes You didn't just want it for your daughter. I was like, mother, just Melissa. Don't worry about this phone call made you think I wanted you just to send me random things that I didn't ask for. And I was like, how much stuff? Are these companies pumping into people's homes that nobody wants the insurance companies paying for? Because it's covered, like how much money is being spent on stuff that is sitting in drawers when there are other people? Were there other people who didn't use them and can't afford them?

Amanda 1:00:31
It's so wasteful, and it's adding to the health care problem. Right? Like, it's just isn't driving up the cost of everything. It's just, it's a vicious cycle.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:42
Well,

Scott Benner 1:00:43
we're coming up on the end here, Amanda, you've done amazing, by the way,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:46
I knew you. So I hope you get something out of this.

Scott Benner 1:00:48
Are you kidding me? Just us pretending to yell at customer service people alone makes this episode. Really?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:54
I wish there were a job. yell at people. Oh, I know, I

Amanda 1:00:58
thought. Do you think that we could convince the customer service people to like hire us as actors to train the new Billy than Melissa's and be like, okay, you're going up against Scott today? Here's this issue. How you gonna handle it? Oh, my God, I love it.

Scott Benner 1:01:15
I always imagine that their computer systems must be so antiquated that they just look at them. And they're like, I don't know how to figure out what he's asking me?

Amanda 1:01:22
Because I've done that paper with the with the dots on the side? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:27
Hold on,

Scott Benner 1:01:28
let me get your receipt out of the dot matrix printer. You know,

Amanda 1:01:35
john is assigned to AOL first.

Scott Benner 1:01:38
I'm gonna call my manager and then you just hear the, the the old SOS

Unknown Speaker 1:01:45
you know, because

Scott Benner 1:01:45
what's the what is the other because I'm looking at a computer screen right now, in a couple of fairly confusing, you know, thick applications. And in a glance, I can completely understand what all of them do. So how is it possible that this job they have? It must just be tiny little green screens with you know, like flickering lights by I don't know, it's just it's very fresh. It is really. This episode was a terrible idea, man, he really got me upset.

Amanda 1:02:15
I know, I've probably riled up all of your audience.

Scott Benner 1:02:19
If anybody hears that I died. It was from this I just had a stroke or something.

Amanda 1:02:24
I just hoped that I know a lot of your listeners probably are not exactly new to diabetes. But if anything, I just hope that people who are new like learn a learn your plan. You can't take no for an answer. You have to fight. You can't trust these people to just do their job. Unfortunately, in a perfect world, you would be able to, but it's not how it works. And just Yeah, I've learned that I have to be a be sometimes I don't want to be I don't want to break for Melissa. But you know, sometimes you just got to make it happen. You really do have to

Scott Benner 1:03:01
stick up for yourself. You can't take no for an answer. It's just it is the absolute crux of this. And also, if you're if you've listened to this far into this episode, Episode 61 of the podcasts way back in the middle of 2016 is called Samantha is the Robin Hood of diabetes insurance appeals. And Sam is crazy knowledgeable about this stuff. And I've seen the appeals that she's written for people because she does it in her free time just to be nice, like people who can't Thompson cgms. Her appeals are iron clad, pages long. Anything they try to say she's like, yeah, go to page eight, Subsection B nine, I got you covered there. So if you're having any real trouble with pumps, or cgms, Episode 61 well worth your time. And, Amanda, I really, really appreciate you coming on and doing this. Thank you so much.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:55
Thanks for having me.

Scott Benner 1:03:56
It was my pleasure. It really was Amanda and I had a tiny bit of Skype trouble in the beginning, which you'll never hear. But you should just know that she is a visual professional who works with computers is literally sitting in a sound booth now recording this and was very embarrassed that she couldn't figure out the scope. So feel free to laugh at her now if you want to as the episode ends and the music starts. Did we miss anything? Amanda that you want to say that I didn't like to say? Because I know you made notes.

Amanda 1:04:26
You know, I think I covered it all. Yeah, just again, like learn your plan. You know? Try Try not to go in blind if you can. You're always going to be blindsided by something. But if you do your homework, hopefully it won't be the obvious.

Scott Benner 1:04:41
Yep. Listen, it's a parable for the blood sugar. So if you don't understand how the insulin works, how can you expect the bulls as us to work and how do you get involved in a conversation on the phone with somebody if you don't even understand what's rightfully yours and what's rightfully not yours. So right? get educated and then get in there and start cursing. Man, I hope you have a great day. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. Amanda, thank you so much for coming on. I thought this was a fantastic chat. Thank you as well to Dexcom Omni pod real good foods and dancing for diabetes. There are links to everything that you heard about today in the show notes at Juicebox podcast.com, you can always go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box real good foods calm and use the promo code juice box, go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box, or check out dancing for diabetes, wherever they are Instagram, Facebook, or at their website. If you'll stay with me for just another moment, I want to discuss the structure of the podcast with you for a second. Right now we have 16 episodes already recorded and ready for you to listen to 21 more are scheduled between now. And mid June 2019. More go on the schedule every day. podcast is going really strong, completely due to you. And I understand that. And I want you to know that I appreciate it. I know that the reviews you leave on iTunes make it more searchable. I know that when you tell a friend about it, it helps it to grow. I know that that's why I'm able to have ads on the podcast at all. And that's why I need to let you know that I'm going to be a little in artful here for the first number of weeks in 2018, they're going to feel like they're probably a little too many ads in the podcast. And I'm going to be figuring that out as I add content, I'll be able to stretch it out a little more, and put them in different places. It is not my intention to over welcome the show with ads. And at the same time, I do need to take in enough money to keep it going and keep it strong. So I appreciate you understanding, I hope you listen to them. I try very hard to make them interesting and funds. They're not just a repetition of information. But I will be adding some new content this year that will help you know give it give those ads a different place to be. But in content that you're going to find incredibly useful and interesting. I just need a little time to figure the whole thing out. I'm a one man operation over here. So I appreciate your patience and I will see you next week.