There's a gray market for diabetes supplies

 High prices and inadequate medical insurance force some patients to get their diabetes monitoring supplies second hand. Here's a suggestion for some redesign...

Medpage has the story:

The Diabetic Supplies Gray Market Is Ripe for Disruption by Jacob Murphy 

""CA$H 4 SEALED & UNEXPIRED DIABETIC TEST STRIPS -- CALL NOW."

This message, printed in black on a neon yellow poster board, hangs just outside the $1.1 billion Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The sign represents a peculiar offshoot of American healthcare: the diabetic supplies gray market. Here, blood glucose test strips are exchanged within an informal network.

This market operates through handwritten signs and websites like QuickCash4TestStrips.com, often flourishing in areas with high rates of poverty and uninsured patients. How does it work? Insured patients obtain excess test strips at little personal cost through insurance, then sell them to reseller companies. These companies profit by selling the strips below original retail prices, which far exceed manufacturing costs, to uninsured individuals. And, surprisingly, this is all legal.

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"Diabetes costs have steadily risen to thousands of dollars annuallyopens in a new tab or window for individuals. These expenses can be even higher for the 1.5 million diabetic Americans without health insurance, especially if they experience diabetes-related complications. Without proper monitoring, these individuals face life-threatening risks of ketoacidosis, hypoglycemia, and long-term complications including vision loss, kidney failure, and amputations. In the end, they're left with a tough choice: turn to an unregulated "gray" market or potentially face major health complications and financial consequences. 

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"[ academic medical centers] should establish formal redistribution programs that incentivize donations of excess diabetic supplies. These programs would provide safer alternatives to unregulated gray market exchanges, leveraging institutional scale to deliver essential supplies at minimal or no cost to those most in need.

"Incentives to donors could include copay waivers for downstream care, free diabetes check-ups such as eye and foot exams, or connections to food assistance programs. Conditional cash transfers could also serve as effective motivators, particularly for the lowest-income donors. Additionally, centers could help patients transition from test strips to continuous glucose monitors "