Tips for the diabetic pre-med student to save some money

It turns out that there are a decent amount of medical students with medical conditions. One of the most common being diabetes. This makes sense because having a medical condition can help inspire one to want to help others going through similar experiences. I have classmates who have diabetes and multiple friends who have it, so chances are one our readers might be able to benefit from this. Even if you don’t have diabetes it is always good to be able to help someone who does even if its in a small way like this. With that here are five ways to reduce your insulin test strip bills.

As we all know it is important to manage your health properly if you want to live a prosperous, healthy, and long life. For some people, this involves consulting the doctor every now and then, eating healthy instead of junk food, and regular exercise.

If you’re someone with diabetes, you need to exercise greater care for staying healthy. Apart from monitoring your food intake, you also need to test blood sugar levels every now and then.

People with diabetes have to buy insulin test strips & other kinds of medical equipment regularly for maintaining their health in top-notch condition. But how can you save money here?

Here are some programs that can help you avail insulin test strips and other important medication at a lower rate –

• Join A Pharmacy’s Loyalty Program To Avail Discounts

A number of pharmacies provide loyalty programs, which can help you avail discounts on any medication you purchase from them. You can avail of cash discounts easily in this manner.

In some cases, you have to accumulate points, which can be earned by using a special loyalty card whenever you make a purchase at the store. Sometimes, there may be special deals or coupons available for test strips at your pharmacy.

Based on where you’re currently living in, you might be able to sign up for multiple pharmacies and avail of discounts or offers from all of them. This could be highly beneficial to you as you get to choose the best of all worlds here.

Keep checking various program promotions and offers to select one that appeals the most to you. They all have very different requirements. Therefore, it is important that you understand properly what you need for earning points before you sign up for a program.

• Search for Organizations That Are Designed Specifically For Helping Individuals

While this is no replacement for the support you can find from your county or state authorities, the premise remains the same. There are several organizations whose motto is to aid individuals who incur considerable medical expenses due to certain conditions. They can help you access supplies at affordable rates.

These organizations operate throughout the country. You can receive aid so long as you reside in the US. However, ensure that you go through all the requirements so as to avoid any surprises.

Certain organizations help only people who earn less than a specified amount. Other organizations only accept people above a prescribed age. If you’re asked, make sure you have ample proof about your financial need and condition.

Benefits Checkup and RX Outreach are great examples of such organizations. Check the conditions they evaluate to see whether you qualify or not. This can help you save a ton of money with your test strips.

• Switch To Value Brands

Most people are hesitant to purchase value brands as they believe them to be ineffective in treating their condition. As they don’t carry the same name, people tend to distrust such brands. However, an off-brand medication works much better than what most people think and is equal to its competitor in all aspects.

Choosing value brands or generic brands can help you save a lot of money while also eliminating the need to compromise on quality. When you purchase value brands instead of name brands, you get more bang for your buck and save money easily.

If your normal course of action is to purchase brand products, at least evaluate the effectiveness of a value brand before you forgo them for once and for all. You’ll be flat-out surprised at how effective they are.

• Find deals that are offered to Medicare Patients

A number of special deals are offered to people covered under Medicare. Go through your insurance terms and conditions for finding out whether you are eligible for reimbursement for purchasing test strips or whether you can save money in any way due to your Medicare coverage or you can always check out secondary markets that buy and sell diabetic test strips.

Sometimes, you will be able to save money by using mail-order pharmacies, who can send supplies to your place directly. Going this route means that you’ll have to make a plan about where you’re purchasing the products from.

Although it might look like unnecessary work, it’s worth the effort.

Many people also make the mistake of buying their test strips in bulk, which turn out to be far too excessive for their needs. Instead of throwing them out when they get close to their expiry date, you can them off to a distributor like Test Strips 4 Money, who will pay you in cash. You can apply this money for your next purchase and get reliable test strips at a lower cost.

I know this wasn’t the usual type of article posted on here but I hope that someone found it useful. Let me know in the comments below if we should post more things like this or just focus on the pre-med advice.

Pre-Med 101: Why should I shadow a doctor?
(And why you absolutely need to!)

So you want to be a doctor, thats great! But do you really know what you are getting yourself into and what the life of a doctor is actually like outside of Grey’s Anatomy? This is why you absolutely must get shadowing experience as a pre-med and why it is so important to many medical schools. Shadowing a doctor is one of the most important things any pre-med can do. In fact I could argue its more important than your MCAT or GPA! Let’s go into all the reasons why you should shadow a doctor:

1. It will let you know if this is the right career for you (This is real important!)
2. You can ask an actual doctor all the questions you have and gain valuable wisdom
3. Test level of commitment
4. Discover likes and dislikes
5. Enhance your motivation

It will let you know if this is the right career for you:

This is probably the most important reason to shadow a doctor. You want to know for sure that this is what you want to spend your life doing and this is the best way to find out. Shadowing a doctor is like test driving the career you might end up doing. The road to that MD is not an easy one. While shadowing you may end up seeing many things that disturb you and change your mind about going into medicine. There are many things you will never expect about being a doctor and some that you may not like, but you will never know that unless you actually go out there and see. You don’t want to find out that this is not the right career for you after getting into medical school. The time to find out is now! While you are a pre-med!

You can ask an actual doctor all the questions you have and gain valuable wisdom:

One of the greatest perks to shadowing a doctor is that you will have access to a physician who has the time to answer your questions and concerns about becoming a doctor. These are the people who are doing what you want to do and they have plenty of experience and wisdom they can pass down to you. Make the most out of that!

Test level of commitment:

Shadowing is one of the greatest ways to weed out pre-meds. Many people go into premed thinking about how cool it will be to become a doctor, how much money they will make, etc. Most of the people like that arent prepared to handle the hardships that come with the life of a physician. The hospital is very humbling place and shows no mercy to the pre-med. You will see things that are quite disturbing and will really test your level of commitment to this career path. Often the hospital can make or break a pre-med. You either come out of it more inspired to become a doctor or just out right never want to be one ever again.

Discover likes and dislikes:

The hospital is another great place to discover exactly what it is you like and dislike about a career in medicine. There might be unexpected things which you enjoy , such as the interaction with the patients and nurses. And there might be things which you might dislike, perhaps the smell or something you didn’t expect. Shadowing a doctor is an opportunity to learn more about the career you are interested in.

Enhance motivation:

Often the experience of shadowing a doctor can improve motivation for the pre-med. This will help result in a stronger work ethic and ultimately better grades and commitment to the pre-med path.

Recommendation letter:

Lastly there is one more perk to shadowing a doctor. That is the recommendation letter. I left this as the last thing to mention because I believe the reasons mentioned before are more important. However it is no lie that a recommendation letter from a doctor is highly sought after and very valuable to getting into medical school. So if you shadow a physician you have a strong chance of receiving a powerful recommendation letter that could help boost your chances of acceptance into the medical school of your choice.

There are many great things about becoming a doctor, but there are also many difficulties that most pre-meds have not considered yet. Shadowing a doctor allows you the opportunity to see first hand if this is the right career for you. After all becoming a doctor is a serious commitment. It is time consuming, stressful, and at times financially difficult. Being able to shadow a doctor will provide you the chance to see for yourself if this is what you want to spend your life doing.