Remote INR taking over Coaguchek

[almost_hectic]

Ok I just got off the phone with the new service Im getting set up with. I am expecting a new machine to arrive today. Fully expecting the Coaguchek XS as thats whats pictured all over their website, and what I wanted as its what I am used to. I now find out they shipped me a CoagSense meter. I don't know anything about those... are they any good? Should I insist I want the Coaguchek XS? They said they have them available but they said they like to send out the newest equipment and the Coaguchek is the "older" style. Should I care, should I get them to switch it? Your opinions are welcome and appreciated

 

[RAS]

Should I insist I want the Coaguchek XS? They said they have them available but they said they like to send out the newest equipment and the Coaguchek is the "older" style. Should I care, should I get them to switch it? Your opinions are welcome and appreciated

I would expect they have the Coaguchek Vantas which replaced the XS home model about 4 years ago. The Vantas has a color screen and a few additional features, but uses the same strips as the XS did.

I thought CoaguSense was older than the Coaguchek Vantas, but could be they have a new model I have not seen. I have not researched CoaguSense in some time. The main reason I avoided it was because it requires a pipette to transfer the drop of blood. If you are ok with using that, then I see no reason to switch.

 

[KLS39]

Ok I just got off the phone with the new service Im getting set up with. I am expecting a new machine to arrive today. Fully expecting the Coaguchek XS as thats whats pictured all over their website, and what I wanted as its what I am used to. I now find out they shipped me a CoagSense meter. I don't know anything about those... are they any good? Should I insist I want the Coaguchek XS? They said they have them available but they said they like to send out the newest equipment and the Coaguchek is the "older" style. Should I care, should I get them to switch it? Your opinions are welcome and appreciated

I have the Coagsense and it took me months to feel like I was consistently being successful with my technique. I almost always got a good blood sample but collecting it in the skinny tube and getting it into the test strip in 15 seconds proved challenging. If I moved my hand the wrong way the drop of blood would roll before it filled the tube. I also have discovered that I am limited in which fingers I can use. I tried my pointer the other day but that prevented me from being able to hold the tube and get the sample in the machine. I haven't even tried using any fingers on my right hand thinking that I'll be unable to manage the tube with my nondominant hand. The visiting nurse who checked my INR after my surgery had the Coaguchek and that seems like a much easier machine but I didn't make the choice for my machine, it's what the insurance company approved.
Best of luck.

 

[ScribeWithALancet]

Ok I just got off the phone with the new service Im getting set up with. I am expecting a new machine to arrive today. Fully expecting the Coaguchek XS as thats whats pictured all over their website, and what I wanted as its what I am used to. I now find out they shipped me a CoagSense meter. I don't know anything about those... are they any good? Should I insist I want the Coaguchek XS? They said they have them available but they said they like to send out the newest equipment and the Coaguchek is the "older" style. Should I care, should I get them to switch it? Your opinions are welcome and appreciated

I got a CoagSense just before the Covid. The correlation between the CoagSense and the Health Insurance Blood Laboratory machine was at the 97% level by the time of the arrival of Covid. I use a ThermoPhore to warm up my hands prior to poking myself. Since I am married, My wife draws the blood into the pipette so that I can use fingers 2,3 and 4 with the thumb being finger 1 on each hand. I find that I cannot reliably draw blood from fingers 1 and 5 and so rotate down each hand on the right side and then on the left. If I use the Thermosphere first, I always get enough blood. Inserting it from the pipette onto the rotating wheel of the strip was hard for me initially. After about 3 months, I got the hand of it and stopped wasting strips and pipettes.

 

[almost_hectic]

They told me they would switch and send me a Coaguchek machine. Hasn’t got here yet so I don’t know which it is.

 

[slipkid]

wow ... you must specialise in sketchy sellers. Literally in decades I've had only 2 or three iffy experiences.

Yeah, don't get me started....the worst of the worst was this total nutbag who I bought some color inkjet cartridges from.

This was b4 I realized to NEVER buy anything from anyone who has generic pictures of what they are selling rather than a supposed real photograph (with preferably multiple views and high enough resolution to actually see whatever it is). The cartridges were supposed to be new genuine cartridges pictured as brand new store bought ones like I had been buying for months from other sellers, which come sealed and packaged in their own small boxes, and came from canon's (the manufacturer) website.

What I got instead was a box of "naked" cartridges, none sealed, none in boxes, all wrapped in a big bubblewrap ball, almost like they were thrown together in a couple handfuls with no rhyme or reason by a mentally ill bizarro, and instead of being "real" cartridges they were all stamped with some kind of NOT FOR SALE - PROMO warnings, and half of them were all dried out & unusable.

I already had some bad experiences with a-hole sellers who if you dared to leave them bad feedback and tell it like it is they then leave you some sort of nonsensical negative feedback in retaliation saying things like buyer didn't pay or whatever (back then sellers could leave feedback for buyers) so I figured I would just basically writeoff the $50 and throw them out, not worth the hassle in having someone possibly insane mad at me looking to take vengeance.

But this a-hole then contacted me after a week or two and told me to leave him positive feedback and that he wouldn't leave me feedback until I had done so. The guy definitely seemed "off" but me being me decided to just tell him that I did not leave him feedback because if I did it would be negative, and told him why, told him if selling dried out as-is promotional giveaway cartridges to be honest about it & that way people know what they are getting into & could decide to take a chance on them working or not, but I was over it and not looking to ruin his "perfect" 100% feedback rating.

What followed next was a storm of profanity and threats from this lunatic. The jerk EVEN CALLED MY HOUSE MULTIPLE TIMES (I was not home at the time and he did not leave me msgs from what I recall but I 4get 4sure). He continued to message me through ebay though and threatened me with hellfire if I were to ruin his 100% rating.

I told him to leave me alone and if he persisted in contacting me I would report him to both the police and ebay as well. And that I would not be leaving him neg feedback, not to worry, I wanted nothing more to do with him.

Then on the last day of when feedback for the transaction was allowed, he actually left me a ranting negative feedback saying that I lie, make threats, don't pay, make sure to cancel any bids I place etc etc.

Not saying that is a seller typical of fleabay or would happen if I bought a used meter there, but just relaying a pretty unforgettable negative ebay experience. The others that were negative were more like getting stuff in nowhere near the condition they were claimed to be. I generally avoid ebay anymore but buy a few things there on occasion but only from sellers I trust, have used b4, have good feedback comments, etc. I sold a ton of stuff on ebay btw and have had similar experiences with crazy buyers btw (some even outright thieves). I also used to sell things on Amazon and learned the hassle ratio in general, whether buying or selling, is a lot lower on Amazon, for some reason not as many crazies as on ebay...

 

[pellicle]

This was b4 I realized to NEVER buy anything from anyone who has generic pictures of what they are

well my other suggestion is to always use paypal and be ruthless about reporting fraud. Buyer protection is actually pretty amazing and the following are almost certain refunds

• item not as described (with your pictures)
• fake (with pictures)
• substitution

follow the basics (good seller with good reputation and solid appearance) and you're good to go.

happy eBaying

 

[djman]

CoaguChek is made by Roche Pharmaceutical.
Coagu-Sense is a competing product from Jant Pharmaceutical. Jant is a much smaller company than Roche.

I have the CoaguChek INRange, which is the latest from Roche. INRange takes the same strips as CoaguChek XS. Both INRange and XS are perfectly good. Being the latest, INRange has some cosmetic upgrades such as a color screen. Nothing against eBay, but I've bought all my strips from a local pharmacy. I pay $50 for a box of 6 strips. That's 50 Canadian dollars which is equivalent to maybe 40 American dollars.

 

[pellicle]

Nothing against eBay, but I've bought all my strips from a local pharmacy.

point of note: you are in Canada, and you can buy strips from a local pharmacy (as can I) but, as I understand it, our cousins in the USA can't.

I personally don't buy my strips from eBay, but if that was my only option I would. I buy mine from an online seller called medshop here in Australia, typically costs me (including shipping) AU$150 for 24 strips (or about AU$6.25 each)

 

[RAS]

: you are in Canada, and you can buy strips from a local pharmacy (as can I) but, as I understand it, our cousins in the USA can't.

Yeah that's correct. I'd be happy to buy via Rx from a pharmacy or medical distributor here in the US even if not covered by insurance as I did in the past, but for some reason Roche is no longer allowing that. One other fact to note is US Federal law restricts sale of medical devices like an INR meter and test strips to physician ordered sales only. In other words an Rx is required.

I have the CoaguChek INRange, which is the latest from Roche

That seems correct. I think it came out in 2019, while Vantas was 2018. By the way Inrange is for patient use outside the US. Vantas is for patient use in the US. The only functional difference I am aware of is the Inrange can report INR, seconds (prothrombin time) or something called %Quick while the Vantus is limited to reporting only INR.

 

[pellicle]

One other fact to note is US Federal law restricts sale of medical devices like an INR meter and test strips to physician ordered sales only. In other words an Rx is required.

yes, I've heard that before about "The Land of the Free"
(quietly LMAO)

 

[Amy]

Just make sure to get them from a retailer that advertises as a sealed box

I could be mistaken but I don’t think the boxes of strips, at least for the Coaguchek XS, are sealed to begin with, are they? Nor are the plastic tubes of strips. The last box of strips I ordered had some tape over the fold-down box flaps, but I think the seller did that. Can anyone confirm?...

 

[pellicle]

I could be mistaken but I don’t think the boxes of strips, at least for the Coaguchek XS, are sealed to begin with, are they?

the box has a circle of adhesive tape covering over the lid sealing it

curiously the base does not.

 

[RAS]

The last box of strips I ordered had some tape over the fold-down box flaps, but I think the seller did that. Can anyone confirm?...

An unopened box of strips is sealed with a clear round plastic adhesive material that adheres to the box flap. I suppose you could call it "tape" but it is thicker than scotch tape for example and clearly is an individual seal rather than a piece of tape torn off a roll. Each individual plastic container inside has a cover that seals the container pretty well as is but has no additional adhesive seal, wrapping, etc.

 

[pellicle]

Each individual plastic container inside has a cover that seals the container pretty well

assuming you mean the lid of the container, its interesting if you look into the inside of the lid, it contains a drying agent hidden by a thin paper panel.

 

[Amy]

the box has a circle of adhesive tape covering over the lid sealing it

So it does. I wonder whether that was intact on my last order, or if it was just the seller’s tape I had to peel off. Hmm. I’ll be sure to check more closely next time - thank you. But yes, curious indeed for there to be no seal on the bottom..

 

[pellicle]

Hmm

and that's exactly what I thought when I saw my image wasn't there, so I've edited my post and put it there again.

Odd

 

[skier]

Any suggestions on what a newbie at home monitoring should buy from eBay?

Background: I had surgery and got a mechanical valve four weeks ago. The large health system I use has an anti-coag nurse managing my INR with twice-weekly testing and dose modification. With my dose and INR stabilizing, they have reduced testing to once a week. I want to test more often and wrap my head around self-management.

I've asked about getting set up with at-home monitoring, and they will do that after a few months. They want to get everything stabilized first. My insurance (US) will pay for at-home testing for the rest of this year, as I've hit my out-of-pocket maximum. I don't know yet what device or service my health system uses, or what it will cost me next year.

I think I'd like to buy a device from eBay (I don't have a prescription) to test in addition to what my health system is doing to manage my INR. I don't want to spend too much money as I'm not sure if I'll need it long-term in addition to the device my health system will prescribe. Maybe I'll use it long-term as a backup or double-check, or drop the service from my health system if it's too expensive next year. Not sure.

I see a bunch of devices on eBay, and I'm not sure where to start or how much I should expect to spend. Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[skier]

Question about at-home testing through an insurance-covered service:

Does the testing device automatically report back to the service, or do you need to enter the value on a website or manually report it some other way?

I'm wondering if I can use a device provided by the service to test my INR more frequently than the service prescribes. So, if they say test once a week, would there be a problem if I test every day, for example, assuming I pay for the strips?

 

[RAS]

Does the testing device automatically report back to the service, or do you need to enter the value on a website or manually report it some other way?

The service I use (Biotel Remote INR) provides 3 methods to report
1. Entry on website (this is what I use)
2. Phone call (used once, but prefer the website)
3. Bluetooth connection from the device to a mobile App (I don't use this - see below*)

The service will then report it to your Provider.

I'm wondering if I can use a device provided by the service to test my INR more frequently than the service prescribes. So, if they say test once a week, would there be a problem if I test every day, for example, assuming I pay for the strips?

It's important to understand they bill this as a Service. They don't bill for the device, strips, or lancets.

Biotel and another service I looked into, bill every 4th Reported result. They require at least 1 test every two weeks or they will not allow you to stay in the program.
Two weeks is the frequency I signed up for. However occasionally I test more often, but don't report it. That minimizes the cost.
*That is the reason I don't use the Bluetooth reporting method since that will automatically send every test to Biotel that had not been previously transmitted.

When I signed up, I was on their auto ship process. They shipped strips out far more often than I used them - about 70% more strips than I needed to maintain an every two weeks schedule. I shut off the auto ship because eventually strips would have expired before needed. I order strips via the website often enough to ensure I have sufficient supply (usually a couple boxes) on hand to test more frequently if needed.

So in summary, the lowest cost way to handle the INR service is to sign up for an every two week schedule and report only on that schedule.
You will be able to test more often, but I don't know if you would quite get to a weekly test under that scenario. If you sign up for a weekly test schedule, then obviously they will ship enough strips for at least that frequency and probably more, but not likely to be enough for daily testing.

I know you can order more strips even when on auto ship (I tested that and they shipped them), but don't know how often you could do that. Fortunately I have been in range 93% of the time since I started using the service in 2021 and only needed to test more than every two weeks a few of times.