More Activities to Help a Member

Allen called me the next evening and said he did not seem to be getting through to the new member even after our session the prior day. I suggested that Allen should talk to Tim about using this as a topic for our January meeting. Or I said that we should at least explore the idea and see how many would be in favor of this as a topic. Allen agreed that most of the old members would know the importance and maybe we should do one for the new members.

Allen said he would call Tim and to be ready for Tim to call. About 30 minutes later, Tim did call and said I must have some thoughts since Allen mentioned we had been together and talked about this. I said that we needed to do something and consider the importance since others may be operating under similar methods and these were bad habits that need to stop. I suggested that Tim send an email to the old members to explain this and ask if they would accept a meeting on this topic. I also said we needed to talk to Dr. Tom and find out what can be done to change the person from a Medicare supplier to a local pharmacy.

Tim said now we were getting somewhere and that we had something that may help more of our members when they went on Medicare. He said he would talk to Dr. Tom and get back to me the following day.

Tim called me the next evening, Thursday, and was perplexed. Dr. Tom said there was not much he could do or recommend to help the former patient. He was not listening to anything he was telling him and had his own way of doing things and he doubted he would listen to any of us. I said it sounds like an intervention is not in order, but we should keep lines of communication open. I continued that seven of the new members were obtaining VA assistance and an eighth new member would be next year. As such, I feel that we need to ask the old members first and go with what they feel. I said I would do the program, but that A.J or Barry could possibly be better received.

Tim said he would talk with Allen and send out emails. Then when he had heard back, he would talk to A.J and Barry to see whether they would want to present the program as he know they could use some of my blogs for ideas and slides. I said that would work for me. With that, Tim said he would talk to me when he heard back from them.

Allen called and thanked me for having added to his thoughts and said he hopes everyone will answer promptly. Allen got his wish, as Saturday morning, Tim called and said everyone was in favor and that A.J and Barry wanted to do it together and I would be hearing from Barry about slides. When my wife and I returned home late Saturday afternoon, I had a message from Barry asking me to call him the next afternoon.

When I called Barry on Sunday, he thanked me for not doing the program as he had talked to Allen and felt it would be good for someone else to be presenting the program. He said he was working on an outline with A.J and would send it to me when they were about done. I said okay and I would start the slides when I had the outline.

On Wednesday, December 17, Barry sent me the outline and I started the slides and when completed sent them to Barry. Then that evening, he called and thanked me and asked that I add more slides from the instructions he had obtained from Jack who was using the same meter and test strips as Albert was using. I said that was great and I would use the instructions and meter information that all of us with the VA were using. Barry said that he would be by shortly to pick the instructions and scan them into his computer as his program allowed him to size them for easier use for slides.

When he arrived, I already had the instructions from Barry on the Medicare supplied meter and test strips and commented this might get Albert's attention, but from talking to Tim, I was not high in the hope department. Barry said that Allen was not hopeful either, but we had to try. Barry said that all of us getting our testing supplies from the VA were currently using the same meter and test strips which was good and this should help both those receiving testing supplies from Medicare and the VA. Barry said he normally read the instructions he received and if no changes were evident, he and Ben normally discarded them.

Barry took time to read the meter instructions and said they were very similar to the meter instructions for the Medicare meters and the test strip instructions were almost identical. Barry commented that we should attempt to keep up to date with as many meters as the group was using and keep the instructions on slides that could be printed out for any changes made. Barry said that Jack had tried to obtain the test solution for the Medicare test strips, but had not been able to obtain it, but was informed that it would be available sometime in 2015.

Barry concluded that Jack was researching information for us and anyone else that received testing supplies from Medicare. Barry said that members not on Medicare and the VA would be receiving an email from Tim asking for copies of meter instructions and test strip instructions for meters they may be using. First, he was asking for the brand of meters to find out the different brands being used by the members. Then we will use copies of the different brands and get slides made to have them available. I said we should include our type 1 member is this and said I would send an email to Tim and Barry said Allen had already done this and she was using the same meter as those used by the VA members.