PHILIPSBURG:--- Diabetic patients that are covered by USZV are at risk of either ending up on a hospital bed in a coma or dying if the government does not intervene to save them from the practices conducted by Medicosmetics and USZV.
A patient contacted SMN News with her experience on May 6th when she went to Medicosmetics to obtain strips for her diabetic testing kit only to be told that the company does not carry strip for her testing kit and was given a new testing kit which turned out was only giving inaccurate readings.
The patient said she could have died from very low blood sugar because of the reading she got from the new kit (Perfect 3 Multi) compared to the kit she obtained from Oduber Agency (Freestyle Precision). The patient who is unemployed said USZV stopped their business operations with Oduber Agency and Alpha Healthcare and has been doing business only with Medicosmetics.
She said that a box of strips costs $50.00 for the testing kit she obtained from Oduber Agency now that USZV is not covering the strips for those kits.
The patient said that Medicosmetics claimed they notified USZV that the kits are not measuring patients' blood sugar accurately but so far they have not gotten any response.
The patient further explained that she also that she tried contacting USZV with her plight and the testing kit she is provided with but is unable to reach them through their telephone services that are being offered since the lockdown. The patient said she has other underlying conditions besides being a diabetic and is also not working and cannot afford to purchase two boxes of strips per month.
Raymond Jessurun of the consumer coalition addressed the issue of the faulty kits and has even gone as far as having one of their members that are diabetic conduct testing at the SLS laboratory to compare with the faulty kits that are being distributed by Medicosmetics.
Jessurun said he wrote three letters to USZV and have not gotten any response thus far, he said a complaint was also filed with the Inspectorate of Health and Labor and so far that too have not yielded any response.
Deb Alpha from Alpha Healthcare said she was contacted by several diabetic patients including Jessurun to find a solution for diabetic patients.
Alpha said she is currently stuck overseas but is working on getting better kits and strips that would cost the patient much less than they are paying for the strips for their old kits. Alpha said when she obtained her kits she will then exchange kits for the patients in order for them to get accurate readings.
