So, I went online to Medicare.gov and searched for suppliers of these products on their website. I spent yesterday calling EVERY supplier listed on the government website, and NONE of them are providing them for their customers anymore. Even though they are still covered at 80% by Medicare, and the remaining 20% by my insurance company, I was just about to flip out wondering what the CRAP I was going to do.

So, I called my insurance company and asked if they could recommend a company that could provide the necessary products. They could not.

Next, I called Convatec, and asked for a supplier in my area. They did not have a supplier in my area, but they did recommend 180 Medical out of Norman, Oklahoma. By this time it was too late to call Oklahoma.

This morning, I called and talked to a nice lady at 180 Medical. She said that they DO supply products that I need, and that they do accept Medicare and Manhattan Life Insurance. The bad part is that they take at least two weeks to get an account set up. They have to verify that I am who I say I am through Medicare and Manhattan Life. Then they have to call my doctor and get them to fax a prescription for the products. Once all that is done, they can then ship the products, and next time it will only involve a phone call. She took all my information over the phone, including the REF numbers of the products I use. 

ALSO, because I am almost out and it would be a CRAPTASTIC day if I ran out of these items, the nice lady at 180 Medical connected me to Convatec, the manufacturer of the products I use, told them the situation with Kroger, blah blah blah, and the nice lady at Convatec sent me an order of free products which should arrive on Tuesday. Thank the Lord that I always keep a couple of sets held back in case of emergency. If you don’t have a stoma, colostomy, illiostomy, or urostomy, then you really don’t understand how much of a nightmare this has been. I am so thankful that I chose the right insurance company, and that I also got through to the right people today.

I am seriously considering not shopping at Kroger anymore. They are not the only grocery store in town. I feel like that if corporate decided not to provide the products I need due to the cost of them, then they don’t care about their customers. The person in charge of the pharmacy department at the corporate level at Kroger should at the very least tried to find out who in their customer base uses these products and sent them a letter to let them (us) (ME) know they would no longer be supplying them. I used my customer loyalty card every time I picked up a prescription. They send me advertisements by email and via the regular snail mail all the time because I have that loyalty card.  There are coupons for products I buy all the time in those mailers. For something as important to my life as colostomy bags, they could have let me know is all I’m saying. And if they really wanted to keep my business, they could have taken the hit to their bottom line that providing me with the necessity of MY life would have caused. How many of us could there possibly be? I’m not sure.  Not spending my pension and Social Security dollars at their store won’t hurt them. I know that. What would YOU do?