Loading ...Why We Are No Longer Accepting Medtronic Insulin Pumps and Pump Supplies
August 8th, 2009 | 
Author: Legal and Ethical Concerns Over Medtronic’s Business Practices
Medtronic has a court-documented track record of failing to properly notify its customers in a timely fashion of known product defects. Product failure has resulted in deaths, hospitalizations, and both individual and class action lawsuits against the company. Their inexcusable behavior has even prompted new proposed legislation because legal rights for patients who died or were injured by Medtronic products were substantially limited when it came to suing for tort damages.
. ..”Following the 2008 Supreme Court decision Riegel v. Medtronic, (.pdf) patients and families have been prevented from having the right to file a viable Medtronics lawsuit to help cover medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering based on FDA preemption.
For more information about Medtronic’s legal battles, see the Medtronic Recall Center.
Why We Are Not Accepting Medtronic Insulin Pump Supplies At This Time
Medtronic has most recently recalled another three million infusion sets from their two top-selling product lines. We have received well-intended donations of supplies that have been recalled and may be defective. In order to ensure the safety of our clients we are no longer accepting Medtronic insulin pump supplies. Unfortunately, we do not have the funds to hire staff – iPump is run by one full-time volunteer and we simply do not have the resources to manually track all Medtronic products at this time. Additionally, Medtronic has not returned our calls or letters about exchanging donated items that were recalled.
Why We Are No Longer Accepting Medtronic Insulin Pumps
Medtronic frequently refers their call-in customers to iPump as a place to donate their used insulin pumps. Instead of allowing Medtronic customers to turn them in for a $500 credit towards a new pump, several people have told us that Medtronic suggests they can donate old pumps to iPump and get a tax deduction for several thousand dollars instead of just a $500 credit as their insurance will pay for the pump anyhow.
This may sound like a nice gesture, but Medtronic is diverting pumps that they know are so old they will not upgrade them so really have no value at all. In simplest terms, Medtronic appears to be using iPump as a medical device dumpster. We have contacted Medtronic multiple time via phone, emails and letters – including to Medtronic’s president and board of directors and have not had the courtesy of a reply.
We hope to have a better, more reciprocal business relationship with Medtronic someday, but until such time, we are no longer accepting any Medtronic MiniMed insulin pumps or insulin pump supplies.
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I commend you for your stance on Medtronic. We all need to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable, especially because of the high level of trust we place in them.
For discussions on your actions see the blog – http://pharmalittle.blogspot.com/2009/08/diabetes-charitable-group-dumps.html
Thank you for your support! I read your blog and was pleased to see that your own blog visitors seem to support our difficult decision.
I realize that this is a David vs Goliath situation and it is unlikely Medtronic will care we are disassociating from them. But perhaps others will follow our example and a collective voice will grow helping to effect positive change.
ERISA preemption is bad enough for consumers, but when we realized that there were other preemption issues regarding faulty medical devices, which includes insulin pumps, we felt this was a necessary decision to ensure the safety and best interest of our clients.
We strongly believe that the needy diabetic population deserves quality care, not second-hand junk.
Again, thank you for your support and for spreading the word.
Kind regards,
Lahle Wolfe
CEO, iPump
I just would like to point out that Medtronic is not a pharmaceutical company; they are a device company. We need to keep in mind that Medtronic is not the only Goliath company out there. Animas is owned by Johnson & Johnson, an even larger corporation than Medtronic. Animas has some major flaws in quality for which there are still no reports or recalls. For example, notice what happens to your IOB with the Ping when the battery is removed and reinserted. IOB is lost!!!! There was never a recall on this. Can you imagine taking a correction bolus with a pump that does not considering the IOB after the battery is changed!!! Scary!!!!! I’ll take my chances with Medtronic. They have been very very good to me, my family, and my patients!!!!! I think that ipump is totally misleading people about Medtronic.
I have had multiple Medtronic pumps and I have loved everyone of them. I’m sure that Medtronic receives thousands of requests for free pumps, supplies, etc. Medtronic donates millions and millions of dollars each year. I’m disappointed at the stance you have taken. I will never wear another pump from a different company. Thanks to Medtronic I am in great shape and will live to see my grandchildren grow up. Have you ever been to Medtronic and seen the hundreds of diabetics who wear pumps? You should go and then re write your stance. I gurantee it will be different.
I am thrilled that you have an insulin pump to help you manage your diabetes. It is such a great tool for many people with diabetes to help them better manage their blood sugars – which we all know improves and extends the lives of people with diabetes. We want to get MORE pumps to people – not fewer.
I have met with many Medtronic representatives, as well as those from other pump companies who use their employers’ insulin pumps. The individual reps I have dealt with (trainers and CDEs, etc.) have all been caring, wonderful people. It is the corporate office that has been unresponsive and is now diverting their customer’s dead insulin pumps to our organization and then refuses to repair or upgrade them. If Medtronic does not wish to recertify old pumps, I will not judge them – it is a business decision. However, they should not have these pumps sent to us. Medtronic should take them, and either give their customers a credit for returning them, or dispose of pumps they consider trash, properly. Unlike Medtronic, we do not have millions of dollars and medical device disposal costs us time and money we simply cannot afford.
It is not only against the law, but it would be very dangerous to give donated pumps that have not been checked by Medtronic to people in need. Until Medtronic will extend their programs (pump warranties and recertifying used pumps) to indirect clients, we feel we simply cannot put our clients at risk.
I strongly encourage all loyal Medtronic pumpers to write to Medtronic and ask that they open the same programs they offer those with insurance to those who do not have insurance.
We never asked Medtronic for anything free – but it would be nice if they followed suit and waived the $495 “change of name in the data base” fee we paid and could not even get a new warranty or the existing warranty transferred. The fee simply changed the name in their data base to the pumps new owner.
Unfortunately, Medtronic refuses to let those who did not pay $6,000 for a first pump, have access to their programs. If you feel Medtronic pumps are superior, please do contact them – tell them your thoughts. With the support of Medtronic pumpers, perhaps we can get them to open the door for less fortunate people, too.
William A. Hawkins III, Chief Executive Officer/President, Medtronic MiniMed, Inc., 18000 Devonshire St., Northridge, CA 91325
Arthur D. Collins Jr. Executive Chairman, Medtronic Inc., Medtronic MiniMed, Inc., 18000 Devonshire St., Northridge, CA 91325
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Lahle Wolfe
CEO, iPump
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. You make some very good points. J&J is a behemoth, but Animas, a separate corporation obtained by J&J still stands as a separate legal entity from J&J. As far as insulin pumps go, Medtronic has more than 80% of the market on pumps, in part, because they have been providing pumps for the longest period of time; in part because of their successful marketing campaigns.
Animas pumps can lose IOB data if the battery is run completely dead. If a battery is removed (or goes dead) for more than a certain period of time Medtronic pumps also lose all their data.
I do think it is a serious design flaw for Animas (their battery life meter does not show a decline in battery power as do the Smith’s Medical Cozmo pumps and Medtronics offer low battery alarms, too). Pump users are told of the need to change batteries and it has not led to any known hospitalizations or deaths. (Note: Smith’s bolus wizard did have a software glitch that did lead to reported injuries and a massive recall just before they went bankrupt.)
I have used pumps from all three manufacturers and the IOB feature is somewhat subjective on all makes of pumps. It should be a guide – not a mindless calculator since so many factors affect how much insulin should be given. This is why all pumps have override features.
iPump in no way suggested people should not use Medtronic insulin pumps (and we also have posted all Animas and Smith’s recalls as well). Nor did we intend to suggest people on Medtronic pumps are at risk any more than on any other insulin pump.
Our concern with Medtronic – and it is not misleading – is that they will not replace recalled pumps or supplies for us or for our clients. We believe it would be misleading to our wonderful donors to let them think that all their donations can be used. Items that we receive that have been recalled simply go into the trash. It would also be wrong for us to send pumps and supplies to people in need that, if recalled, they cannot get repaired or replaced as necessary.
As stated in our blog post we do hope that we can develop a better relationship with Medtronic. But until we can be assured they will provide the same support to our clients that they do for those with insurance, we needed to make the difficult decision to not give their products away at this time.
I have, as my username suggests, been a Type 1 diabetic for over two decades, and have used two different companies’ insulin pumps over the course of twelve and a half years (Disetronic, then Minimed). From 1996 until 2003, I used Disetronic pumps. In 2003, they were FDA recalled and banned for further sale in the U.S. due to several problems involving faulty batteries, piston rods, and waterproofing. At that time, I switched to a Minimed pump, and over the course of my six years with it, I experienced repeated problems with infusion sets and other mechanical features of the pump. Neither their toll-free help line nor the diabetes educators that I worked with, despite their best efforts, could find me a lasting solution to any of these problems.
So now I take shots. Obviously this isn’t the solution for which I was hoping, but I no longer experience severe hyperglycemic episodes due to mechanical malfunction, and my A1C results have improved dramatically. In conclusion, it’s really sad that we’ve all been sold pumps as the magic bullet, which they wouldn’t be even if they worked properly all the time. I commend iPump for their strong stance for their clients, and I thank you for the validation of a problem that I was at one time was convinced was mine alone.
Pumps were never the magic bullet. Too bad shots have been around for how long and yet still diabetes is growing and most of us are uncontrolled. I love my pump! It works great! My MD always knows where I’m at and doesnt have to play the 20 question game. I will wear a pump until there’s a cure.
I found this post via Google and felt compelled to offer my perspective: having used insulin pumps for 22 years, starting with Minimed, I would go back to injections before ever using a Minimed/Medtronic pump again.
Medtronic transformed an innovative, customer-first company into a greedy shadow — think Gollum in Lord of the Rings. Medtronic stopped innovating and began cashing-in on its position as market leader. After more than two decades — 20 years, folks! — of making pumps, it still doesn’t make one that can be worn in a swimming pool. Alone among the pump makers, Minimed traps customers with proprietary connectors for infusion sets — because it can.
About 4 years after I switched from Minimed to Animas, 4 years during which I ordered supplies just from Animas, Medtronic sent me a bill for several thousand dollars. Why? Some Medtronic accountant discovered that Minimed routinely accepted insurance copayments as full payment for pump supplies and decided that Medtronic would not honor payment terms made to Minimed customers 4 years earlier. That’s 4 years of reporting earnings for a publicly-traded company, so one can imagine how accounting practices reflect management practices.
In the meantime, Animas continued to innovate and then along came Deltec with the Cozmo pump, a wonderful pump that Medtronic killed by litigation. I now use an Omnipod, another innovative pump product that integrates glucose and insulin management more cost-effectively than any other system. The Omnipod is the disposable pump, so there’s no $5,000 up-front cost to start pumping — a huge reduction in the cost of insulin pump treatment.
I think competition is sorely lacking in products for Type 1 diabetes care and Medtronic is partly responsible. As a former customer, Medtronic showed me clearly that profits are more important to them than patient well-being, so I congratulate iPump calling out Medtronic for their business practices.
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