Bill payers have cut options for other medical supplies and devices in the past, such as various prescription drugs and materials such as diabetes test strips or stents.

But UnitedHealthcare has now ventured beyond the others. Its rivals Aetna and the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem have reportedly not yet gone this far.


Despite pushback from patients, health care experts advise that such “steering” based on costs is a growing trend.

"We can't just wish away the high cost of medical care," Linda Blumberg, a health economist with the nonprofit Urban Institute told the news service. "We've got to think about ... ways in which we can bring down costs while not significantly hurting quality."

This latest UnitedHealthcare gambit could quite possible lead others to follow, despite warnings from organizations such as the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or JDRF.

One difficulty is the complexity of managing the pump day-to-day by patients. "When people work that out, it is very difficult to say, 'Hey, scratch that, you're going back to the drawing board, and you're going to relearn all this,'" Aaron Kowalski, a vice president of research at JDRF and a Type 1 diabetic told AP.

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