Funded CGMs, insulin pumps and insulin pump consumables

1. The Waikato Regional Diabetes Service will take the lead in supporting whānau with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) with this change, starting with CGM and moving to AID as phase 2. Once people are established on CGM/AID, they may come to primary care for ongoing prescriptions in the future. Resources are being created to help prescribers with this.
2. What WRDS need from you – not all people living with T1D are known to the regional diabetes service. In order to re-engage these whānau with the funded technology, please do a query build of you patients with T1D and send this to Vikki Lowe-Reid the charge nurse manager at WRDS. Please include their contact details so people living with T1D can be informed of the localities of drop in clinics and CGM start education.

These devices will be available under Special Authority, with initial applications made by the Regional Diabetes Service. It is hoped that as many of those eligible for CGM will have scripts with current special authority numbers within a relatively short period of time.

Many have had trials of various CGM in recent months or will have been self-funding their CGM and will know what system they want. A significant number of those who have been self-funding their CGM will be operating a partial closed loop (where their insulin pump and CGM ‘talk’ to each other for automated insulin delivery), and it is imperative that they have access to funded CGM as soon as possible.

Medtronic’s brand of CGMs and insulin pumps was not included in the final approval. What this means is that from 1 January 2025 the Medtronic MiniMed 770G insulin pump will no longer be funded for people new to insulin pumps and the funding for the consumables will stop on 1 October 2026. This gives people two years to transition to another pump.

1. The Diabetes Integrated Team (DIT) has requested initial applications for stand-alone CGM be completed by primary care. Resources to help with prescribing and education of CGMs will be made available to each practice.   
   • Any prescriber can apply for a special authority and write a prescription for all CGM’s. This includes GPs, nurse practitioners, nurse prescribers, pharmacist prescribers and dietitian prescribers.
2. The DIT is working on a plan for new insulin pump initiations, using a priority tool with an equity lens.
3. Once people are established on CGM/AID, they may come to primary care for ongoing prescriptions in the future. Resources are being created to help prescribers with this.
4. Not all people living with T1D are known to the Diabetes Integrated Team. To re-engage these whānau with the funded technology, the Pinnacle clinical diabetes specialist (contact details below) is available to run a query build in your practice and contact these patients to discuss changes in funding and available services for the initiation of insulin pump therapy / AID.

Medtronic’s brand of CGMs was not included in the final approval. What this means is that Medtronic insulin pumps and consumables will continue to be funded until October 2026. Between now and then, the DIT will be working with these patients to transition them to one of the newly funded insulin pump systems.

People are encouraged to combine their annual diabetes check with an appointment for a CGM prescription so they do not incur extra costs.

There are online webinars, for both CGM and insulin pumps for healthcare professionals and consumers, scheduled between now and the end of the year. Below are links to find out more.

• Learn about Dexcom ONE+ Continuous Glucose Monitoring
• Learn about Dexcom Clarity and interpretation of your patients' data
• Tandem Refresher Course
• NZMS Diabetes: Introduction to Tandem and Control-IQ Technology 
• Register for NZMS education hub
• Register for Abbot Online Education modules here. 
• Diabetes NZ patient centred information
• Pharmacodiabetes
• Camdiab Training
• YPSOMED
  
• FreeStyle Libre 2 and FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus virtual on demand session
• Healthify He Puna Waiora