A recent study showed less than 7 percent of insured adults recently diagnosed with diabetes participated in diabetes self-management education training, according to Reuters.
Diabetes self-management education training helps recently diagnosed diabetes patients learn essential glycemic control strategies, study leader Rui Li, PhD, told Reuters. Data suggests patients are most receptive to these programs when they are first diagnosed with diabetes, according to the study.
The study examined claims from about 100,000 privately insured patients diagnosed with diabetes between 2009 and 2012. Those who were older, taking insulin or living in the north central United States or metropolitan areas were more likely to attend training programs, according to the report. However, no higher than 15 percent of each subgroup attended.
The study method may be faulty, according to Kate Lorig, director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center at Stanford School of Medicine in California. By basing the data on insurance claims, billing codes for "case management" rather than diabetes self-management training may have been left out.
"My guess it is that the actual number is double or triple that given," she told Reuters. "However this is still very, very low."
She also said community-based programs were effective in randomized trials, though they rarely receive reimbursement because they typically do not meet requirements. It is expensive and difficult for diabetes programs to be recognized as eligible for Medicare reimbursement, she told Reuters.
Medicare and many state Medicaid programs cover diabetes management training programs. Forty states mandate private insurance coverage of the programs, yet many do not cover them or require a co-pay, according to the report.
More articles on population health:
Health market 2.0: What care provider teams will look like in 2020
Granite Healthcare Network chooses athenahealth to manage population health
Low-income patients more likely to experience 30-day readmission