Study Finds Medicare Beneficiaries Under Use of
Their Benefits is Driving Health Care Cost
An analysis of Medicare claims data, conducted by the National Minority Quality Forum (The Forum), covering a six-year period provides strong signals that Medicare beneficiaries with chronic diseases on whom Medicare spends the least are a major factor contributing to rising costs. Results from this analysis show that beneficiaries with diabetes who consume the least-as evidenced by the level of reimbursement associated with their care-are more likely to cost the program significantly more in the short term.
These findings, with implications for health care reform, have prompted the formation of the Diabetes Care Project (DCP) (www.diabetescareproject.org). Founded by The Forum and Roche Diagnostics, DCP is a new coalition of patient advocates and health partners who are committed to dramatically reducing acute events that are a consequence of diabetic complications through early interventions and improved chronic-care management.
About Diabetes
Diabetes is a growing public health epidemic affecting over 23 million Americans. According to the American Diabetes Association and the Centers for Disease Control, type 2 diabetes, fueled by rising rates of obesity, accounts for nearly 90-95 percent of all diabetics and disproportionately affects minority and aging populations in the US (nearly 20 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have diabetes). The U.S. spends approximately $174 billion in annual total costs for diagnosed diabetes with $166 billion in direct medical costs. Further, one out of every four Medicare dollars is spent on beneficiaries with diabetes, with a high percentage attributed to tertiary illness caused by unmanaged or undermanaged diabetes.
About the National Minority Quality Forum
The National Minority Quality Forum (http://www.nmqf.org) was founded in 1998 as a nonprofit organization. Its mission is to strengthen national and local efforts to eliminate the disproportionate burden of premature death and preventable illness in racial and ethnic minorities and other special populations through the use of evidence-based, data-driven initiatives, including a series of health atlases (http://www.z-atlas.com).
About American Association of Diabetes Educators
AADE is a multi-disciplinary professional membership organization dedicated to improving diabetes care through education. With more than 12,000 professional members including nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, physicians, and others, AADE has a vast network of practitioners involved in the daily treatment of diabetes patients. Collectively, our alliances, member practitioner networks, and academic partners uniquely position AADE at the locus of change for the future treatment of diabetes.
For more information, please visit: www.diabeteseducator.org.
About Roche Diabetes Care
Roche Diabetes Care is a pioneer in the development of blood glucose monitoring systems and a global leader for diabetes management systems and services. For more than 30 years, Roche has been committed to helping people with diabetes live lives that are as normal and active as possible and has been helping healthcare professionals manage their patients’ condition in an optimal way. Today, the ACCU-CHEK portfolio offers people with diabetes and healthcare professionals innovative products, services and comprehensive solutions for convenient, efficient and effective diabetes management-from blood glucose monitoring through information management to insulin delivery. The ACCU-CHEK brand encompasses blood glucose meters, infusion pumps, lancing and data management systems.
For more information, please visit accu-chek.com.
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche’s personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients.
In 2008, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 9 billion Swiss francs in R & D. The Group posted sales of 45.6 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche-diagnostics.us.
About Healthways
Healthways is the leading provider of specialized, comprehensive solutions to help millions of people maintain or improve their health and well-being and, as a result, reduce overall costs. Healthways’ solutions are designed to help healthy individuals stay healthy, mitigate and slow the progression to disease associated with family or lifestyle risk factors and promote the best possible health for those already affected by disease. Our proven, evidence-based programs provide highly specific and personalized interventions for each individual in a population, irrespective of age or health status, and are delivered to consumers by phone, mail, internet and face-to-face interactions, both domestically and internationally. Healthways also provides a national, fully accredited complementary and alternative Health Provider Network and a national Fitness Center Network, offering convenient access to individuals who seek health services outside of, and in conjunction with, the traditional healthcare system.
For more information, please visit: www.healthways.com
