Diabetes

The American Medical Association declared obesity a disease in 2013, but insurers have been slow to cover drugs to treat the disease.

The proposed cuts would come just as CMS is gearing up to launch the Diabetes Prevention Program in Medicare starting in January 2018. Diabetes accounts for $1 of every $3 spent in Medicare, and CMS has been looking for ways to slow the number of beneficiaries who develop the disease.

The researchers' hypothesis: improvements in continuous glucose monitoring technology would bring greater quality of life improvements for those with type 1 diabetes, even if they were not using insulin pumps.

Preventing the progression of diabetes can help patients maintain a healthy quality of life while saving significant costs, said Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, FAAP, FTOS, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

The findings come after other data recently showed an overall increase in diabetes incidence among youth, especially minorities.

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