Monday, June 24, 2024

Healthcare Cost for Type 2 diabetes

The National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) services can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes for individuals with prediabetes. The National DPP services include help with healthy diet, physical activity, and lifestyle modification. In delaying or preventing type 2 diabetes, the National DPP services can reduce healthcare costs.

Reducing healthcare costs is a significant concern with respect to diabetes. And since older people incur more healthcare costs, in general, one recent study looked at the cost of providing healthcare services to people with type 2 diabetes who were over 65. The CMS version of the National DPP, called the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program, or MDPP, addresses diabetes prevention for Medicare beneficiaries, the majority of which are over 65 years of age.


In research conducted in Finland, investigators looked at "electronic patient records" to find people over 65 who had been told they had diabetes. After a selection process, 187 people with diabetes and 176 people without diabetes were chosen for the study. Information on how often primary care was used by the chosen participants was taken from electronic patient records for a one-year period.

It was found that, after a year, individuals with diabetes had more doctor's appointments, nurse's appointments, lab work done, and inpatient care at the community hospital than patients without a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

The older persons with type 2 diabetes who participated in these healthcare activities paid more for healthcare. In fact, the CDC reports that the average person with diabetes spends $16,750 a year on medical expenses. That is roughly 2.3 times what someone without diabetes would spend on medical care.

The National DPP and the MDPP (to some extent) are public-private arrangements that offer type 2 diabetes prevention services in healthcare and community settings. The National DPP and MDPP have been shown to decrease healthcare cost by delaying or preventing type 2 diabetes. To adequately address diabetes and type 2 diabetes prevention, healthcare providers should either offer treatment services or refer patients to community or healthcare organizations offering the services. 

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