Report Finds More Than $1.3 Billion in Potential Savings Through Diabetes Prevention Legislation
Summary
An Avalere Health study commissioned by the American Diabetes Association, YMCA of the USA (YMCA), in collaboration with the American Medical Association (AMA) focusing on HR 962/S 452, The Medicare Diabetes Prevention Act (MDPA), found that if enacted, the bill would save the Federal Government $1.3 billion over 10 years, and would also dramatically reduce diabetes among Medicare beneficiaries.(The analysis found even greater savings beyond the 10 year mark as well.) Avalere’s analysis used Congressional Budget Office (CBO)-style scoring, to estimate the bill’s cost burden, as well as any other potential savings.
Roughly half of U.S. seniors suffer from prediabetes and are thus at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The purpose of the MDPA is to provide coverage for the National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) to seniors at risk for diabetes. The National DPP is a network of community-based diabetes prevention programs based on a successful clinical trial that showed type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed in individuals at high risk for the disease. The MDPA would ultimately decrease diabetes cases among seniors, therefore requiring fewer medical interventions and decreased physician care.
Avalere’s study utilized conservative assumptions, mostly based on a literature review of current diabetes prevention programs. In fact, the study assumes a mere three to five percent participation rate among Medicare beneficiaries, or roughly 5 million seniors. Avalere also assumes a 37 percent diabetes prevention rate over the same 10-year period, resulting in about a 1 million fewer seniors with diabetes.
Read Avalere’s complete study.
Read the news release.
For more information about diabetes prevention, contact Eric Hammelman at EHammelman@Avalere.com.
January 23, 11 AM ET
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