Medicare considers funding diabetes prevention program.
Identifying successful prevention programs and funding them has long been a challenge but there may be a breakthrough on diabetes as the Washington Post reports in “Medicare could soon pay for services to keep diabetes from developing.”
A five-year pilot program was conducted at YMCAs throughout the U.S. designed to help prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes. The program enrolled people who were considered pre-diabetic. That is people with elevated blood sugar levels.
At a cost of $11.8 million the program showed that elderly people could lose weight with counseling and support for healthy eating and exercise. The average participant lost 5% of their body weight.
If the program is approved, it will be the first prevention program paid for by Medicare.
The program would save Medicare money overall, but it is not clear how the program would initially be paid for or administered. It is likely to be sometime before Medicare beneficiaries are covered for the program, but an initial explanation of how the system will work could come as early as this summer.
Reference: Washington Post (March 23, 2016) “Medicare could soon pay for services to keep diabetes from developing.”
For more information on elder law and estate planning, please visit my estate planning website.
