Diabetes education lowered health care costs

People with diabetes who received diabetes education had lower average health care costs compared with people who did not participate in diabetes education, according to findings from a study of Medicare and commercial member claims.

“Our study shows that collaboration between diabetes educators and physicians yields positive clinical quality and cost savings,” Ian Duncan, FSA, MAAA, of Solucia Consulting in Connecticut, said in a press release. “If referral rates to diabetes educators are increased, both cost and quality will be improved.”

The researchers assessed the impact of diabetes self-management, education and training on the cost of patient care among members of commercial and Medicare Advantage health care plans from a private, national database. The researchers compared health plan members who were exposed to diabetes education and those who were not. Data include claims of 8,749,569 health plan members (employees and dependents of health plan purchasers; commercial group) and 631,931 members who are eligible for Medicare benefits as enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans (Medicare group).

Diabetes education outcomes

When compared with commercially insured members who did not participate in diabetes education, the costs of members who did participate were <5.7%. In addition, Medicare members who participated in diabetes education cost significantly less (14%; P<.0001).

The researchers suggested that “an important validator of these results was the source of the differences.”

The claims for professional services were significantly lower among the non-diabetes education group (P=.0006), whereas members of the commercial group with diabetes education had higher claims for primary and preventive services (outpatient, P=.0030; prescription drug claims, P<.0001) — yet lower claims for acute care services (inpatient claims, P<.0001).

The quality of health care for people with diabetes may be improved and costs reduced by increasing referral rates to diabetes education among low-referring physicians — particularly in men with diabetes and those living in disadvantaged areas, the researchers concluded.

“The current discussion around health care reform is about bending the cost curve and what this study has shown is that patients who are using diabetes education are already experiencing a significant bending of the cost curve,” Duncan said.

Duncan I. Diabetes Educ. 2009;35:752-760.