Diabetes Rates Continue to Soar

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Jane Bolin, associate professor of health policy and management at Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health in College Station, added: "It starts back at prevention and has to do with healthier lifestyles and teaching people how to monitor themselves. Right now, self-management is not reimbursable [by Medicare] unless done under certain conditions, and it puts a hardship on a lot of patients. I think we're becoming better at diagnosing and dealing with complications, but we need to move back further to prevention."

An estimated 19 million to 20 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, and about one-third of them don't even know they have the disease. It is characterized by high levels of blood sugar that are caused by the body's inability to process the hormone insulin to transport blood sugar to cells for energy.

Another study in the same issue of the journal questions how accurate Medicare data is in reflecting the health and health needs of the U.S. population.

Clinical trials used by Medicare to make decisions about coverage include participants who are not representative of the actual Medicare population, said the study authors, from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.

Trial participants tended to be younger, male and living in countries outside the United States, the researchers said.

More information

Visit the American Diabetes Association for more on diabetes.