People that receive education about diabetes typically have lower healthcare costs, according to an article recently published in Diabetes Health.
A recent study entitled “Assessing the Value of Diabetes Education” looked at data from 8.75 million health plan members and 632,000 Medicare patients. It found that those in the health plan group that received diabetes education paid 5.7% less for the healthcare, while those on Medicare paid 14% less.
The study found that while health plan members that received diabetes education had higher costs when it came to primary or preventative care, they had fewer costs relating to serious complications requiring inpatient and hospital services. This, the study’s researchers concluded, illustrates the benefit of diabetes education.
The researchers note that about half of Americans with the disease receive formal training, an increase over the 45% in 1998. The next step is to push low-referring doctors to increase the number of people they refer to diabetes educators, the researchers note.
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