HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell has announced that a change has been made in Medicare policy to allow it to cover diabetes prevention programs as well. The policy change will represent an expansion of the model funded by the CMS Innovation Center. Details of how reimbursement will work will be spelled out in the 2017 Medicare physician fee schedule. The physician fee schedule will be made public this summer.

The decision was announced yesterday at a YMCA event in Washington DC. YMCA in the USA was a partner in the $11.8 million project that enrolled Medicare beneficiaries with risk for type 2 diabetes in the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP).

The initiative has shown that full-blown diabetes can be prevented in those who have high levels of blood glucose but are not suffering from diabetes -- a condition called pre-diabetes. The aforementioned demonstration project was funded under the federal government’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2011.

Patrick Conway, CMS deputy administrator, said, “The Diabetes Prevention Program can prevent disease and help people live healthier lives. CMS’ partnership with CDC, NIH, and private sector partners to engage people in improving their own health was critical to the success of the DPP.”

Fresh estimates suggest that 86 million people in the United States have prediabetes. In 2012 nearly 29.1 million people had diabetes, mostly type 2 diabetes. Around 90 per cent of those who have prediabetes have even no idea they have it. The disease costs the nation more than $245 billion annually in healthcare and lost productivity.