Report: Health gains by Cleveland diabetes patients threatened by coverage loss

A new report from Better Health Greater Cleveland shows that while area diabetes patients are showing health improvements, those gains may be threatened as more people lose insurance coverage ("Diabetes patients threatened by loss of coverage,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 26, 2009)

The collaborative Better Health Greater Cleveland, which is part of the Robert Wood Johnson-funded Aligning Forces initiative, began examining more than 25,000 diabetes patients’ records in 2007 and is the first large-scale effort in the Cleveland area to report on how patients and doctors are managing diabetes.

Cuyohoga County’s avoidable hospitalization rate for diabetes patients, which resulted in $200 million in spending annually, is substantially higher than the state as a whole.

While the group is encouraged by the fact that about half of patients in 2008 met benchmarks for diabetes control, compared to 39 percent in 2007, the study also found that the number of uninsured patients being monitors increased by 19 percent during the same time period. Because of the high level of medical maintainance required by diabetics, the increased uninured rate is likely to translate into lower rates of compliance with testing and other benchmarks.

"People either scrimp on care - they don't go to visits because they can't make [payments] - or they scrimp on medicines and supplies," said Dr. Randall Cebul, director of Better Health Greater Cleveland. "They won't be checking their sugar, that's all there is to it."

Better Health Greater Cleveland has released both an executive summary (20 pages, pdf) and its full report (111 pages, pdf) titled Community Health Checkup.