Medicare utilization, screening, and costs among participants in the Southeastern Diabetes Initiative: A population-based evaluation.

Van Houtven CH, Greiner MA, Heidenfelder B, Spratt SE, Granger BB, Dunham AA, Qualls LG, Curtis LH. Medicare utilization, screening, and costs among participants in the Southeastern Diabetes Initiative: A population-based evaluation. Primary Care Diabetes. 2018 Apr 1; 12(2):172-183.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

AIMS: Type 2 diabetes mellitus imposes significant burdens on patients and health care systems. Population-level interventions are being implemented to reach large numbers of patients at risk of or diagnosed with diabetes. We describe a population-based evaluation of the Southeastern Diabetes Initiative (SEDI) from the perspective of a payer, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The purpose of this paper is to describe the population-based evaluation approach of the SEDI intervention from a Medicare utilization and cost perspective. METHODS: We measured associations between the SEDI intervention and receipt of diabetes screening (i.e., HbA1c test, eye exam, lipid profile), health care resource use, and costs among intervention enrollees, compared with a control cohort of Medicare beneficiaries in geographically adjacent counties. RESULTS: The intervention cohort had slightly lower 1-year screening in 2 of 3 domains (4% for HbA1c; 9% for lipid profiles) in the post-intervention period, compared with the control cohort. The SEDI intervention cohort did not have different Medicare utilization or total Medicare costs in the post-intervention period from surrounding control counties. CONCLUSIONS: Our analytic approach may be useful to others evaluating CMS demonstration projects in which population-level health is targeted for improvement in a well-defined clinical population.