Medical Expenditures for Diabetes Patients Analyzed by Insurance Type
Boston, MA— More is spent on the care of individuals with diabetes enrolled in Medicaid than in diabetes patients who have private insurance, according to Sundar S. Shrestha, PhD, a health economist with the Centers for Disease Control, who presented a poster at the ADA meeting.
Dr Shrestha and colleagues analyzed data of more than 4.4 million individuals between 20 and 64 years of age enrolled in private insurance and over 28,000 Medicaid patients of the same age. Subjects were divided into 2 age groups: those 20 to 44 years of age and those 45 to 64 years of age.
Individuals with and without diabetes were case control-matched by age and sex. Diabetes-attributed excess services use or expenditures between privately insured and Medicaid was compared using t-test with unequal variance.
After examining per capita annual health services use—including outpatient visits, office visits, outpatient ER visits, lab services, radiological services, inpatient admissions, inpatient ER visits, and therapeutic classes—researchers determined that health service uses were higher for Medicaid than for privately insured individuals in both age groups.
Additionally, medical expenditures associated with diabetes that were paid under Medicaid were higher than those paid under private insurance, especially in younger adults.
Specifically:
•Expenditures for younger adults who were privately-insured averaged $5715 per year (versus $8017 annually for Medicaid patients)
•Expenditures on older, privately insured individuals averaged $8293 per year (versus $8966 for Medicaid patients).
Most expenditures in both age groups were on outpatient care and medication.
The authors noted that the results might not apply to the general population, in that Medicaid data came from 10 states, and the study did not include those covered by capitated plans.—Alessia D’Anna
