Background: It is estimated that one in 10 people in the US have a diagnosis of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 95% of all cases in the US, with annual costs estimated to be $246 billion per year. This study investigated the impact of a glucose-measuring intervention to the burden of type 2 diabetes.
Objective: This analysis seeks to understand how professional continuous glucose monitoring (professional CGM) impacts clinical and economic outcomes when compared to patients who are not prescribed professional CGM.
Methods: This study utilized a large healthcare claims and lab dataset from the US, and identified a cohort of patients who were prescribed professional CGM as identified by CPT codes 95250 and 95251. It calculated economic and clinical outcomes 1 year before and 1 year after the use of professional CGM, using a generalized linear model.
Results: Patients who utilized professional CGM saw an improvement in hemoglobin A1C. The "difference-in-difference" calculation for A1C was shown to be -0.44%. There was no statistically significant difference in growth of total annual costs for people who used professional CGM compared to those who did not ($1,270, p = .08). Patients using professional CGM more than once per year had a -$3,376 difference in the growth of total costs (p = .05). Patients who used professional CGM while changing their diabetes treatment regimen also had a difference of -$3,327 in growth of total costs (p = .0023).
Conclusion: Significant clinical benefits were observed for patients who used professional CGM. Economic benefits were observed for patients who utilized professional CGM more than once within a 1-year period or who used it during a change of diabetes therapy. This suggests that professional CGM may help decrease rising trends in healthcare costs for people with type 2 diabetes, while also improving clinical outcomes.
Keywords: Claims data; health insurance; healthcare expenditures; population health; professional CGM; type 2 diabetes.