Once upon a time, a long time ago (in 1997) in a land far away (DC) a group called Congress passed a law that said Medicare should provide Diabetes Self Management Training (DSMT) as a benefit. These services were covered under the Balanced Budget Act. Evidence clearly shows that when people living with diabetes are trained in their care of this complex condition there are savings. (Medicare saves on average $135 per person per month or $22 Billion for those who complete DSMT.)
The problem is when Congress created the DSMT benefit they did not recognize credentialed or certified diabetes educators as a provider group. They may have assumed that existing programs in hospitals would be able to provide the services to all who needed it. But hospitals are closing their programs at alarming rates. The result is that many lack access to DSMT. The almost 30 million people with diabetes need training and assistance. If the bills outlined below pass CDE’ s and BC-ADM’s can bill for diabetes training as individual providers rather than through their programs’ provider numbers. Clients will be able to receive training in outlying rural areas as well as in the suburbs.
For several Congresses after 1997 AADE has assisted Senators and Representatives in proposing bills to get credentialed or certified diabetes educators recognized as Medicare providers. This will increase access to care for Medicare beneficiaries. The current bills in consideration are S. 1345 which was proposed by Senator Shaheen (D-NH) office (contact person Alison MacDonald at 202-224-2841 and HR 1726. The House bill was proposed by the Republican from Kentucky Rep. Whitfield (contact person Ed Kim at 202-225-3115.
The ask for Sen Thom Tillis is to cosponsor S 1345
The ask for Sen Richard Burr is to not only cosponsor S 1345 but to move it from his Finance Committee to the Senate floor for a vote. Sen Burr cosponsor the first bill but not the last two.
For the House side, go to Thomas.gov and type in your zip code. This site will give you the contact info for your two Senators and your district Representative. Then contact your district representative and thank them for cosponsor HR 1726 or ask them to do so. We have until January 2017 to get this done. If these bill do not pass we start all over again and once upon a time……………..