Endocrine Insider
August 21, 2008

In addition to blocking the impending payment cuts and providing a positive update for 2008 and 2009, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act—enacted July 15—included other provisions that will directly impact the care of patients with diabetes.  Two important programs for diabetes prevention and treatment, the Type 1 Diabetes Special Funding Program and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, were extended through 2011.  

The Type 1 Diabetes Special Funding Program is a special appropriation for research on the prevention and cure of type 1 diabetes that the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases administers on behalf of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with multiple National Institutes of Health Institutes and Centers and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Since its creation in 1997, the program has helped the diabetes research community make tremendous progress. 

The Special Diabetes Program for Indians aims to promote improved health care among American Indians/Alaska Natives through special diabetes prevention and treatment services projects.  This program provides grants to local communities that allow the recipients to develop programs that meet the needs of their specific community.

The legislation also requires that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) conduct a study on the feasibility of establishing a Medicare Chronic Care Practice Research Network that would serve as a standing network of providers that would test new models of care coordination and other care approaches for chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries.  MedPAC is required to deliver the report to Congress by June 15, 2009.

Please see the July 10, 2008 edition of Endocrine Insider  for details on additional provisions that will impact physicians.