Late-Breaking Abstracts Highlight Cost Savings in Diabetes

The following are highlights of late-breaking abstracts that were on display at the ADA’s 72^nd Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia, PA. The abstracts were submitted after April 2012.

Return on Investment (ROI) from the Online Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) - Kaufman et al.

Virtual Lifestyle Management (VLM) is a year-long online weight management program that contains education, guided self-discovery, monitoring, tracking, and other features to help users lose weight. Overweight and sedentary patients who have or are at risk for type 2 diabetes were recruited by a newsletter mailed to health plan members. This study examines the impact of VLM on healthcare expenditures examining intervention participants and overweight comparison subjects that were covered continuously by the health plan the year prior to the intervention (2008); they year of the intervention (2009); and the year after the intervention (2010). VLM participants “were matched to a weighted composite of 5 members in the non-VLM group using the STATA nnmatch function to maximize similarity between study subjects and comparison subjects designed to predict participation and minimize selection bias.” The total cost for the year-long intervention program was $367/patient and savings, as measured by reduction in claims for the intervention group during study year and one-year post-study, were $566 and $883, respectively. This intervention “had positive ROI within 2 years from the beginning of the program” and researchers note that “technology-enabled interventions using DPP can have significant clinical and economic impact and should be considered in a population of overweight adults who need to lose weight to improve health.”

Cost Effectiveness of Real-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring (RT-CGM) in Type 2 Diabetes - Fonda et al.

Researchers have shown that “intermittent ‘doses’ of RT-CGM (unblended use) were associated with sustained reduction in A1C over 52 weeks as compared with daily self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG)” in patients with type 2 diabetes not on prandial insulin. In this study, Fonda et al validated IMS CORE Diabetes Model to project the lifetime clinical and economic outcomes for RT-CGM versus SMBG. Researchers conducted the study from a third-party payer perspective and only included direct costs obtained from published sources and inflated to $US 2011. They found that “RT-CGM results in an incremental 0.09 life years and 0.07 quality-adjusted life years with an incremental cost of $250.” However, the cost of RT-CGM is offset by lower SMBG and reduced complication rates. Additionally, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were $2093 per life-year gained, and $3735 per quality-adjusted life year. These findings show that “RT-CGM is a cost-effective disease management option in the United States for people with type 2 diabetes not on prandial insulin.”

To read more about these studies, please visit the American Diabetes Association’s website.