Collins advocates for diabetes patients by urging Medicare to cover wider range of treatments

With diabetes affecting nearly 30 million Americans, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) recently called for Medicare coverage of insulin pumps and other breakthrough medical devices that help people with diabetes manage the disease.

In a joint letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma, Collins and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) wrote that effective diabetes management is crucial to containing health care costs and to allowing seniors to improve their lives while living with the disease.

In January, CMS extended coverage to glucose monitors that enable people with Type I diabetes to continuously manage and monitor the disease. Collins and Shaheen, the co-chairs of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, applauded CMS’s decision.

The senators encouraged Verma “to build on this change in policy and work to ensure that Medicare coverage policies keep up with developing technology and encourage clinically appropriate treatment,” the letter states. “In today’s ever-changing environment, we are optimistic that scientists are discovering better disease management tools and treatments every day, and believe CMS should closely follow these changes through their approval process.”

Patch pumps, for example, were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2005 and are covered by private insurers. Once people with diabetes age into Medicare coverage, however, those therapies are no longer covered.

“Effective management of diabetes is crucial to holding down health care costs and helping seniors manage their diabetes successfully to allow them to continue to live healthy and productive lives, made more manageable by the latest, scientifically-supported tools and therapies,” the letter concludes.