Diabetes Study

[physasst]

Scary....one of my good friends was one of the lead authors on this...

 

Simply scary...

 

5 million more people....

 

41% increase in costs. 245 billion....

 

23% of US healthcare spending was only on diabetes.

 

8% growth in costs per year, and with the obesity pandemic, likely will be higher.

 

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2013/03/05/dc12-2625.full.pdf+html

[Guest Paula]

I'm the diabetes coordinator at my clinic and we have a small grant to run our program (pays part of my salary). The grant is from Indian Health Service and runs one more year. We have a lot of complications in our patient population and I only foresee more and more work for me. BUT: with growing decreases to reimbursements or bundled payments or requirements by insurers it will be interesting how we will coordinate care better. We do not have the greatest system and no electronic health record yet. Very frustrating and I am attending a training session on meaningful use for diabetes as we are in the process of implementing our IHS EHR. I do believe we will be impacted if we do not meet certain care guidelines. It will be an interesting next few years guiding our nurses, MD, NP and myself into new model of care.

[rcdavis]

Paula, are you having any trouble getting your ehr funding due to you being a PA?

[Guest Paula]

I am not an eligible provider even though I work at a rural clinic and most of my patients are on medicare/medicaid/Ihs/uninsured/homeless and indigent. We do not yet have the EHR in place so no one gets the incentive payments, yet. Even the "fix" that AAPA lobbied for did not fix anything for me. The goof on AAPA's part where they assumed PAs would be considered the same as doctors for the incentive payments was the sentinel event that made me a PA activist. I did not join AAPA this year for the first time in 9 years.

[ventana]

just a side thought

 

WHY?

 

the nature of people doesn't change this fast.. humans are humans....

 

but what has changed?

 

My own unproven theory is the food industry - highly refined foods are killing us, Hugh Fructose Corn Syrup is a HUGE issue in my mind....

 

when is the gov't (don't flame me) going to step in and tell the food industries they can not keep making us fat and unhealthy? I know they are not feeding us, but I do believe their is an addictive quality that has been built into processed food these days - fast burn sugars, high salt, high fats.... all bad - - when is the last time you heard someone saying they were craving a carrot? I have no supporting evidence to this, just my hunch....

[Guest Paula]

I agree processed foods are a huge issue in diet related illnesses and conditions. Humans are conditioned to expect quick results so counseling for dietary changes and increased physical activity is met with crossed eyes. The beverage companies are starting to respond by lowering the amount of high fructose corn syrup in their drinks, and some taking it out all together. Have you seen the commercials by (I think) coca-cola, or is it Pepsi? Very slick and they are highlighting smaller can sizes, less sweeteners. Maybe they are responding to consumer demand?

 

Or do they have a secret pact with Governor Bloomberg for kickbacks?

[Guest Paula]

Is it the Governor of NY or the Mayor who has the super-size restrictions on drinks? I always get those two confused!

[303909]

Have you seen the commercials by (I think) coca-cola, or is it Pepsi? Very slick and they are highlighting smaller can sizes, less sweeteners. Maybe they are responding to consumer demand?

My favorite out of that line is the "140 calories" bit. They show people dancing for a certain amount of time or other fun activities that ostensibly burn the 140 calories in a can of Coke. It obviously glosses over the fact that giving 7% of your RDA of calories to just 12 oz. of sugar water is ludicrous and truly burning 140 calories is more challenging than people think. Never mind the havoc HFCS wreaks on the liver/blood sugar/etc.