Clinical case study: achieving long-term control of insulin resistance

A total of 20.8 million people in the United States have diabetes, including 10.3 million adults over the age of 60 years, and more than 6 million people remain undiagnosed. Although diabetes is widely recognized as a prevalent and serious disease in managed care, current care is suboptimal, with less than 2% of American adults with diabetes receiving optimal quality of care.

To review the various treatment interventions available in diabetes care, including the use of pay for performance (P4P) initiatives.

In an effort to improve the current state of diabetes care, the NCQA's Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) diabetes measure was developed as a means to better promote monitoring of various clinical markers in patients with this disease. This measure has been employed in P4P initiatives across the country by granting incentives to providers who have a prespecified proportion of their patients with diabetes meeting the measure. Likewise, to improve outcomes, many experimental and recently approved treatment options for diabetes target different processes in the course of the disease.

An effective program for the management of a diabetes patient population must be multidisciplinary, coordinating the efforts of many different levels of health care providers. Furthermore, components commonly incorporated in P4P initiatives, such as patient self-management education, provider contact, and the use of the American Diabetes Association standards of care measures for screening and lab levels, are imperative to the success of a diabetes management program.