I recently heard a story of a diabetic Medicaid patient that developed gangrene on her foot and leg. Gangrene occurs when tissue decays or dies due to a loss of its blood supply or because of a bacterial infection. It's a concern for many people with diabetes because of how diabetes affects the body--including possible damage to the nerves and weakening of the immune system. Treatments for gangrene include surgical removal of the decaying or dead skin, amputation of the affected body part or antibiotics.

The first surgeon that examined the diabetic Medicaid patient's foot and leg concluded that amputation of the affected area was the appropriate course of care given the severity of the gangrene. He immediately scheduled surgery for later that day. Fortunately a second surgeon disagreed—concluding that the gangrene could be treated with surgical removal of the dead and dying skin. The surgery to remove the dead skin was performed by the second surgeon and the patient still has all of her limbs and is being monitored.

I won’t speculate why the first surgeon prescribed amputation to treat the gangrene, but I did wonder if the patient’s insurance coverage had anything to do with his rush to cut. And there is evidence to back up my worries. There is lots of evidence that diabetic amputees are more like to be poor and minority. Or course, this is not entirely the fault of doctors. Many poor minorities don’t seek regular or preventive care to treat their diabetes, making some amputations necessary. But not all of them…

And there’s more… A disease management program designed to help minority diabetes patients revealed the difference in blood testing rates between whites and ethnic minorities. Blacks and Hispanics had lower testing (to determine how well their diabetes is being controlled) rates than whites. A study of this vendor-based disease management pilot program for Medicare patients concluded that it did “not appear to improve diabetes care or mitigate racial/ethnic disparities among these patients…” The program failed.

But what’s a problem without a solution? Fortunately, health care reform is already addressing the diabetes crisis. A pilot diabetes prevention program run by the YMCA received praise and dollars from a grant program established by the Affordable Care Act program. According to an article on npr.org,

It's the first prevention program to meet requirements under the Affordable Care Act to gain Medicare coverage, HHS says, including undergoing an independent audit to confirm that it's effective and saves money. The Obama administration is recommending that Medicare cover the program for at-risk Medicare beneficiaries.

We need to continue to provide funds and support for diabetes programs like the YMCA’s. We also need to expand health care reform to give everyone access. We need Medicare For All. Maybe a system where everyone’s insurance is the same and payment for care is identical is what is needed to counter some of the bias doctor’s may have regarding whose limbs are worth saving.

Tags: Medicare For All, Affordable Care Act, Diabetes