COVID-19 has amplified the scale of existing healthcare disparities , placing the vulnerable subsets of people at even greater risk for developing preventable complications or contracting the virus.
“It’s no secret that diabetes is a disease that has disproportionately affected minority communities across the country,” said Mark Warner (D-VA) in a recent press release.
Accordingly, a bill titled “The Prevent Diabetes Act” written by Warner along with Senators Tim Scott (R-SC), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Tina Smith (D-MN) and Kirsten Cinema (D-AZ), was introduced to expand access to the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program through use of telehealth. Warner states, “…to ensure that all individuals have the tools needed to combat this preventable disease, the Prevent Diabetes Act would help expand access to virtual classes under the existing Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program. This commonsense and cost-saving expansion will ensure that more Americans at-risk of developing diabetes who are living in either rural or medically underserved communities, can participate in this critical program that has been proven to delay the full onset of this preventable disease.”
This development could greatly increase the role of clinical pharmacies in the fight against Type 2 Diabetes, while serving as a revenue generating opportunity for CarePortMD-affiliated pharmacies enabled to provide education through our coordinated telemedicine network.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/4709/text
Ashok Subramanian, MD, CEO/CMO
CarePortMD