Surge foreseen in diabetes cases, treatment costs

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Commentary: Is Miami the capital of Medicare scams?

A half billion dollars to help homebound diabetics get insulin injections?

That's how much Medicare handed out in so-called outlier payments to Miami-Dade home-health care agencies treating diabetic patients in 2008. The $520 million in payments make up over half the $1 billion spent by Medicare for home care for diabetics in the 50 states last year.

In a county that houses only 2 percent of elderly diabetics on Medicare, the payment numbers don't add up to anything but fraud.

Diabetes trend worries doctors

The number of pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes has more than doubled in seven years, a California study found, a troubling trend that means health risks for both mothers and newborns.

And the number of diabetic teenagers giving birth grew fivefold during the same period, according to the study, the largest of its kind.

Expectant mothers who don't control their diabetes face an increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Their babies have a higher chance of being born with birth defects.

Study finds benefits in treating mild gestational diabetes

Treating even mild diabetes that develops during pregnancy helps keep moms and babies from gaining too much weight and makes for easier deliveries, new research shows.

Pregnant women in the U.S. are routinely tested and treated for high blood sugar levels, although it hasn't been clear whether treating the mildest cases really benefited them and their infants.

In a study of 950 women, those with mild gestational diabetes who were treated had fewer overly large babies, fewer cesarean sections and fewer pregnancy complications, compared with women who didn't have their diabetes treated.

Diabetes drug Lantus is tested for cancer risk

Studies in Europe have linked a synthetic form of insulin to an increased risk of cancer, but doctors caution that the findings are preliminary and may not hold up under greater scrutiny.

The drug, which has the brand name Lantus and is marketed by Sanofi-Aventis, provides a daily injection of artificial insulin.

For many diabetes patients who depend on insulin to regulate blood sugar, the once-a-day therapy has been hailed as a benefit over other drugs that require more frequent injections.

What's a good deal when it comes to disease prevention?

When it comes to health-care spending, an ounce of prevention is seldom worth a pound of cure.

Take Mrs. Jones, a hypothetical 55-year-old obese woman at risk for diabetes. It costs $900 a year to hire a personal lifestyle coach to help her lose weight and prevent diabetes. Suppose that the coaching works for Mrs. Jones, and she is spared diabetes and all the resulting health bills.

Research shows that for every person like Mrs. Jones, six other people just like her get nothing out of such a program. The yearly cost of the prevention program for those six people: $5,400.