Diabetes

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 13.8 million Americans were diagnosed with diabetes in 2003. An additional five million do not know that they have diabetes.

Many of the complications of diabetes (blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, and cardiovascular disease) can be prevented or delayed with appropriate monitoring and treatment. Physician offices can improve care for their populations by improving processes to coordinate care, adopting systems to monitor patients with diabetes, and promoting patient self-management to empower patients to manage this chronic health condition.

By assisting physician offices and clinics, health plans, medical groups, and other partners with these efforts, NMMRA is working to reduce the complications of diabetes by improving the rates of retinal eye exams, A1C tests, and lipid profiles for people with diabetes.

This support is provided at no charge to physician offices because NMMRA, as the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for New Mexico, receives funding to focus on diabetes care from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). More informaiton on diabetes screening and diabetes self-management is available on the CMS Web site.