I recently was told about the growth of a chain of clinics in India called Lifespan Diabetes focusing entirely on the care of diabetic patients. Here's a short summary of the services offered by the company copied from its web landing page:
We are India's First and Largest Chain of Diabetes Clinic. It's a caring endeavor founded by Ashok Jain, who is a diabetic himself for 21 years. With 40 Clinics across 10 cities, we have already reached out to help 81,000 diabetics. Diabetes is a hassle-some disease. So we don’t want the added hassle of waiting for a doctor, going to a diagnostic centre, finding products in another place etc....We provide everything a diabetic might need, under one roof. Right from diagnosis to speaking to a dietician, educator, diabetologist. As a patient, you don’t have to keep going from pillar to post. The phlebotomist comes home to take patient’s blood. So life is easy and convenient for the patient.
Various plans are offered by the company based on factors such as the stage of the disease, organ involvement, duration of the disease, and even for patients in a pre-diabetic state. Full Care 12 is the plan designed for those with newly diagnosed disease and "glycated hemoglobin not more than 9." The cost of yearly care for this group of patients is Rs.15900 which is equivalent to about $227. I am sure that the plans for more complicated patients are priced at a higher level.
To set the stage, here's some data on the prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. from a 2017 article (see: New CDC report: More than 100 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes):
More than 100 million U.S. adults are now living with diabetes or prediabetes, according to a new report ...by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report finds that as of 2015, 30.3 million Americans – 9.4 percent of the U.S. population –have diabetes. Another 84.1 million have prediabetes, a condition that if not treated often leads to type 2 diabetes within five years. The report confirms that the rate of new diabetes diagnoses remains steady. However, the disease continues to represent a growing health problem: Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2015.
I believe that it is inevitable that a similar type of diabetes clinic chain will arise in the U.S. The demand is certainly present. Such a large scale type of operation should also be able to reduce costs for treatment with economies of scale. Such an organization could also potentially increase the quality of care with such a specialized approach. I think that payers would be in favor of such clinics and perhaps could even mount such an effort themselves (see: Major Trends for the Year: Payers Use IT to Provide Total Care Management).
It stands to reason that if we currently have “male clinics” that specialize in low-T diagnoses that the profit motive for diabetes care could spur the growth of this type of care model. It might even improve patient compliance and outcomes if done correctly.
Posted by: Deb Tiffany | December 27, 2018 at 10:29 AM