Otis Kirksey: Let healthcare professionals determine best treatment for diabetes patients
With a lifelong career dedicated to diabetes education and management and now as a clinical pharmacist at Neighborhood Medical Center – a local medical safety net provider - I’ve seen first-hand how the management of this disease has come so far in the last three decades, with continuous glucose monitors lessening the burden significantly for people with diabetes.
Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) have dramatically improved the lives of people with diabetes as the information that they provide to both patients and providers has been invaluable in improving diabetes care. CGMs allow patients and providers to see trends and make necessary adjustments; since CGMs provide ongoing glucose readings people with diabetes are alerted of oncoming highs or lows before they can feel them, allowing patients to act in real time and avoid a potentially adverse event. This helps people with diabetes better manage their blood glucose levels, reducing the risk of hospitalizations and long-term complications.
Earlier this year, the Florida legislature passed a law that improves access to continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) for Medicaid beneficiaries and will also allow CGMs to be available at pharmacies. This provides an under-resourced community consistent access to lifesaving CGM devices and is personal for me because it means that many of the patients I serve at the Neighborhood Medical Center will now be able to access CGMs to manage their diabetes.
Moreover, receiving timely critical medical information through these monitors does more than just improve the quality of life of those living with diabetes. CGM use can also result in cost savings resulting from fewer emergency room visits to treat severe hypo and hyperglycemia and reduces the strain on healthcare workers who can monitor blood glucose levels without having to perform finger stick tests.
At the most basic level, this legislation provides Floridians with diabetes a better quality of life.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration is currently determining the specifics of how Medicaid recipients will access CGMs. The doctor-patient relationship is critical, and the physician or medical provider should have the ability to recommend the CGM that will best fit individual circumstances. Additionally, patients should have input and be able to choose the CGM they prefer.
We are thankful that our legislature and governor supported improving access to CGMs for the Medicaid population and I look forward to the important health improvements that will follow for people with diabetes.
Otis Kirksey, PharmD, RPh, currently serves as the Director of Pharmacy Services for Neighborhood Medical Center in Tallahassee, Florida. He is also the American Diabetes Association’s immediate-past president of healthcare and education.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Otis Kirksey: Doctor-patient relationship critical in diabetes care
