Continuous Glucose Monitors are used by diabetics to monitor their glucose and help improve their glucose control, prevent low blood sugars (hypoglycemia), and dose insulin.  In comparison to finger stick glucometers, CGMs provide a continuous reading of glucose levels, alarms for high and low glucose levels, and predictive alerts.  CGMs may be used with compatible mobile smart phones or dedicated meters.

Alabama Medicaid has taken a stand against covering CGMs for adults despite wide spread coverage by Medicare and most commercial insurers.  Some CGMs are even available for cash prices under $100 a month; however this is still prohibitive for many Medicaid patients because of their other costs of disease treatment.  

CGM usage has repeatedly been shown to result in over a 1% drop in A1C WITHOUT ANY OTHER CHANGES TO THERAPY and this results in a significant drop in long term health costs.  Proactive monitoring results in significant reductions in hospitalization due to hypoglycemia or DKA which also results in significant reductions to short term health care costs.

CGM usage also allows for greater coordination of care with health care providers as glucose readings are often available remotely using CGMs technology.

We propose here to try to build support to convince Alabama Medicaid to begin coverage for CGMs for all adult diabetic patients.