Medicare to Cover Insulin Pumps for Some

BOSTON — September, 1999 — The agency overseeing Medicare announced in September that it will cover the costs for insulin infusion pumps for those recipients who have type 1 diabetes.

Medicare covers people over age 65 and those with disabilitites and kidney failure. Type 1 diabetes is the less common form of diabetes, and strikes people most often as children and young adults à of course many patients with type 1 diabetes live to age 65 or older and could therefore benefit from this program. An estimated 5-10 percent of the 16 million American with diabetes have type 1 diabetes.

The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has said that pumps have not yet been shown conclusively to be effective for type 2 patients.

Insulin infusion pumps deliver insulin through a catheter inserted under the skin of the abdomen or hip. Patients must still test their blood sugars and adjust the amount of insulin that the pump delivers to their bodies to keep blood sugars in a target range.