Help Patients Navigate Type 2 Diabetes.

• 40.1M¹

  Americans living with diabetes; type 2 is 90 to 95% of cases

• 53%¹

  Adults with diagnosed diabetes whose A1C is 7% or higher

• $412.9B⁴

  Estimated U.S. cost of diagnosed diabetes in 2022

1. 1

   The Problem

   About 40.1 million Americans have diabetes, and type 2 accounts for 90 to 95% of cases. Managing it takes daily decisions about medications, glucose checks, meals and activity. In CDC's latest report, 53.2% of adults with diagnosed diabetes have an A1C of 7% or higher, and only 14.9% meet all of their A1C, blood pressure, cholesterol and nonsmoking goals.^1,2

2. 2

   The Cost to Care Teams

   Much of diabetes care now happens outside scheduled visits. In two U.S. health systems, phone calls and portal messages made up more than half of all care-team encounters for patients with diabetes, and that work was rarely billed. Nationally, diabetes accounts for an estimated 120 million office visits a year.^3,4

3. 3

   When Diabetes Isn't Controlled

   In 2021, U.S. adults had about 16.5 million ED visits and 8.1 million hospital stays where diabetes was a listed diagnosis. Diagnosed diabetes cost an estimated $412.9 billion in 2022, and hospital inpatient care was the largest single share of the $306.6 billion in medical costs. Diabetes is not in Medicare's readmissions penalty program, but an A1C above 9% counts against Medicare ACOs as a quality measure.^1,4,5,9

4. 4

   What Better Management Does

   Diabetes self-management education and support lowers A1C by about 0.45 to 0.57 points and improves quality of life, according to a consensus report led by the American Diabetes Association. In an observational CMS study, newly diagnosed Medicare patients who used this training had 14% lower odds of any hospitalization and about $830 lower Medicare spending the next year, yet only about 5% used it (2010 data), even though Medicare covers up to 10 hours of training in the first year. These findings concern diabetes education and training programs, not PATHS. A Path could organize the educational materials and next steps selected by the diabetes care team.^2,6,7,8

• Daily Habits Path

  Mei can revisit guidance on food and movement that fits her life whenever she needs it. The topics patients revisit most show where the guidance can be clearer.

• Medicine Safety Path

  Mei reviews her medicine instructions and warning signs. Knowledge checks show the team which instructions need clearer teaching.

• Diabetes Education Path

  Mei finds how to join diabetes education classes. Knowing where patients get stuck helps the team connect more of them to education.

The more the health system knows about each patient's experience and journey, the better it can make its workflows. What Mei and every other patient engage with, understand and ask about becomes health system intelligence: the team learns from every patient and refines each Path, so the next patient's experience is better. Clearer Paths mean fewer repeat calls and less time re-teaching the same education, and that saves time and money across the health system.