A Health Affairs article (Meyer 2021) discusses the potential benefits of Medicare Diabetes Prevention Programs (MDPP). MDPP aims to reduce patient weight and prevent patients from becoming diabetic. Commenting on her Medicare clientele enrolled in the program, one instructor noted:
“I’ve seen a lot of Medicare people do really well with the program because they have more time than younger people who are working or raising children,” she said. “But Medicare folks may have a harder time making [lifestyle] changes because they’ve been doing things the same way for a long time.”
MDPP was the first Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (a.k.a., CMMI; a.k.a., the CMS Innovation Center) demonstration of a preventive care model that was expanded to program available to al Medicare beneficiaries. However, uptake of the program is poor; only 3,600 Medicare beneficiaries across the nation have taken advantage of the MDPP benefit.