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Medicare program has resulted in more than half of participants losing 5% of their bodyweight
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — A new report from RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, has found that on average, the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP) has resulted in more than half of participants losing 5% of their bodyweight and 25% meeting a 9% weight-loss goal.
MDPP is an evidence-based lifestyle intervention program and first-of-its-kind preventative service model tested by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) that was approved as a Medicare-covered service for beneficiaries. The long-term goal of the program is to prevent type 2 diabetes in Medicare participants with prediabetes.
“These findings are encouraging and suggest that this intervention is, at a minimum, associated with short-term health improvements for a substantial number of participants,” said Thomas Hoerger, Ph.D., a Senior Fellow in health economics and financing at RTI and lead author of the report.
To evaluate the impact of the MDPP, RTI combined data from MDPP suppliers, which offer the program, with information on MDPP participants provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Medicare claims. The research team analyzed data on attendance, weight-loss, and physical activity for MDPP participants and compared Medicare expenditures for MDPP participants to expenditures for a matched comparison group of Medicare beneficiaries with similar characteristics who did not participate in the program.
On average, MDPP participants attending at least two sessions lost 5.1% of their body weight and 53% of particpants met the 5% weight loss goal for the program. Most participants also met the goal of 150 minutes per week for physical activity.
While participants are achieving short-term improved health outcomes, according to the report, there has not been a significant change in expenditures and more time is necessary to see if there are long-term health impacts. The evaluation will continue until March 2025.
This is the second evaluation report for MDPP, which launched in April 2018.
Impact Story: Evaluation of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program
