Support Medicare Coverage of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM)

Ask your Senators to co-sponsor legislation to ensure people over 65 have access to life-saving CGM today.

Thousands of people are benefiting daily from tighter glucose control reached with the help of a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). However, Medicare does not currently cover CGM devices, leaving seniors with type 1 diabetes (T1D) vulnerable. It’s time for Medicare to cover CGMs.

Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Co-chairs of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, have introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate – S. 2689, the ‘Medicare CGM Access Act of 2014′ – that would facilitate Medicare coverage of CGMs, and help pave the way for the next generation of CGM-related technologies, such as Artificial Pancreas (AP) systems.

We need your help today to help us advance this important priority! Please take a minute to 1) e-mail your Senators and ask that they co-sponsor this important legislation. You can also 2) sign our petition to Medicare, and help ensure those with Medicare have access to life-saving CGM technologies. After you take these actions, please share this message, asking your friends and family to do the same.

The CGM has been shown to improve glucose control – preventing dangerous high and low blood sugars. The use of CGM technologies is recommended by national diabetes clinical guidelines and covered by nearly all private health plans. To date, Medicare does not cover CGMs, regardless of the wide coverage by private health plans and the evidence of clinical benefit.

JDRF has been working closely with other interested stakeholders for more than a year to encourage Medicare to cover CGM devices, and we have made Medicare coverage of CGM devices one of our top Advocacy priorities. While JDRF continues to work with Medicare in hopes of resolving this issue quickly, we ask that you join us in building support within Congress for Medicare coverage of CGMs. To learn more, read our coalition fact sheet.

Research Shows – The CGM is Beneficial

People with T1D have to test their blood glucose and give themselves insulin injections or infusions via a pump 24 hours a day, every day, in order to stay alive. Too much insulin can result in seizures, comas, or death from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Too little insulin can lead to devastating kidney, heart, nerve, and eye damage from hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).

The CGM is an FDA-approved, physician-prescribed device that detects and displays blood glucose levels continuously, and also reveals trends in a patient’s glucose levels that often go unnoticed by using finger-stick measurements alone.