The bipartisan Promoting Access to Diabetic Shoes Act increases access to care for Arizonans with diabetes by cutting through red tape
WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema cosponsored the Promoting Access to Diabetic Shoes Act – bipartisan legislation improving a patient’s access to preventative health care by allowing nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician associates/assistants (PAs) to prescribe diabetic shoes when a medical doctor is not available.
“We’re cutting red tape and increasing access to timely, quality care for Arizonans with diabetes by allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to prescribe diabetic shoes when a medical doctor is not available,” said Sinema.
NPs and PAs often act as primary care providers, especially in rural or underserved areas, but current Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation requires beneficiaries to refer to a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy who can then issue a prescription for basic preventative care.
The Sinema-backed legislation improves diabetic patients’ access to therapeutic shoes by allowing NPs and PAs to prescribe diabetic shoes to Medicare beneficiaries. Providers prescribe diabetic shoes to prevent disease progression that can require intensive care later on. If not treated proactively, diabetes can lead to circulation complications that often require amputations.
State law gives Arizona’s over 15,000 nurse practitioners full authority to evaluate patients, diagnose, order and interpret tests, and prescribe and manage treatment. While a beneficiary of some marketplace insurances can obtain diabetic shoes from a PA or NP, a Medicare beneficiary will have a substantially more difficult time obtaining the same care. For those living in rural or medically underserved areas, patients may need to drive long distances to find an eligible prescriber or choose to abstain from pursuing treatment at all, which can have detrimental health outcomes.
Diabetes is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. The total cost to treat diabetes in 2022 was $412 billion nationwide, and around $6.8 billion in Arizona. Medical costs for people with diabetes are more than twice as high as costs for individuals without the disease. An estimated 49,000 people in Arizona are diagnosed with diabetes every year and an additional 1.8 million Arizonans are prediabetic. Encouraging preventative health care improves outcomes and reduces the cost burden on the system.