Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare professionals interested in diabetes education will find this section of our web site useful. We are in the process of adding content please check back for new updates.

Current Legislative News

AADE members and supporters:

Congress is back in session and we are continuing to meet with key members of the legislature, educating them and their staff about the purpose and importance of designating CDEs as Medicare providers of DSMT.

To support our efforts, we need all of you to contact your Representative and Senators immediately and ask that they support including the CDE provision in the final Healthcare bill.

Representative Diana DeGette from Colorado and her staff are working hard to get the provision back on the table and into the bill during the reconciliation process but your legislators care more about what you, their constituents, have to say.

So, please take a look at AADE's official letter to Congress (below) and then take a moment to call your congressional representatives.

We've made it very easy. Simply the "Take Action" link and you'll be taken to our Advocacy Action Center. Type in your zip code and click the "call now" tab and you'll receive your contact information for your senators and representatives, along with brief talking points.

Thank you all.

AADE Advocacy

AADE's letter To Congress:

On behalf of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), our 14,000 members across the country and the patients we serve, this letter highlights a critical issue of concern as the House and Senate work to reconcile the provisions of their respective health care reform bills. We urge Congress to include in the final health reform legislation Sec. 1313 in H.R. 3962, a provision to establish Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) as providers of Diabetes Self Management Training (DSMT).

The CDE provision has been adopted by the House of Representatives and Senate Finance Committee:

The CDE technical clarification was unanimously adopted as part of the House Energy and Commerce health package and passed by the House as part of H.R. 3962. While it was also included in the Senate Finance Committee's health bill, S. 1796, the CDE provision was inexplicably dropped from the merged Senate bill, H.R. 3590, despite the lack of any policy objections to the provision.

Congress authorized Diabetes Self Management Training (DSMT) as a Medicare benefit in 1997, to provide support needed to educate beneficiaries about diabetes self management techniques, reduce the risks and complications of diabetes, and improve overall health outcomes.  However, the statute did not include as DSMT providers the primary group of health professionals who work most closely to provide essential training and education in diabetes self management: CDEs.

CDEs are state licensed or registered health professionals, most commonly nurses or advanced nurse practitioners, dietitians, or pharmacists, who have advanced training and credentialing in diabetes management.  In practical terms, CDEs teach individuals with diabetes the essential tools needed to control their diabetes.  Published studies show that an individual with diabetes who does not receive DSMT has a four-fold increased risk for major diabetes health complications.

The CDE provision is budget neutral:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has scored this bipartisan, common sense technical correction as budget neutral. We submit that the real impact of the CDE provision will actually bend the cost curve, as published studies show that each individual who learns the essential DSMT skills, as taught by a CDE,  saves the health care system an average of $2,500 in future diabetes related costs. When contrasted with the $218 billion spent annually to treat diabetes and its complications, the potential cost savings resulting from DSMT are enormous.

The CDE provision will help mitigate the effects of diabetes and ensure access to care:

DSMT provides the best hope for individuals with diabetes to mitigate the dire effects of the disease, remain healthy, and avoid expensive and tragic diabetes complications. Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), DSMT utilization has remained essentially flat in recent years - rendering it an underutilized benefit that is increasingly difficult to access by Medicare beneficiaries.

We believe this bipartisan legislative priority of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus is entirely consistent with the goals of health reform. Thank you for considering the CDE issue, in order to ensure access to DSMT in the final health reform bill.

Find your Legislator

Not sure who to talk to? Check out this site and find your people: www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/