Trending News Today: Diabetes Insurance Claims Skyrocket Among US Youth

There has been a dramatic increase in insurance claims for young people with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, according to a new study. Between 2011 and 2015, claims for type 2 diabetes among people aged 0 to 22 years has more than doubled, Kaiser Health News reported. The analysis also found during the same time period, claims for prediabetes among children and youth increased 110%, and high blood pressure claims rose 67%. Furthermore, sleep apnea increased 161%. According to Kaiser, the analysis differs from earlier research because it used a database of actual claims for approximately 150 million individuals, all of whom had private insurance. Limitations to the study were that it did not include claims submitted by Medicaid or other government programs. However, Stephen Pont, pediatrician and medical director of the childhood obesity center at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, TX, said the findings were frightening despite the limitations.

After Mylan came under fire for the soaring costs of the EpiPen, the company launched a generic option in December. Now, Cigna Corp will drop coverage for Mylan’s brand-name EpiPen and switch to their half-priced version, according to The Wall Street Journal. In a document on Cigna’s website outlining its prescription drug coverage changes for 2017, the insurance giant said it will swap coverage of the $600 EpiPen for the $300 generic version.

US District Judge Amos Mazzant, of Sherman, TX, has blocked the new federal rule regarding financial assistance for dialysis patients, according to The New York Times. Dialysis providers have said that the rule would prevent dialysis patients from using charitable assistance to buy private health insurance. The rule announced by the Department of Health and Human Services on December 14, 2016, would require dialysis providers to disclose to insurers any charitable assistance their patients are receiving for their care. The providers said insurers would use that information to refuse coverage to their patients. The decision is a victory for dialysis providers Fresenius Medical Care, DaVita Inc, and US Renal Care Inc, which filed a lawsuit to block the rule last week, the Times reported.