In 2020, a significant number of patients delayed their routine care visits due to COVID-19. This resulting in higher costs in 2021 for health plans due to unmanaged disease progression or delayed diagnoses. The numbers are still coming in, and it doesn't look good.
Meanwhile, healthcare and advocacy organizations are working to promote preventive efforts that improve, for example, type 2 diabetes management. Barriers to access, particularly lack of transportation and screenings for preventive care, as well as the inability to embrace and modify lifestyle, will continue to lead to diminished outcomes should certain opportunities fall short. 360 Quality Care and Transport Service sees these types of outcomes daily and seeks to change the trajectory.
"We often get the call from case workers asking if we can react quickly to a patient who has missed dialysis. Often they find their clients returning to the emergency room as a result of not being able to get there by a transport provider. Unreliable and non-responsive transportation is always the primary factor relating to these types of
outcomes" - Stephen Newman, 360 Quality Care and Transport Services.
Housing access, income, education, and other social determinants of health (SDOH) are major challenges to the prevention of type 2 Diabetes. Individuals with less income
and education are 2-to-4 times more likely to develop the disease than those with higher incomes or education levels. The equitable exchange of services available to this demographic varies significantly from others. Once in the system, its more of the same.
"The lack of suitable transportation options are manifested within the system itself" - says Newman. The brokering of Medicaid transportation flows into one pool rather than recognizing that the most vulnerable require a new system with a higher expectation and accreditation from "Quality" providers. 360 Quality Care and Transport Services provides this level of service daily, and encourages everyone to get on board with what is certainly a necessary enhancement to the system of Priority Medical Transportation.
As healthcare stakeholders consider novel avenues to increase access to type 2 diabetes, preventive services, stakeholder initiatives can facilitate earlier monitoring, lifestyle management, and diagnosis. 360 continues to do their part by operating with excellence to help set the bar higher for all providers.
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