145-OR: Annual Wellness Visits Are Associated with Increased Use of Diabetes Preventive Services in the Diabetes Belt and Surrounding Counties

Abstract

Background: The Affordable Care Act created annual wellness visits (AWVs) for Medicare beneficiaries to have one yearly visit to primary care physicians and discuss preventive care for the upcoming year. We assessed whether AWVs were associated with increased use of these preventive services in Medicare patients with diabetes living in the Diabetes Belt and surrounding counties. Methods: We used claims files from a longitudinal sample of ∼1,000,000 Medicare patients with diabetes living in the diabetes belt or surrounding counties, covering years 2014-2015. The Diabetes Belt was identified by the CDC as 644 counties across Appalachian and southeastern counties in the US that had diabetes prevalence ≥ 11% in 2008. We used these data to examine associations between AWVs and preventive service use in the next year. We examined four preventive services recommended annually for patients with diabetes by the ADA, including A1c tests, foot exam, eye exam, and microalbuminuria (MA) tests. Results: Of all patients, only 19.6% used AWVs in 2015. Eye exams (61% vs. 56%), foot exams (92% vs. 83%), A1C tests (78% vs. 73%), and MA tests (42% vs. 31%) were more common among patients who had an AWV in the preceding year compared with those who did not. These differences remained after adjusting for patient demographics, comorbidities, county level medical resources, and geographic factors: eye exam (Odds Ratio 1.13, 95% CI 1.12-1.15); A1c Test (1.28, CI 1.26-1.31); Foot Exam (2.06, CI 2.01-2.11); MA Test (1.45, CI 1.42-1.47). Conclusions: This study shows that AWVs were significantly associated with increased recommended preventive care use among patients with diabetes living in and near the diabetes belt. The low rates of AWV utilization by patients with diabetes in and around the Diabetes Belt is concerning and should receive more policy attention. Disclosure T. L. Mcmurry: None. S. Kim: None. J. M. Lobo: None. H. Kang: None. M. Sohn: None. Funding National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK113295)