Quest Study Reveals Surge In Newly Identified Diabetes Among Medicaid Patients

(RTTNews) - A new study by researchers at Quest Diagnostics (DGX) found that people in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are far more likely to be newly identified with diabetes than in states that elected not to expand the public health care program. The analysis of de-identified test results of 434,288 people with newly identified diabetes, tested by Quest Diagnostics, found that newly identified diabetes surged 23 percent in Medicaid-enrolled patients in states that expanded Medicaid, but increased less than one percent (0.4 percent) in states that did not expand.

The newly identified patients with diabetes were also more likely to be identified at earlier stages of disease in states that expanded Medicaid than in those that did not.