Bye-bye finger pricks: Ontario latest province to cover real-time continuous glucose monitors for Type 1 diabetes

Managing their chronic disease has become easier and more affordable for the thousands of Ontarians with Type 1 diabetes, after the Ontario government announced this month it is providing coverage for real-time continuous glucose monitors. As of March 14, eligible Ontarians with Type 1 diabetes–who must first be assessed by a healthcare team from the province’s assistive devices program–can receive funding for a monitor and related supplies. According to a press release issued by the province, eligible Type 1 diabetes patients include those at risk of severe hypoglycemia or who are unable to recognize or communicate their symptoms of hypoglycemia. Ontario is the seventh jurisdiction in Canada to provide provincial or territorial health plan coverage for real-time continuous glucose monitors, which range in price from $3,000 to $6,000 a year, according to Diabetes Canada. Read: Where are we with sensor-augmented insulin pump therapy? Ontario’s latest move is another “positive step in the evolution of coverage,” said Monica Kocsmaros, chief external relations officer with JDRF Canada, which funds and advocates for research into Type 1 diabetes, which affects an estimated 5% to 10% of the 1.5 million Ontarians with diabetes. “Access to these types of devices will help to improve health outcomes for those living with Type 1 diabetes, as well as provide valuable data to clinicians, allowing for more informed decision-making around care,” Kocsmaros told Toronto.com. “Without government funding, people with Type 1 diabetes will continue to pay out of pocket to manage their disease,” she added. “This could be upwards of $15,000 per year for one individual, increasing the gap in equity between those who can and cannot afford these devices.” The Toronto.com report also quoted Dr. Jeremy Gilbert, an endocrinologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, as saying that continuous glucose monitors “should be standard of care” for people living with Type 1 diabetes. “Diabetes-related emergencies can happen at the extremes of high sugars and low sugars,” he said. “Both of those could require an emergency department visit and potentially admission, or admission to an ICU or critical care unit. By being able to prevent those episodes by detecting the sugars going low or going high, it could perhaps save thousands and thousands of dollars for an admission, never mind the morbidity and decreased quality of life.” Read: Good long-term glycemic control can keep diabetics with COVID out of the ICU Unlike traditional blood glucose meters that require frequent finger pricks to obtain blood samples–a real challenge during a severe hypoglycemic event–a real-time continuous glucose monitoring system uses a small sensor embedded under the skin to automatically test and track sugar levels every few minutes. The system automatically alerts the patient, their family members or caregivers when glucose levels dip below acceptable levels. In addition to providing provincial health plan coverage for continuous glucose monitors, Ontario has also started covering Baqsimi, a nasal spray approved by Health Canada in 2020 to quickly address severe hypoglycemia in insulin-treated diabetics. Endocrinologist Dr. Jeremy Gilbert, a staff physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, called the government announcement “welcome news” and said CGMs “Having (CGMs) under the Assistive Devices Program allows more fair and equitable access to a technology that is really life-transforming and paradigm-shifting for people living with diabetes,” Gilbert said. “It’s a lot safer to have CGM than just randomly checking your sugar by finger-poking now and again. … It’s so actionable in real time and empowers people living with Type 1 diabetes to manage their condition like they never could before.” CGMs enable better diabetes self-management, prevent life-threatening health complications and save health-care costs, Gilbert said. Read: Diabetes progression significantly higher in diabetes patients who use statins

Bye-bye finger pricks: Ontario latest province to cover real-time continuous glucose monitors for Type 1 diabetes

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