Medicare Diabetic Shoe Program

Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. During the past decade, there has been an increase of 33% with the diabetic population currently topping 16 million people. There are many complications associated with diabetes including kidney, heart, vision, circulatory and foot problems. The good news is that many of these potential problems can be minimized as a result of life style changes, medications and other preventive care.

Amputations, or partial amputations, of the feet and legs are also growing at an alarming rate. In fact, it is the leading cause of non-traumatic amputation in the United States. Recently a task force was created by officials from Medicare, the American Podiatric Medical Association and the American Diabetes Association in order to explore ways to reduce the number of amputations in the diabetic populations. The number of these lower extremity amputations grew by 28% in just the past several years. However, it has been determined that over half of these amputations could have been prevented by timely conservative foot care.

Connecticut Foot Care does not participate in the Medicare Diabetic Shoe Program, however, they do write a prescription for patients to procure shoes elsewhere, such as Footprints in Newington, CT. Our doctors will provide the necessary notes for Medicare documentation as well. Many diabetic patients qualify for this benefit and Medicare will pay 80% of the cost for the shoes and insoles and your supplemental insurance should pay the other 20%.

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