Medication Gaps Show Up in Diabetes Care for Seniors

Recent research shows many seniors with diabetes miss their medication doses. The study looked at how well older adults stick to prescriptions and what drives those differences.

The team used Medicare Advantage records for people with Part D in 2019 and a diabetes diagnosis from 2017‑2018. They required at least one prescription for metformin, insulin, an SGLT2 blocker, or a GLP‑1 drug in 2019. The group included 587,716 seniors whose average age was about 72 years.

They measured adherence by seeing how many days each prescription was covered at least 80% of the time for insulin, metformin, and newer drugs. They compared Black and White enrollees and also looked at how plans serving more or fewer Black or Hispanic members differed.

Results showed Black seniors were less likely to stay adherent, and age, income, and health status explained part of the gap. Even after adjusting for those factors, a big difference remained, hinting at system or provider issues. Within‑plan checks found some plans serving higher Black or Hispanic numbers performed better, suggesting plan traits matter.