Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40879883›Full record

ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2026

Delay in Diabetes Diagnosis After High-Deductible Health Plan Enrollment: A Pre-Post Study with Control.

Felippe Ottoni Marcondes, Fang Zhang, Dennis Ross-Degnan, J Franklin Wharam

Abstract read
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Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Felippe Ottoni MarcondesDivision of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 100 Cambridge St, Suite 1600, 02114, Boston, MA, USA. fmarcondes@mgh.harvard.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-6991-5055
Fang ZhangDepartment of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Dennis Ross-DegnanDepartment of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
J Franklin WharamDivision of General Internal Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine and Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, Durham, NC, USA.

Funding

American Heart Association 23CDA1037667NIDDK NIH HHS 1U18DP006527
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundHigh-deductible health plan (HDHP) members face relatively high out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for urgent care, high-acuity care, and secondary prevention. These costs could affect the timing of cardiometabolic disease diagnosis.

objectiveTo determine whether HDHPs are associated with delays in diabetes diagnosis and increases in health care costs in the period surrounding new diagnoses.

designSegmented survival with control group and pre-post with control group.

participantsMembers aged 18 to 64 years without diabetes at the beginning of the pre-index period. Characteristics of interest for stratified analyses comprised sex, income, and race/ethnicity.

interventionEmployer-mandated transition from low-deductible health plan to HDHP. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Time to first diabetes diagnosis; and total and OOP medical costs in the peri-diagnosis period (from 30 days before to 90 days after first diabetes diagnosis). KEY

resultsIn this sample of 346,492 HDHP members and 346,492 matched and weighted controls, the mean (SD) age was 42.3 (13.0) years, and 48.5% were women. The overall and female HDHP groups experienced delays in diabetes diagnosis in the post- versus pre-index period (adjusted hazard ratio, aHR: 0.93 [95% CI 0.88, 0.99] and 0.91 [0.83, 0.99], respectively), compared with controls. These hazard ratios corresponded to delays of 1.7 and 2.1 months compared with median diagnosed control patients. Other HDHP subgroups did not have statistically significant delays. HDHP group members newly diagnosed with diabetes had relative post- versus pre-index increases in total and OOP peri-diagnosis medical costs of 20% (95% CI 1%, 39%) and 51% (95% CI 33%, 60%), respectively, versus controls.

conclusionsHDHP enrollment was associated with delayed diabetes diagnosis and substantially increased peri-diagnosis total and OOP medical costs. Female HDHP members might be especially at risk. Policymakers should consider reducing OOP costs for key health care services associated with diagnosing diabetes.

Indexed as

Deductibles and CoinsuranceDelayed DiagnosisDiabetes MellitusAdolescentAdultFemaleHealth Care CostsHealth ExpendituresHumansMaleMiddle AgedYoung Adultcostdelaydiabetesdiagnosishigh-deductible health plan

Identifiers

PMID40879883
PMCPMC13083390

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.