Crowdfunding Used for Direct, Indirect Medical Costs in Diabetes

MONDAY, June 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with diabetes may turn to crowdfunding for help with direct and indirect medical expenses, even when they have insurance, according to a research letter published online June 13 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Noting that crowdfunding is increasingly being used by patients struggling with medical costs, Caroline E. Sloan, M.D., M.P.H., from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues leveraged real-world testimonies available in crowdfunding campaigns to characterize the financial challenges of patients with diabetes. A total of 350 of 807 campaigns that met inclusion criteria were randomly selected; the final sample included 313 campaigns, 89 percent of which were posted during 2015 to 2020.

The researchers found that one-quarter of the fundraisers reported having insurance; 49 percent of these patients said their insurance covered medical expenses, but out-of-pocket costs were too high. Forty-eight percent of direct medical expenses were not directly related to glucose control; 6 percent requested money specifically for insulin. Twenty-one percent of the campaigns requested money for diabetic alert dogs; almost all were campaigns for type 1 diabetes. Indirect medical expenses included lost wages, healthy food, personal trainers, and car repairs to enable transport to physician appointments. Indirect medical expenses were mentioned more often in campaigns that were not specifically for type 1 diabetes versus those for type 1 diabetes (63 versus 34 percent).

"The expenses for which patients use crowdfunding include life-sustaining expenses, such as food and hospitalizations; unproven therapies, such as diabetic alert dogs; and less essential indirect costs, such as personal trainers," the authors write.

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