Diabetes and Prediabetes

With more than 1.1 million adults living with prediabetes in Oregon, and nearly 90 percent of them unaware of it, the Oregon Medical Association has launched a campaign to help stem the tide of type 2 diabetes and, with it, other serious lifestyle-related chronic conditions like heart disease and stroke.

Steering Toward Health is a multi-year initiative that focuses on the prevention of chronic diseases, starting with type 2 diabetes. Its aim is to save physicians and their care teams valuable clinic time, while connecting their at-risk patients to evidence-based, behavioral-change programs.

Below, you’ll find a toolkit with resources that help to identify and refer patients with prediabetes to National Diabetes Prevention Programs (National DPPs), recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Now covered by the Oregon Health Plan (OHP), Medicare, and some private insurance plans, National DPPs have been shown to reduce participants’ risk of diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases by promoting modest weight loss, regular exercise, and self-management of health habits over the long term.

The Steering Toward Health Diabetes Prevention Toolkit

For Healthcare Teams

  • The AMA’s Diabetes Prevention toolkit allows clinicians to access a variety of tools, fact sheets, and handouts that provide guidance on engaging healthcare teams on diabetes prevention topics—from testing and screening to National DPP lifestyle change programs, including referrals and implementation. The OMA recommends starting here, and supplementing with Oregon-specific materials listed below, all of which can be downloaded and printed.
  • Prediabetes: A Hidden Risk for Your Patients offers screening and diagnostic criteria for prediabetes, and gives tips on how to incorporate prediabetes
    screening into existing patient visits.
  • Coding for Prediabetes Screening and the National Diabetes Prevention Program consolidates and clarifies the diagnostic, procedural, and reimbursement
    codes for Medicare and the Oregon Health Plan. It also includes eligibility requirements for the National DPP.
  • This success story illustrate how OMA physicians and their practices have benefitted from screening at-risk patients for prediabetes and referring them to National DPPs.
  • Oregon Fast Facts and National Fast Facts compile current statistics on the burden of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes statewide and across the U.S.
  • Implementing Comprehensive Prevention Programs: A Guide for CCOs equips Coordinated Care Organizations with strategies on how to partner
    with National DPPs and clinics; identify and recruit DPP participants; and promote program sustainability and infrastructure.

For Your Patients

Dr. Kevin Ewanchyna, OMA "Physician Champion"

The OMA "Physician Champion" in the area of the prevention of prediabetes and diabetes is Kevin Ewanchyna, MD. Dr. Ewanchyna is a Corvallis family physician who serves as the chief medical officer for both Samaritan Health Plan Operations and the InterCommunity Health Network CCO. He is the 2019-20 OMA President, and has previously served as OMA Secretary-Treasurer and on the OMA Board of Trustees. Dr. Ewanchyna is Co-chair of the Evidence Based Best Practices Committee of the Oregon Health Leadership Council. He was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and is board certified in family medicine in both Canada and the United States. Dr. Ewanchyna completed his undergraduate degree, medical degree, and residency at the University of Saskatchewan, and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

OMA Articles

Working closely with the AMA, the OMA is publishing to its website informational articles covering various aspects of diabetes-prediabetes prevention and care:

Diabetes Prevention Resources from Alignment Partners