Medicaid changes could affect diabetes care

Often, when conducting a routine eye exam, Louisville optometrist Dr. Aaron McNulty discovers that a patient has diabetes but doesn't know it.

How often?

"All the time," said McNulty, a board member of the Kentucky Optometric Association. "It's a common scenario."

In Eastern Kentucky, Dr. Bill Collins, a dentist and president of the Kentucky Dental Association, sees many patients with diabetes - which can worsen oral health - and is seeing many more patients thanks to Kentucky's 2014 expansion of Medicaid that added coverage for those he describes as the "working poor."

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But people with diabetes stand to lose both dental and vision benefits under Gov. Matt Bevin's proposal to reshape Medicaid in Kentucky. That would have a profound effect in a state with the nation's third-highest rate of diabetes, Collins and McNulty said.

Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2016/11/19/medicaid-changes-could-affect-diabetes-care/91161298/