The Gatekeeper of Diabetes Technology
For years, thousands of Americans living with insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes have hit a bureaucratic brick wall when seeking advanced treatment. This wall is often built on a single laboratory value: the C-peptide level. In the world of clinical endocrinology, C-peptide is a byproduct of insulin production. For the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and many private insurers, a low C-peptide level has long been the ‘golden ticket’ required to prove that a patient’s pancreas is failing enough to justify the cost of an insulin pump. If your C-peptide level is too high, you are often deemed ineligible for automated insulin delivery (AID) systems, under the assumption that your body still makes enough insulin to manage with traditional injections. However, a groundbreaking study published in Diabetes Care is now dismantling this assumption, proving that the benefit of technology is not dictated by a single blood test.
