In early April, Medtronic entered into a "value-based outcomes agreement" with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, and the two organizations have agreed to use a metric other than the gold standard A1C test to measure members' success using the device. A Medtronic spokeswoman recently told Diabetes Mine that Guardian Connect has become the first-ever stand-alone CGM using "Time in Range" as the key metric. Many advocates and innovators in the diabetes community have been pushing to move "beyond A1C.”
Medtronic's press release about their "Time in Range" metric explains:
"Time in Range (TIR) is a standard measurement in diabetes management that tracks the amount of time a person’s glucose is in their target range with 70-180 mg/dL being the standard range. Spending more Time in Range helps minimize both short- and long-term health complications from going too high or low. Results from an analysis of people who used the predictive alerts feature on the Guardian Connect system showed that they experienced fewer high events 39 percent of the time (vs. 10% without alerts) and fewer low events 60% of the time (vs. 33% without alerts)."
Medtronic also has been promoting their Time in Range infographic:
Diabetes Mine explained how Medtronic's reimbursements will work with Blue Cross Blue Shield:
"With Blue Cross Blue Shield, they are actually tying insurance payments to the amount of time users spend in this healthy glucose range -- an approach known as "value-based payments." So if a Medtronic CGM user does not manage to stay in that ideal 70-180 mg/dL range for a certain amount of time when using the device, then Medtronic will actually pay back the cost to the insurance company."