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Insurance Companies Switching Medicine

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Background
Diabetes is a growing but preventable health concern in the United States.1 It is a problem in the body where blood glucose levels rise higher than normal.1 According to the facts released by the American Diabetes Association in 2013, 25.8 million Americans (8.3%) have diabetes 2 and approximately 90% of all cases of diabetes worldwide are considered type 2 diabetes.3 Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease where the body cannot use insulin properly and the patient ends up using an oral hypoglycemic agent.1 One of the many classes of medications to help manage diabetes is sulfonylureas, including glyburide and glipizide. These drugs close K-ATP channels on Beta cell membranes and cause the pancreas to release more insulin to lower blood sugar.4 Both glipizide and glyburide are metabolized in the liver5, have high protein binding5, and can decrease hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) up to 1%-2%.6 According to the Health Insurance Association of America, health insurance is defined as "coverage that provides for the payments of benefits as a result of sickness or injury".7 Insurance companies always strive to achieve their target glycemic goal via the most effective and cost effective therapeutic strategy.8 A literature search was conducted to find data on the benefits of converting patients from glyburide to glipizide to find out why insurance prefers the switch.

Literature Search
A literature search was conducted using Pubmed for publications within the last 10 years.

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