New Medicare rule that will harm patients

I would like to express my grave concerns with the recent competitive bidding rule proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that would apply to durable medical equipment, and more specifically, blood glucose meter strips.  This rule could have negative consequences for Medicare residents of southeastern Indiana that suffer from diabetes. Diabetes, both type 1 and 2, is one of the fastest-growing and most expensive health problems faced today. It is estimated that over 80 million people in the U.S. have diabetes or are on the verge of developing the disease.

Under the proposed competitive bidding process, suppliers will be submitting their lowest bids to provide these strips at the lowest cost possible to Medicare patients that use the mail-order system.  I have serious concerns about this process as it will limit the range of product offerings to patients, causing patients to struggle to receive the brand of strips that they need, or even require them to switch to a new and unfamiliar testing system, which may result in seniors not testing their blood sugars resulting in a hospital or emergency room visit. Daily testing of blood sugars is the best way to properly manage diabetes and reduces the health care cost for all of us. Unfortunately, problems arise when diabetic patients fail to adequately monitor and manage their condition. With proper identification, treatment, education and motivation, patients can dramatically improve their health outcomes in a short amount of time.

CMS has tried to address this issue by instituting an “Anti-Switching” rule to ensure that patients will not be made to change their blood glucose meter or strip supplier.  However this rule only applies to the SECOND round of cities included in the competitive bidding process- not in Southeastern Indiana.

As CEO and founder of S5Health, an online health management portal, I have spent over 30 years in the information technology and health care fields and have created diabetes management portals for patients.  Our system addresses the five areas of diabetes management that enable patients, family members, caregivers and medical staff to better manage diabetes.  As a father of a diabetic, this issue hits close to home.  I have grave concerns that while it is always nice to trim health care costs, especially in this economy – it should never come at the risk of patient’s health or by limiting proactive activities.

I encourage all Hoosiers to contact their Senators and Representatives in Washington, DC to ask them to support legislation to ensure that the “Anti-Switching” rule applies to all Hoosiers from the onset of the rule.

James Jordan
CEO S5Health

S5Health Sets Goal to Raise $5,000 for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Our hope is that someday S5Health will be put out of business.
Yes. You read that right. We actually do hope that the online diabetes management resource we offer someday won't be needed, and the millions living with this chronic condition can find freedom from the grueling daily duties we now face.

This may go against any typical business-like bottom line, but this is a dream that we hope will become a reality sooner rather than later. When a cure for diabetes is found, that hope can become a reality for millions of people - that we won't have to count carbohydrates, monitor blood sugars with finger pokes, take insulin injections or be connected to a medical device every day, and we won't have to be as close to our medical teams.

That's my dream, as someone who's been a Type 1 diabetic for 26 years - since the age of 5. That's all I've ever known, and I'd like to think that someday I'll have a chance to know that children won't have to endure the same type of lifestyle that I have. A successful life is possible, but balancing the daily D-duties is challenging and difficult at best.

Now, you have a chance to help turn my hope into a reality.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is on the front line to making that happen, funding more Type 1 research than any other charity worldwide. This 40-year-old organization is making progress along many promising paths toward better treatments and a cure, and in a typical year 85% of JDRF expenses support research and education.

The group's largest and most popular annual fundraiser is the Walk To Cure Diabetes, and one of those is the 2010 Central Indiana Walk to Cure Diabetes. This happens Oct. 9, 2010 in Military Park in downtown Indianapolis, one of five walks that happens statewide each year. The state's JDRF raises more than $2 million combined and nationally these walks raise roughly $100 million a year.

S5Health is part of that effort, and we have a walk team excited to be participating in this year's walk. This JDRF walk partnership is only natural, as S5Health offers an important management solution for people with diabetes and their families. In addition to the main online tool for tracking D-Data such as blood sugars, insulin intake, food, and exercise,the S5Health Advantage also enables patients to find educational and training information as well as social networking and interaction within the Diabetes Community.

This year, S5Health has set a goal to raise at least $5,000 for diabetes research. With your help, our team can reach this goal. Please support our team by sending us a tax-deductible contribution, in any amount, made payable to JDRF, or visit this link http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87727567 if you would like to donate online.

Every dollar helps, but you can participate in more ways than just contributing to this greater cause.

• Corporate Sponsors who donate $250 will get their company name noted as a sponsor of our S5Health team on http://www.s5health.com/. In addition, our corporate sponsors will be promoted by S5Health in a nationally released press announcement about JDRF’s Walk to Cure Diabetes.

• Corporate Sponsors who donate $500 will get their company name promoted proudly on our team T-Shirt, and also be noted as a corporate sponsor of our S5Health team on http://www.s5health.com/. In addition, our corporate sponsors will be promoted by S5Health in a nationally released press announcement about JDRF’s Walk to Cure Diabetes.

• Corporate Sponsors who donate $1,000 will be proudly promoted on our team t-shirt and also be noted as a corporate sponsor of our S5Healthteam on the http://www.s5health.com/. In addition your company will earn the JDRF Golden Sneaker Award and be announced as an S5Health Premier Corporate Sponsor in a nationally released press announcement about JDRF’s Walk to Cure Diabetes.

While this effort for better diabetes management and an ultimate cure is personally important to me, it's also the foundation for what S5Health is about. Founder James Jordan created this resource initially to benefit his daughter, Courtney, who is now 14 and has been living with Type 1 diabetes for a decade.

We need your help.
Together, we can make a difference and help pave the way for a cure. Thank you so much in advance for your generosity.


Michael is a 31-year-old writer and Diabetes Advocate who’s been living with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 5. By day, he is a newspaper journalist in Indiana. But in his spare time, he focuses his time and effort on Diabetes Advocacy operates a personal blog, The Diabetic’s Corner Booth. He also volunteers with local, national, and worldwide diabetes-related charities and initiatives and tries to help fellow diabetics better Live With Diabetes. His personal and professional worlds aren’t connected, except that Michael takes on both roles in whatever time is available in a given day. This is how he became involved with S5Health, in which Michael now writes for a little each week in a strictly volunteer capacity. Originally from the Southeast Michigan area near Detroit, Michael and his wife Susanne have lived in Indianapolis since 2004.

Parents like what they see in S5Health

In the 12 years since her daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, Krista Duncan has tried many different tools to track blood sugar readings, insulin rates, food amounts and see what those all mean.

But nothing has really stuck as being useful.

Not until the S5th Advantage, that is. Now, the Duncans say the new online portal has made all the difference in managing the health of their daughter Molly, diagnosed at age 2 and now a 14-year-old in high school.

“We’ve seen things come and go for diabetes management,” the Carmel, Indiana mother said. “So far, I think (the) diabetes portal is the most flexible, engaging diabetes tool that we have used.”

The new web-based portal launched earlier this year is designed to help diabetics combine all of their insulin pump, blood meter, and CGM data into one place online and get that to their doctors quickly and efficiently. This tool combines the clinical, social, and behavioral aspects in a way that hasn’t been done before. Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics can securely communicate with their physicians and nurses while also interacting online with other diabetics within their community or across the country. As the name hints, the portal is simple, strategic, smart, social, and self management - all in one place.

With personally customizable dashboards and settings, patients and families are able to upload numbers from any device and see those results with color graphs, charts, and summaries. Users can add notes to the Blood Sugar Logs and quickly email those results to their doctor’s offices, as well as interact with other parents or patients who might have similar concerns about their own health.

So far, those who’ve used the system think it’s an effective management tool – from the newly-diagnosed to the veterans. They agree that this is about More Than Numbers, because it not only gives them a way to monitor and understand their results but implement changes based on that data and then interact with others about that information. From medical professionals to fellow patients.

Jennifer is one mom new to the Diabetes World, as her 8-year-old son Gavin was diagnosed in January and the family is new to this D-World. This is the first management tool they’ve used.

“I am all about technology so I jumped on board immediately,” she said. “I like the S5Health for the fact that it is user friendly, all the information is there in one place, you can customize it with notes, carb-insulin ratios, doctor appointments, and more. It’s nice that once you upload the information that with the click of the mouse it can be sent directly to the doctor/nurse practioner. We are contemplating the idea of the school nurse inputting the data each day so that the paper/folder doesn't get lost in transit.”

For the Duncan Family that’s been living with diabetes for more than a decade now, S5Health means being able to plug into a week or two-week period rather than just navigating a single day’s worth of BG readings. As a busy family navigating priorities such as homework, sports, work, and family events, they agree that S5Health’s online flexibility gives a quick way to manage that data.

Mostly, Krista Duncan says they like seeing the graphical data of where their daughter’s BG readings are at. How the color pie charts show specifically how much they are High, Low, or On Target for any given period and how events such as food or exercise impact those numbers. They like the idea that S5Health will offer reminder functions to help them remember to take a few minutes to upload the numbers from the two meters the y have between home and school.

“The ability to upload and have all the data together in one place is the best part of this tool,” Krista Duncan says. “Also, having it be web-based is great. I used it last week to fill out a form that Riley needed to get a diabetes management plan to the school nurse. Because I had (my daughter’s) basal rates, corrections, and food ratios entered on the website, I was able to fill out the form at work on my lunch hour and fax it to Riley.”

Her daughter also attends a high school with six other Type 1 diabetic students, so Krista Duncan looks forward to being able to the school nurse being able to login and use the S5Health Advantage tool during the school day and monitor each student’s information easily.

Krista Duncan hopes that more parents start participating in the forums, so that there’s more of a chance to interact about the daily diabetes activity and any questions that may come up. Others forums and sites like TuDiabetes and Children With Diabetes offer those resources and hundreds of people worldwide can connect at any time with each other.

As far as Riley Hospital for Children, Krista Duncan also hopes that the medical professionals will start more actively promoting and using the S5Health Advantage. She sees this as a way to improve outreach with patients after the kids have been diagnosed a while and a way for them to communicate or for the parents to interact.



Michael is a 31-year-old writer and Diabetes Advocate who’s been living with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 5. By day, he is a newspaper journalist in Indiana. But in his spare time, he focuses his time and effort on Diabetes Advocacy operates a personal blog, The Diabetic’s Corner Booth. He also volunteers with local, national, and worldwide diabetes-related charities and initiatives and tries to help fellow diabetics better Live With Diabetes. His personal and professional worlds aren’t connected, except that Michael takes on both roles in whatever time is available in a given day. This is how he became involved with S5Health, in which Michael now writes for a little each week in a strictly volunteer capacity. Originally from the Southeast Michigan area near Detroit, Michael and his wife Susanne have lived in Indianapolis since 2004.

Passion will cure diabetes

Passion will cure diabetes.

But before that happens, that same kind of passion is already driving one father from Indianapolis to develop a remarkable online tool that’s helping people with diabetes better manage their health. Simply put, his start-up business empowers patients to effectively oversee their diabetes decision-making at no cost and gives doctors, hospitals, medical suppliers, and insurance companies a way to cut costs and be a part of that strategy.

Jim Jordan started s5health for his daughter Courtney, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes just before her 4th birthday a decade ago. Through the years, he’d become increasingly frustrated with how the existing management tools and software didn’t allow him to condense all of the data from different devices into one spot and easily understand where her trouble spots were. But it wasn’t just the numbers to this dad – it was knowing how he could help Courtney better manage her health.

About a year ago, he learned that his 12-year-old daughter’s kidneys were actually functioning at the level of a 25-year-old. That opened his eyes, and he soon began using his 30 years in the health care business intelligence market to come up with a way to help his daughter. Soon after, s5health was born and that led to its public launch early 2010.

Using a Business Intelligence platform, Jim – through his company Strategic Data Management – has launched a new web-based portal designed to help diabetics combine all of their insulin pump, blood meter, and CGM data into one place online and get that to their doctors quickly and efficiently. The company tagline is that this online tool “combines clinical, social, and behavioral aspects” in a way that hasn’t been done before. Specifically, this new is a day-to-day online management tool that helps diabetics understand their blood sugar numbers and how insulin, food and exercise affect those numbers. The portal supports all blood meter and pump types, which is something that isn’t currently out there because most are limited to particular company products. Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics can securely communicate with their physicians and nurses while also interacting online with other diabetics within their community or across the country. As the name hints, the portal is simple, strategic, smart, social, and self management - all in one place.

For the Jordan Family, the s5health resource has led to Courtney better managing her diabetes and being more “in range,” which means better overall health and less risk for complications in the future. She saw a decrease from being 83% high in the morning to 23% high, and from 70% high in the afternoons to 65% high. Her Hemoglobin A1c test that shows a three-month average of blood sugar level tests decreased by nearly an entire percentage point.

The point: s5health works.

“Managing diabetes is 90% information, so looking at the available information is critical to successfully managing this disease. This portal is just that,” Jim says. “Patients are excited about the easy-to-understand dashboards and reports, the secure communication between patient and physician, and the social aspect of connecting with one another to share stories.”

As someone who’s lived with Type 1 diabetes now for 26 years since the age of 5, I’m impressed by what s5health is doing. It crosses the lines we typically see created by companies who want to sell their own products and stop People with Diabetes from merging everything in the most efficient way. This makes doctors’ jobs more complicated and results in our needing to take up more of their time, effectively increasing the amount of claims our insurance carriers must shoulder and overall hiking up the costs of health care.

To me, s5health hits an unfilled-need of giving doctors a way to get all of that merged data in an efficient format that doesn't have to change based on the patient. But it’s about More Than Numbers, and allows everyone to more efficiently interact and pave the way to better health. The health care industry has a huge chance here to be a part of that.

s5health operates on a business model of selling this to the medical and service providers, to the device manufacturers, to the payers, but being free for the consumer. The vision is to work with providers and be able to use the system to submit a claim for the work that a doctor is doing on the portal as far as reviewing and managing data - since it's basically "free time" now built into general overhead costs. This would fall under telehealth rules of diabetes management preventive maintenance, and it'd help them get paid for their time.

Personally, I want my doctor and insurance company to use this. Most endocrinologists who treat diabetics spend only about 15 minutes with them every few months. They aren’t able to adequately review those months of data, and instead only see a snapshot of what might be happening in that patient’s D-Management. Compounding the issue is that each physician has a different system for patients sending in their information, and many still don’t receive it online but instead through paper logsheets that can be difficult for patients to use.

That is not good enough and we need a better way to communicate regularly with our physicians, particularly at a time when we’re experiencing significant decreases in the amount of endocrinologists and Certified Diabetes Educators nationally. That all means our current medical professionals are even more overbooked as diabetes grows, and we all need to help them.

We have another aspect to this all, too, one that deals specifically with the age-old struggle of getting Kids With Diabetes and even Adults With Diabetes to catalog their results. This was the toughest part for me growing up and even into adulthood, since I didn’t like writing my results down by hand and couldn’t find a software program to display that information in a way I could understand. This was counterproductive for me, since the more I see the numbers and can track the trends, the more accountable I am to myself and feel like I’m taking more ownership of my diabetes and overall health. As a way to get at that behavioral aspect and nudge the logging, s5health has been working to offer ways to “encourage” good behavior with rewards. For Courtney, Jim Jordan gave his daughter an iTunes song if she uploaded her blood test results adequately each week. Four weeks of results = four songs, costing this dad about $4. Plus a priceless reward of his daughter’s better health. A similar system is being worked into s5health for the future.

s5health is largely about Managing Numbers. But that’s a means to an end, and it goes beyond that data and even beyond diabetes to all other avenues of health care. This portal is about creating an online tool that connects all aspects of the management world, and empowers everyone to be a part of improving health and effectively managing costs and resources. To me, it’s about More Than Numbers – it’s about better health.


Michael is a 31-year-old writer and Diabetes Advocate who’s been living with Type 1 diabetes since the age of 5. By day, he is a newspaper journalist in Indiana. But in his spare time, he focuses his time and effort on Diabetes Advocacy operates a personal blog, The Diabetic’s Corner Booth. He also volunteers with local, national, and worldwide diabetes-related charities and initiatives and tries to help fellow diabetics better Live With Diabetes. His personal and professional worlds aren’t connected, except that Michael takes on both roles in whatever time is available in a given day. This is how he became involved with s5health, in which Michael now writes for a little each week in a strictly volunteer capacity. Originally from the Southeast Michigan area near Detroit, Michael and his wife Susanne have lived in Indianapolis since 2004.