The Challenges of Living and Managing Type 1 Diabetes in Rural and Underserved Communities

Arnold Saperstein, MD, FACP, Chief Medical Officer at Cecelia Health in New York, discusses type 1 diabetes and the challenges children and adolescents have managing their condition.   Families, caretakers, and the patients themselves need continual education, monitoring, and access to consistent healthcare for optimal health outcomes.   Cecelia Health and UBMD Pediatrics are working together on a clinical study to increase access to healthcare for rural and underserved populations while also evaluating the financial viability of providing remote care management for children living with Type 1 diabetes.  

Dr. Saperstein began his career in managed care in 1992 and joined MetroPlus Health Plan in 1995 initially as Chief Medical Officer and then as President and CEO from 2006 until 2019. MetroPlus Health Plan is a managed care organization that, under Saperstein’s leadership grew from 40,000 members to over 500,000 members with an estimated 32,000 participating providers. Saperstein has spent the majority of his career developing programs that ensure the highest quality of care. During his tenure at MetroPlus, it ranked as one of the highest scoring plans for quality of care as measured by the New York State Department of Health Medicaid Incentive Program and by the Medicaid Consumer Guide for New York City. Under his leadership, MetroPlus rose to the forefront of Value Based Purchasing. Programs he developed included groundbreaking quality incentive pay for performance programs across the entire MetroPlus network.