What is the Medicare Diabetic Shoe Program?
Dr. Licandro has a strong interest in Diabetes and the best treatment protocol for his patients with Diabetes. For sometime now, diabetic foot wound infections has been one of the leading causes of hospital admissions and accounts for a high percentage of the reason for lower extremity amputations. In order to help combat this growing disease, in 1993, Medicare approved a therapeutic footwear program for people with Diabetes. The program was designed for people with diabetes to be fitted with proper shoe gear and inserts to help not only provide proper fitting shoes, but also to help off load pressure spots in shoes that sometimes lead to corns or calluses. These diabetic patients can qualify for one pair of shoes and three pairs of custom inserts per calendar year. Medicare pays 80% of the total cost. If the patient has a secondary insurance, there is no cost to the patient. Under the Medicare guidelines, the patient needs to be seeing a physician on a regular basis for Diabetes in or
