A phenomenological case study of ethnic minority Medicaid diabetic patients in Virginia: Providers' viewpoint

The prevalence of diabetes, a digestive-disorder-induced condition loosely defined as abnormal blood sugar levels, is escalating. The rise in diabetes rates afflicts persons of ethnic minority descent with a low socioeconomic status, which includes having low education, low income, poor housing, and joblessness, whose access to medical care occurs mostly through public-assistance programs such as Medicaid. Their ability to secure care may be compounded by Medicaid facilities fraught with structural challenges that tend to make it harder to gain access to primary care for early diagnosis and better management of diabetes until it is too late. Such situations occur among patients with diabetes who are ethnic minorities and who receive Medicaid in Virginia. In addition to the high prevalence and incidence rates of diabetes in ethnic minority populations in Virginia, as research has shown, are correspondingly high diabetes-related complications and mortality rates. Improving access to care, patients' participation in care, and the delivery of quality care through a concerted grassroots action involving providers, patients, community leaders, and other relevant stakeholders may help to reverse the current diabetes-related health disparities in the commonwealth of Virginia.