Summary

Program goals

Diabetes in Mexico is called ‘the disease of the rich’ because current alternatives of care are expensive, inconvenient, and far from accessible to 90% of the population. In Mexico, patients have two options for diabetes care; $1000 a year for private care or $200 for public care. In public institutions, wait times of 5-6 hours defer people from going. Clinicas del Azúcar provide care for the same cost as the Mexican public option but with more comprehensive treatment.

Key program components

Clinicas del Azúcar are a chain of specialized, low-cost diabetes clinics that provide affordable and comprehensive care. They introduce low-cost screening devices, proprietary evidence-based algorithms and mobile health solutions to reduce the price of care significantly. Each patient pays fixed-cost membership fees allowing him/her to have unlimited access to diagnostics, labs and consultations for one year. The patients can choose from 3 different packages of varying costs and services; the preventative package for $71 USD, integral package for $185 USD, and integral plus package for $256. In the next 5 years, the chain hopes to open more than 50 clinics to impact more than 100,000 patients, reduce 15,000 complications and save patients more than $70 million. Clinicas del Azúcar has saved patients more than 15 trips to the clinic. They estimated that each patient that joins the clinic reduces the chance of developing a diabetes-related complication by 50%. Currently, the clinic sees 400 patients in 2 months.