National Rural Health Day is Thursday, Nov. 20

The Kentucky Rural Health Association will participate in National Rural Health Day, held on the third Thursday in each November, to spread awareness of rural health-related issues and promote the efforts of all rural stakeholders, says a press release from KRHA.

The association says it advocates for the interests of rural health by bringing together multiple parties to work together rather than in silos, working in collaboration to address the needs of rural Kentuckians. This year it has worked on issues such as immunizations, rural hospital impact, health professions recruitment, and tobacco use.

The KRHA joins the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health Thursday, Nov. 20, to celebrate National Rural Health Day with plans to draw attention to several key issues related to Kentucky's rural health including health professions training, loan repayment, substance abuse treatment, mental health and Area Health Education Centers.

Approximately 62 million people, nearly one in five Americans, live in rural and frontier communities, and in Kentucky, 1.8 million citizens, or two of five, live in rural areas, the release notes. More information about National Rural Health Day can be found by clicking here.

Ernie Scott, Kentucky rural health leader, gets national award

Ernie Scott, director of the Kentucky Office of Rural Health, has received the 2014 Emerging Leader Award from the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health.

Scott received his award Oct. 28 during the organization’s annual conference in Omaha. It is given annually to a state staff member who has demonstrated new leadership, initiative, involvement and commitment to the rural-health mission, a University of Kentucky news release reports.

Scott has been director of the state office since 2013. He is editor of a statewide rural health magazine, slated to begin quarterly publication in January. He has held leadership roles in state and national organizations.

Fran Feltner, director of the UK Center of Excellence in Rural Health, said in the release.“We are honored to extend our sincere congratulations to Ernie for this well-deserved recognition. The emerging leaders award appropriately reflects his passion for rural health, as well as the depth of knowledge and commitment he has for important health care issues in rural communities.” 

Reform law's backers say it boosts economy by freeing 'job lock;' foes cite estimate that it will make some drop out of job market

As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's second enrollment period gets underway, supporters of the law say it boosts the economy by creating an affordable, accessible insurance market that's not dependent on employer-based insurance.

Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Uber, said the law has been "huge" for his personal-transportation business. Uber's drivers are independent contractors, so the company does not provide them with health insurance. But because the ACA creates a functioning individual market for health insurance, making it easier and more affordable for Uber drivers and others to buy coverage on their own, Americans don't have to stay in a job just to keep their health insurance.

"The democratization of those types of benefits allow people to have more flexible ways to make a living,” Kalanick said during dinner for reporters, according to Buzzfeed. “They don’t have to be working for The Man.”

This is why Uber loves Obamacare, reports Jason Millman of The Washington Post. For a company like Uber, it's about liberalizing the workforce so that people are able to take jobs they do like that don't provide health care, he writes.

Numerous sources cite the ability of individuals to obtain affordable coverage outside of the workplace as a boon to the labor market. A Congressional Budget Office analysis earlier this year said giving families more options for obtaining affordable health insurance outside the workplace, the PPACA removes a barrier to job mobility and boosts the economy.

Before the PPACA, many Americans’ only source of secure health-insurance coverage was through their jobs because without work-based plans, people often found coverage to be too expensive or impossible to obtain due to pre-existing conditions. This created a health-insurance obstacle to labor mobility, which is sometimes called "job lock", writes the Jason Furman in an online post from the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Job lock can prevent individuals who want to look for a better job, change careers or start a new business from doing so for fear of not having health coverage, the CBO said. Now, because of both the PPACA’s patient protection measures and ban on discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, Americans have reliable access to health insurance without having to count on employers to provide it, says the report. CBO also said many Americans will be able to start small businesses or take new positions where they can be more productive because they don't have to worry about health insurance.

Opponents of the law argue that it shrinks the labor market. For example, in a Forbes article, Avik Roy writes that the law hampers job growth by imposing one of the largest tax hikes in U.S. history, increasing the cost of employing workers and establishing exchange subsidies that encourage workers to drop out of the job market. They cite a CBO estimated that by 2024, 2.5 million full-time-equivalent workers will drop out of the job market. Jay Carney, then White House press secretary, celebrated the findings, arguing that they mean that Americans would no longer be “trapped in a job,” Roy writes.

Hospitals, plagued by bad debt, ask or even require patients with high-deductible insurance plans to pay in advance

Irene Qdemat of Baptist Health enters
patient data. (C-J photo by Alton Strupp)

Kentucky hospitals are so plagued by bad debts that they are asking some patients to pay in advance, Grace Schneider reports for The Courier-Journal.

"We always encourage them to try to pay something in advance" if they have an insurance policy with a large dedictible, said Donna Ghobadi, assistant vice president of managed care and revenue cycle for Baptist Health, which includes seven hospitals. Still, "We won't turn anybody away."

Schneider notes that Americans "have been shifted to high-deductible health care plans that require the employee to spend thousands of dollars on doctors and prescriptions before insurance kicks in. Estimates are that such plans covered one in nearly five Americans this year, a sharp increase from one in 25 in 2006, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's 2014 Employer Health Benefits Survey."

Also, "Health-care reform also is shifting the burden for patients to come up with cash for their care in many instances," Schneider reports. "Of the 7.3 million people enrolled in federal and state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act this year, roughly a fifth nationwide and in Kentucky selected bronze-tier plans, which carry deductibles exceeding $5,500 per person. Bronze plans lack subsidies that silver and other plans provide to help pay out-of-pocket costs for those who meet income-eligibility thresholds." But many patients don't seem to realize that, hospitals say.

"Meanwhile, there has been an increase in employers offering an additional benefit at annual health-care enrollment of an insurance policy paid by the employee to cover a critical illness and care after an accident, said Jeff Bringardner, vice president of Regional Market Development for Humana," Schneider reports.

Kynect enrollment for private, subsidized insurance reopens; previous enrollees should check website and re-enroll

By Molly Burchett
Kentucky Health News

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's second annual open enrollment period has started and brings with it many changes.

Kentuckians can use Kynect, the state’s health insurance exchange, to purchase their plans. They can also use Kynect to sign up for Medicaid, if they qualify. During the first open enrollment period under the 2010 federal law, more than 521,000 people obtained coverage through Kynect.

About 85,000 of them purchased private insurance plans, and most of those received a federal subsidy. The rest were added to Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

People who have been added to Medicaid do not need to sign up again, but should report income changes to the managed-care organization that handles their coverage. They can change their MCO until Dec. 12.

Even those who purchased plans through Kynect last year should re-enroll and consider purchasing a different plan this year because plans have changed, new plans are being offered and there have been changes in the factors used to calculate premiums and subsidies. The penalty for individuals without health coverage in 2015 will be $325 per adult or 2 percent of household income, whichever is greater. That's going to be more of sting than this year's $95-or-1 percent penalty.

Health plans will send a new tax document, IRS Form 1095-B, to policyholders to document 2014 coverage. While some exemptions are available for a short lapse of coverage up to 3 months, most taxpayers without coverage must pay the 2014 penalty and will get a taste of the higher penalties to come.

Plans on Kynect still vary widely. In addition to comparing premiums, it is important to consider deductibles, co-payments and other plan details. Kynect offers four basic types, labeled bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Bronze plans have the lowest premiums but have the highest deductible. As you move up the plan spectrum to platinum, your premiums increase and your deductibles decrease. The exchange also offers people under 30 a plan that provides only catastrophic coverage with a very high deductible and no subsidy.

Expect premium and plan changes

Premium increases in 2015 are likely for most Kentuckians, but some premiums could decline slightly. Rate filings indicate plans with Kentucky Health Cooperative could increase an average of 20 percent, while plans with Humana could increase an average of 12.8 percent. The tax-credit subsidy available to people with incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,670 to $46,680 for an individual) reduced the effect of premium increases.

Buyers should be watch for changes in plans because subsidies are based on the second-lowest-cost plan, silver, and many of these plans have changed in 2015. When that happens, people may face substantial premium increases unless they take the time to shop and make sure they’re still in a low-cost plan.

Fortunately, this year the actual cost of health insurance this year will be displayed on Kynect, giving insurance-browsers both the basic premium cost and the subsidy before completing an application. Enrollees can also complete a preliminary eligibility determination to see if they qualify for Medicaid or a subsidy.

Check premium and subsidy estimates

Two types of subsidies are available. The premium tax credit can be taken in two ways: You can apply it to monthly payments, or take it when you file your tax return. The other type of subsidy, cost-sharing, is designed to minimize enrollees’ out-of-pocket costs when they go to the doctor or have a hospital stay.df

INCOME LIMITS FOR TAX-CREDIT SUBSIDIES

Lower-income families get the most help. You may qualify for payment assistance if your employer does not offer health insurance, you do not receive Medicare, or your family does not make more than the yearly income listed in the chart to the right. Click here for more information.

Let's consider the coverage eligibility of a man we will call John Smith to see how plans coverage differ from his options for 2014 plans. The individual market in Floyd County was limited to two companies in 2014, Anthem Blue Cross and the non-profit Kentucky Health Cooperative; Humana wasn't (and still isn't) offering individual coverage there. John could chose varying levels of plans, and based on the plan type, his premiums ranged from $182 (bronze) to $421 (platinum), with deductibles ranging from $6,300 (bronze) to $500 (platinum).

In 2015, John can still only chose between Anthem and the co-op. His premium options range from $204 (KHC-bronze) to $426 (Anthem-gold), with deductibles ranging from $5,750 (Anthem-bronze) to $1,000 (KHC and Anthem-platinum). However, be careful to watch out for high out-of-pocket costs, which for most bronze and silver plans, are $6,600 per person in 2015.

The estimated monthly premiums in the chart are the full price before any payment assistance. the total premium for the plan John wanted was estimated to be $415.48, but his income qualified him for a 47 percent subsidy. Using Kynect's Health Plan Savings Calculator, John's estimated actual cost is $220.80. The Kynect website will provide estimates of premiums and assistance, but the actual amount can't be determined until you complete a full application.

Important dates to remember

There are several key dates for you to keep in mind during this enrollment period, which is shorter than the first one:

• Nov. 15: second open enrollment period began 
• Dec. 15: Consumers must select a plan for coverage to begin by Jan. 1. Currently enrolled consumers must renew coverage and application for financial system. If they fail to do so, current coverage and tax credits may be automatically renewed. (See below.)
• Feb. 15: Last say of open enrollment period. Those consumers who select a plan on this date will begin new coverage March 1. Medicaid enrollment is open year-round. 
• April 15: Deadline for filing tax returns, on which taxpayers must indicate coverage in 2014 or face a penalty. Consumers who got tax-credit subsidies in 2014 must file a tax return.

Here is a new and crucial change: If you're already enrolled in a Kynect plan in 2014 and do nothing during open enrollment before December 15, 2014, you will be automatically re-enrolled in an existing plan for next year with your existing premium tax credit.

However, consumer advocates say doing nothing could be costly. If you have experienced changes in income or other circumstances that could affect your tax credit, you risk receiving the wrong amount and may have to pay back next year. Changes in the benchmark silver plans could lead to higher costs for some consumers. Even if the premium of a particular plan may go down, the decrease in the tax credit could be even more, resulting in a net increase, so consumers should pay particular attention to these changes.

Before the tax-filing deadline on April 15, consumers must use IRS Form 8962 to reconcile their estimated premium tax credit with the final premium tax credit eligibility. Consumers who overestimated their income may receive a tax refund, but those who underestimated it may have to repay some of all of the difference.

Those who miss the enrollment deadline may still qualify for special enrollment period if they experience what the law calls "life changing events," such as moving or losing your job.

Additional changes to Kynect include an enhanced website, more call center agents, expanded call-center hours, a Kynect storefront at Fayette Mall in Lexington, and a Kynect app for Apple and Android smartphones that allows users to access their Kynect account, see details of their plan and submit photos of documents for verification.

For more information, call 1-855-459-6328 or go to www.kynect.ky.gov.

Expectant mothers need to get a flu shot

Expectant mothers need to get a flu shot as soon as it is available in their area, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only the flu shot, not the nasal-spray vaccine, is recommended for pregnant women because it is made with the inactivated (killed) virus. Pregnant women should not receive the spray vaccine, which is made with live attenuated (weakened) virus, BabyCenter, an online parenting and pregnancy resource, writes.

The changes to a pregnant woman's immune system, heart and lung function during pregnancy can make them even more sensitive to the flu, the CDC says.

Pregnant women have a harder time fighting off infections and are more likely to develop serious complications. They "are at a higher risk of hospitalization, and even death, than non-pregnant women," the CDC says. A severe illness in a pregnant mother can cause premature labor and delivery of the fetus and fever in early pregnancy can lead to birth defects.

Getting a flu shot during your pregnancy will also offer some protection to your baby up to six months after he or she is born, when the baby can be vaccinated. Breastfeeding your baby will also offer some protection from the flu. Studies show that babies who are breastfed do not get as sick and are sick less often than babies who are not breastfed.

If you did not get a flu shot during pregnancy, the CDC recommends that you get one after you deliver. After the baby is born you can get the either the flu shot or the nasal spray, even if you are breastfeeding. The CDC also recommends that anyone who comes in contact with your baby get a flu shot.

The CDC says pregnant women with flu-like symptoms should contact their health care proider immediately, but should seek emergency care if they are experiencing any of the following:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Sudden dizziness
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• High fever
• Decreased or no movement by your baby

African clinics to begin testing Ebola treatments; one made from tobacco in Kentucky isn't plentiful enough to be part of effort

Doctors Without Borders will begin testing three experimental therapies to treat Ebola in December, bypassing the traditional progression of testing and giving the treatments directly to infected patients, Alice Park reports for Time magazine.

Driving this decision is the death toll, which has surpassed 5,000, with more than 14,000 patients still affected in West Africa, Park reports.

“We are on the front line, and when you have a disease that kills 50 percent to 70 percent of patients, then we have a certain responsibility to try to do our best to host trials for treatments in our facilities,” without waiting for the usual testing, Bertrand Draguez, medical director of Doctors Without Borders, told Park.

The treatment ZMapp, a combination of antibodies that was given to two U.S. aid workers who survived the infection, will not be one of the treatments because it is not available in enough doses to properly test in West Africa, Park reports. ZMapp is manufactured from a unique tobacco leaves grown in Owensboro, Ky.

The treatments that will be tested are the antiviral drug favipiravir, the antiviral drug brincidofovir, and whole blood and plasma from Ebola survivors.

Draguez told Park that the two antiviral drugs "rose to the top of the list because of a combination of their promise in controlling the Ebola virus and their availability," plus their ease of distribution; they are in pills, taken orally.

Patients will be given detailed information about the treatments and given the option of taking the experimental therapies, Park reports.

The World Health Organization recently announced plans to test two vaccines in West Africa as well.

These trials are a "good first step" in how best to treat Ebola, and while they might not help those currently infected, will be "invaluable for the inevitable outbreaks that emerge in the future," Park writes.

As Ky.'s teen-birth rank rises, mother objects to Casey Co. child-development class's baby shower for five pregnant students

Kentucky's ranking for births to females aged 15 to 19 is going up, and five students at Casey County High School are pregnant. A joint baby shower for them during class time recently sent the wrong message about teenage pregnancy, a mother of a teenager at the school told the Casey County News.

Carmen Foster gained custody of her daughter three years ago, but not before the girl heard her biological mother say she enjoyed being pregnant because of all the attention she received. The biological mother left her and six other children with an abusive ex-boyfriend until Foster gained custody, Abigail Whitehouse reports.

"Some of these kids come from situations we can't even imagine," Foster said. "They need daily positive examples to help them reach their potential. I don't want my daughter thinking that being a pregnant teen will get her tons of positive attention from everyone at school."

Foster, who was a teenage mother, said she has spent years instructing her daughter that she doesn't need approval from boys to have self-confidence. "I want better for our girls," she said. "I believe in love and acceptance and helping in any way that I can, but I also believe in doing so responsibly. This was not a message to be sent out at school."

CCHS Principal Josh Blevins told the newspaper that the baby shower, in a Human and Child Development class, "was a way of saying, here are some things to help get them on their feet. We are just simply addressing the fact that this has happened, and now it's our responsibility to educate these women on how to care for their children." Blevins said the class is an elective, and participation isn't required.

Jackie Allen, who teaches the class, said the students were working through a unit on pregnancy and childbirth unit, and asked if they could throw a surprise baby shower for the five students. "I think it was a positive experience for my students and for the girls they invited," Allen said. "I think that students who are pregnant need all the support they can get. I don't think there was any kind of glorifying teen pregnancy."

Kentucky ranked seventh out of 51 (50 states and the District of Columbia) in 2011 birth rates among females 15-19, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2008, the state Kentucky ranked 19th.

Americans' sweet tooth blamed for increases in obesity and diabetes; new website explains the dangers of too much sugar

A new website called SugarScience is now available to help consumers understand the health dangers of sugar in our lives, Lisa Aliferis reports for NPR.

This University of California, San Francisco project examined 8,000 studies and research papers and "found strong evidence that over-consumption of added sugar contributes to three major chronic illnesses: heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and liver disease," Aliferis writes.

"Right now, the reality is that our consumption of sugar is out of whack, and until we bring things back into balance, we need to focus on helping people understand what the consequences are to having the average American ... consume too much added sugar," Laura Schmidt, a professor of health policy at UCSF and leader of this project, told Aliferis.

SugarScience is a user-friendly website that partners with health departments across the country to educate the public. Two departments have already agreed to participate in the outreach, Aliferis writes.

Schmidt told Aliferis that the food environment is the driver of the increased obesity of Americans in the last generation: "Sugar isn't just making us fat, it's making us sick."

"It's not like Americans suddenly lost their will power," she said. "The only major change in the diet that explains the obesity epidemic is this steep rise in added sugar consumption that started in the 1980s."

What our average daily diet of added sugar looks like

Schmidt said that while not all sugar is bad, we need to determine how much sugar is too much, pointing out that Americans consume the "equivalent of 19.5 teaspoons a day in added sugar, " Aliferis reports. She also suggest there is a need for federal guidelines to recommend a limit.

"SugarScience suggests the same limits advocated by the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization: no more than 9 teaspoons a day for men and no more than 6 teaspoons a day for women," Aliferis writes.

A taste of what the SugarScience website tells us is: Added sugar hides in 74 percent of packaged foods; fructose, a common type of sugar, can damage your liver more than other kinds of sugar; and one 12-ounce can of soda a day can increase your risk of dying of heart disease by one-third, Aliferis reports.

It also suggest the best way to cut down on sugar is to stop drinking sugar-sweetened drinks, saying this is where we get more than one-third of added sugar in our diets. Another suggestion is for us to read nutrition labels, suggesting that if a chemical on the label ends in "ose," it is probably sugar.

Dean Schillinger, a professor of medicine at UCSF and a primary care doctor at San Francisco General Hospital, is also part of the SugarScience team. He told Aliferis that beds in his hospital that used to be filled with AIDS patients are now filled with diabetes patients.

"The ward is overwhelmed with diabetes — they're getting their limbs amputated; they're on dialysis. And these are young people. They are suffering the ravages of diabetes in the prime of their life,"Schillinger told Aliferis.

"We're at the point where we need a public-health response to it, " he said.

Medicare plans to pay for lung-cancer screening, a boon to Ky.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan to start paying for lung cancer screening with low-dose CT scans for people at high risk.

Spiral CT (computed tomography), which is used to look for lung cancer, is a low-dose form of X-ray that delivers about the same radiation as a mammogram, Maggie Fox reports for NBC News.

“I think after a long effort to get to this point, CMS got it right,” Laurie Fenton Ambrose, president and CEO of the Lung Cancer Alliance, told Fox. “This has the potential of being one of the most significant cancer mortality-reducing efforts to date. We are finally focusing on what is a quarter of all cancer, and that’s lung cancer.”

Fox reports, "Experts project that the screening test, which costs $250-$300, may prevent as many as 20 percent of future deaths from lung cancer, making it akin to mammograms and colonoscopies in terms of saving lives."

The proposal covers people aged 55-74 who have smoked at least a pack a day for 30 years, or the equivalent. It is now open for a 30-day comment period.

Lung cancer is especially deadly because it usually doesn’t cause symptoms until it’s already spread to other parts of the body. Kentucky has more cases of lung cancer than any other state, and its lung cancer mortality rate is nearly 50 percent higher than the national average. This year alone, 3,500 Kentuckians will die from lung cancer. Nationally, it kills nearly 160,000 people a year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Concerns about using CT scans to screen for ling cancer are that it isn't cheap, it isn't harmless, and the scans aren't always clear, often causing patients to endure further needless testing, Fox reports: "The national lung screening trial showed that for every five to six lives saved by screening, one person died because of procedures done after screening, including surgery and biopsies that collapsed the lung."

That calls for caution. “We strongly advise older current and former heavy smokers to speak with their doctors about whether CT lung cancer screening is right for them,” Dr. Ella Kazerooni, chair of the American College of Radiology Lung Cancer Screening Committee, told Fox. “If they and their doctor decide that screening is warranted, we encourage patients to seek out an ACR lung cancer screening center.” 

Kentucky meets the diabetes challenge with a comprehensive plan that 15 other states have modeled, advocates say

Kentucky has not simply accepted the dire diabetes statistics that affect so many of its citizens, but instead is meeting this challenge head on with The Kentucky Diabetic Action Plan, Stewart Perry and Bob Babbage write in an op-ed piece for The Courier-Journal.

Perry and Babbage wrote this piece to draw attention to World Diabetes Day, held every year on Nov. 14 to engage people in advocacy and awareness about the disease.

 "Thanks to the efforts of health care providers, political leaders and diabetes advocates and volunteers, Kentucky is a leader among the states in efforts to address the diabetes epidemic," the authors write.

"The incidence of diabetes has tripled in Kentucky since 1995. We have the fifth-highest incidence of diabetes among all the states. Almost 1 in 5 Kentuckians has diabetes or prediabetes. Diabetes costs Kentucky an estimated $4.8 billion a year in direct and indirect costs," the authors write.

They summarize the Action Plan, proudly saying that "no fewer than 15 states have used Kentucky's bill as a model for their own legislation."

"In 2011 Kentucky became the first state to mandate the development of a statewide, comprehensive diabetes action plan," they write. "The first Kentucky Diabetes Report was presented to the General Assembly in 2013 and will be updated every two years. Two years later, Kentucky became the first state to license diabetes educators. This year Kentucky passed Safe at School legislation which makes it easier for students to manage health care needs during school hours, provides that every school has trained personnel to assist students when necessary and assures that students with medical needs are not excluded from extracurricular activities."

The reason so many states are attempting to adopt this model, what makes it unique, say the authors, is that "the plan requires agencies to work together to develop a seamless, cooperative plan." The law requires the state Department of Public Health, the Department for Medicaid Services, the Office of Health Policy and the state Personnel Cabinet to collaborate in the development and implementation of the plan.

"We celebrate because Kentucky is not shrinking from the challenge of confronting diabetes but is instead at the forefront of efforts to prevent the disease and care for those who have diabetes," the authors write.

Brown fat, already known as a super calorie burner,' could also be a key to treating Type 2 diabetes, study shows

Better understanding brown fat could lead to future ways of treating obesity and type 2 diabetes, Abby Phillip reports for The Washington Post.

A recent study published in The Journal of Cell Biology found that brown fat cells are not only great "super calorie burners," burning calories as they help keep the body warm in cold temperatures, but are also a "super vacuum," producing a substance that sucks up excess glucose in the blood and transports that sugar into the brown fat cells, where it can be burned to produce heat, Phillip writes.

For people with type 2 diabetes, whose bodies do not use insulin properly and as a result have high blood glucose levels, these findings could lead to new drugs that can activate brown cells and reduce blood glucose levels without insulin, Phillip reports.

"If you can start the tissue to burn and produce heat, then you can actually in a way take away excess glucose in the blood," Tore Bengtsson, one of the study's authors told Phillip. "Now we actually understand how this production of these glucose transporters work."

Kentucky has the fifth-highest incidence of diabetes and obesity among all the states, with almost one in five Kentuckians diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes and one in three adults in considered obese. Obesity can lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes.

"The implication of this is normally when you have Type 2 diabetes you have to inject insulin to reduce your blood sugar levels," Bengtsson told the Post. "However you could make a medicine which is not based on insulin signalling. It's a completely new pathway that can be targeted for taking up glucose in the blood."

Bengtsson told the newspaper "that he is working on the next step in the research -- looking for specific ways of activating the cells, which will be crucial for the development of new drugs."