the population to be examined consists of medicare beneficiaries who are age 65 or over and who live in the community rather than long - term care facilities . this includes approximately 81.2 percent of all beneficiaries , and yields a more homogeneous group for analysis . in 2004 , this group comprised 31.3 million persons , represented in the mcbs by a sample of 11,926 persons . of this number , 2,416 respondents representing 6.3 million or 20.3 percent of aged beneficiaries responded positively to the following question :  has a doctor ever told you that you had any type of diabetes , including sugar diabetes , high blood sugar , borderline diabetes , pre - diabetes , or pregnancy - related diabetes ?  the question thus gives a comprehensive definition of diabetes . subsequent questions permit separation of borderline diabetes , pre - diabetes , and gestational diabetes . for this highlight , a small number of females who reported diabetes only during pregnancy were removed from the analysis . diabetics living in the community have consistently worse health status and higher medicare part b costs than non - diabetics . these findings are not accounted for by age , since fewer diabetics than non - diabetics are in the older age groups .
the medicare current beneficiary survey ( mcbs ) contains a wealth of information on the health status of medicare beneficiaries . 
 in particular , the 2004 mcbs included a series of questions about diabetes care for those who reported they had the condition , and diabetes screening for those who said they did not . 
 this highlight reviews some of the characteristics of the diabetic population compared to the non - diabetic population .