GlaxoSmithKline, American Pharmacists Association Foundation To Launch Program T

GlaxoSmithKline, American Pharmacists Association Foundation To Launch Program To Reduce Employer Costs for Diabetes for Ten Cities

Your city could be one of the 10 that will be picked.

GlaxoSmithKline and the American Pharmacists Association Foundation in January 2006 will launch a nationwide project that seeks to improve the health of diabetic patients and reduce employers’ health care costs. Under the Ten City Challenge project — based on an eight-year initiative in Asheville, N.C. — participating employers must agree to waive workers’ copayments on medicines to treat diabetes to encourage the drugs’ use. The project seeks to enroll employers in 10 cities around the U.S. All diabetes prescription medications will be included in the program. Patients would be matched with specially trained pharmacists to learn how to manage their diabetes more effectively. A spokesperson for the initiative said that employers would pay between $350 and $450 per patient for coaching by the pharmacists in the first year but added that such costs would decrease over time. According to the spokesperson, employer spending on drugs could double in the first year, as employees with diabetes improve their compliance with treatment regimens. However, participating employers in the North Carolina initiative reportedly saved about $900 per patient with diabetes in the first year of the initiative. In addition, employees would save $400 to $600 annually on copays.  GSK, which is funding the project, hopes to reduce overall employer health care costs and "show the value of pharmaceuticals and careful attention to patient care," the Journal reports (Hensley, Wall Street Journal, 10/25).

The Diabetes Ten City Challenge™ is an innovative program that employers and communities can use to fight diabetes and reduce health care costs.  It invites employer groups in 10 communities to establish a voluntary health benefit that helps employees and dependents, which provides employee incentives and helps people take control of diabetes by working with pharmacist coaches, physicians and diabetes educators. Sponsored by the APhA Foundation with support and funding from GlaxoSmithKline, the Diabetes Ten City Challenge™ is modeled after two other highly successful programs: the Asheville Project (1997-present), a diabetes management program proven to improve overall health, reduce absenteeism, shorten hospital stays and reduce health care costs; and Project ImPACT: HyperlipidemiaSM (1996-1999), the APhA Foundation’s cholesterol management program. 

What the Program Does   Demonstrative Results of the Program    How the Program works     

Interested Employers

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DID YOU KNOW:

Just five hours of exercise a week is needed to achieve the greatest weight loss.  If you’re trying to lose weight, plan on lots of exercise, say the authors of a new study. In the longest study to date examining duration of exercise on weight loss, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh found that getting about five hours per week of exercise leads to the greatest weight loss among obese adults. That is twice the amount recommended to the general public to achieve good health.  The study followed 191 adult women who were assigned to one of four exercise regimens along with a low-calorie, low-fat diet. At the end of two years, the women in the highest-duration exercise group lost the most — about 7.2% of their initial body weight. Dieters need to sustain about 270 to 300 minutes of exercise a week to achieve and maintain weight loss, said John Jakicic, lead author of the study.  NAASO website at https://www.naaso.org