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At the request of its 42 member employers, the Hawaii Business Health Council (HBHC) researched a solution to rising health care costs and decided to focus on diabetes. The group started the Diabetes Ten City Challenge program as a pilot for three employers in Honolulu County on Oahu to test it for future expansion. Today, the DTCC is available to 7,950 employees and dependents on the island of Oahu at six employers:
- Outrigger Resort & Hotels – 4,000
- Punahou School – 650
- Times Super Markets – 1,100
- Finance Factors – 350
- Servco Enterprises – 1,500
- State of Hawaii, Dept. of Commerce and Consumer Affairs – 350
Forty-seven pharmacists and Certified Diabetes Educators, specially trained in diabetes care, are currently participating in the program, with more pharmacists to be added as it expands. Pharmacists meet one-on-one with participants as "life coaches," to help them track and understand their diabetes:
- 12 pharmacist network participants are from Times Super Market Ltd. and 35 are independent pharmacists located throughout the state.
- Pharmacists see patients at all 12 Times Super Market locations on Oahu and 25 other locations throughout the state.
- Pharmacists are trained in diabetes care through the American Pharmacists Association Diabetes Certification Program presented by the Hawaii Chapter of the American Pharmacists Association.
- Certification will be offered on an ongoing basis to pharmacists added to the program.
- Gary Allen, Executive Director, Hawaii Business Health Council, is pharmacy network coordinator.
- Management of patient co-pays and pharmacist reimbursement are coordinated by the Quality Healthcare Alliance.
- Certified Diabetes Educators from Kaiser Permanente and other companies also are available as resources to participants who need additional training to understand or control their diabetes.
- To date, 50% of the invited employees have enrolled (73 participants as of November 2006)
- Long-term, they expect pharmacists in the program to also address cardiac diseases and asthma
- Population: 1,211,537 (2000 U.S. census)
- African American, Asian, American Indian, and Pacific Islanders: 933,512
- Minority populations represent 77 percent of the Hawaiian population
Prevalence of diabetes in the Hawaiian and Asian populations is considerably higher than in the Caucasian population. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 7.5 percent of Hawaii adults have been diagnosed with diabetes (2004), compared to 3.1 percent in 1994.
According to the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health:
- 23.6 million people (7.8 percent of the U.S. population) have diabetes
- 1.6 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older in 2007.
- Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates in 2006.
The Hawaii Business Health Council (HBHC) is a non-profit collaborative that represents 42 large private employers. HBHC focuses on improving the health of employees for member companies and is a catalyst in addressing health care issues in Hawaii. The HBHC member companies are anticipating the success of the diabetic life-coaching program. HBHC is searching for a model that can become a tool for individuals to control their chronic disease.
Gary Allen, Executive Director, Hawaii Business Health Council
"We went with the APhA model because it has two things that most other disease management programs do not have - it pays incentives to employees for participation and puts the counseling site at the local pharmacy, where it fits in with their lives. One element that is attracting employers is the impact on health care costs that this model has. Unfortunately, it comes down to money - with a 2 to 1 return on investment, employers are interested in the Diabetes Ten City Challenge."
Roger Godfrey, President, Times Super Markets Ltd.
"We are very pleased to be a partner with fellow employers and the Hawaii Business Health Council in helping to deal more effectively with diabetes in Hawaii. Our pharmacists look forward to providing lifestyle counseling services to our customers and associates to make the 'Asheville Project' a reality in Hawaii."
Caren Kagan Evans
President and CEO
301-309-8487
caren@ecicommunications.com
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