May 29, 2014
N.C. diabetes 'epidemic' costs billions, Harvard finds;
broad-based solutions urged
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Diabetes rates in North Carolina have nearly doubled in 20 years, reflecting a rapidly growing "epidemic" that costs billions of dollars in medical spending and a less efficient workforce, a new report from Harvard University says.
Diabetes is now the seventh-leading cause of death in the state, where the disease is far more prevalent than in the U.S. overall, the report says. And among African Americans and American Indians in the state, it is the fourth-leading and third-leading cause of death, respectively.
"This growing threat to the health of North Carolinians is also a threat to the state's economy," the report says.
At its current pace, it says, diabetes is on track to cost the state's public and private sectors over $17 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity by 2025.
"With such high stakes, the state must take significant steps to address the disease from every angle," the report says, including collaborative, coordinated efforts to attack known risk factors for diabetes for the population overall, and to improve the quality of care and access to it for all individuals living with the disease.
The report calls for "multipronged changes to the state's healthcare, nutrition and physical activity landscapes," including better access to healthy food and education programs; better access to medical and lifestyle interventions; improvements in the built environment; and new legislation and diabetes-related task forces.
In the U.S., diabetes affects nearly 26 million children and adults, or 1 in 10 Americans, and is the main cause of death for over 71,000 Americans a year, according to the American Diabetes Association. By 2050, if current trends continue, as many as one in three Americans will have diabetes, which now generates $245 billion a year in costs.
Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for nine in 10 diabetes cases, is a disorder of the body's metabolic system that is characterized by high blood sugar, with obesity believed to be the main cause of the disease in people genetically predisposed to it. People who develop type 2 diabetes can lose up to 15 years of life, the report says.
Funded through a grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and released Thursday night in Raleigh, the report from the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School is the result of research and over 90 interviews with policymakers, government agencies and nonprofits involved in North Carolina's response to diabetes.
The report, "2014 New Carolina State Report: Providing Access to Healthy Solutions (PATHS) – The Diabetes Epidemic in North Carolina: Policies for Moving Forward" calls for a broad range of approaches to tackle diabetes. Among those recommendations:
-Promote "team-based, whole-person models" to deliver and finance diabetes care.
-Increase access to diabetes prevention and self-management programs.
-Expand telemedicine programs and access to durable medical equipment and
insulin.
-Improve behavioral health services for people with diabetes.
-Increase economic and geographic access to healthy food.
-Increase opportunities for physical activities, and nutrition and cooking
education.
Expand programs for early childhood, school food, nutrition and wellness.
Allen Smart, vice president for programs at the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in Winston-Salem, says investment in efforts to reduce diabetes has focused on treatment of the disease, and on prevention of its complications, not of the disease itself.
The big challenge in fighting the disease, he says, will be to find ways to "engage communities, not just people in the health world, around some of the fundamental causes of diabetes that are really fueling this escalation."
The Reynolds Trust, the state's biggest private funder of diabetes programs, has invested roughly $10 million over the past five or six years to address the disease.
Just this week, the Reynolds Trust announced it is giving nearly $200,000 to the YMCA of Western North Carolina to expand a diabetes program for McDowell County that has served 196 adults, helping them reduce their weight by 10.9 percent, on average.
Still, Smart says, "if I had $10 million to invest today in effective diabetes prevention programs in North Carolina, I wouldn't have a place to put that money. There's not enough evidence-based prevention work that's been accepted that we feel confident works."
Brad Wilson, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the biggest health insurer in the state, says diabetes "is taking an increasingly heavy toll in our state on patients and families, citizens and taxpayers, and hospitals and other healthcare providers, and this has a direct impact on both the health of our customers and the cost of health insurance."
The good news, he says, is that "common-sense, collaborative strategies can significantly reduce the impact of diabetes on the health and pocketbooks of North Carolinians, and on the costs to organizations that serve them.”
Note: This article is a joint project of Philanthropy North Carolina and NCPressRelease.com, with financial support from Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina.
For information or to obtain copies of the Harvard report, contact:
Wayne Hurder
Randolph E Cloud & Associates
919-821-1004
whurder@att.net
Harvard Law School Releases State Report on North Carolina’s Opportunities to Enhance Prevention and Management of Type 2 Diabetes
Raleigh, NC – May 27, 2014 – The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) of Harvard Law School will release its 2014 New North Carolina State Report: Providing Access to Healthy Solutions (PATHS) – The Diabetes Epidemic in North Carolina: Policies for Moving Forward. The report is funded through a grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and will be released during the CHLPI Diabetes Leadership Dinner on May 29 and Strategy Forum on May 30 in Raleigh. The report will also be presented to the North Carolina Diabetes Advisory Council (NCDAC) at its spring meeting on May 30. The NCDAC advises the state government on diabetes prevention and management.
The report is a result of extensive research and over 90 interviews with policymakers, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations that are playing a role in the state’s diabetes response. It provides a comprehensive summary of the type 2 diabetes landscape in the state, including a discussion of the policies that impact type 2 diabetes and policy recommendations to help reduce its prevalence and consequences. It was created to empower diabetes advocates and local and state governments in their planning to promote positive policy change and efforts to address the impact of type 2 diabetes within NC communities. “Diabetes is a rapidly growing affliction in North Carolina with rates having almost doubled since the 1990s,” said Robert Greenwald, Director of CHLPI and Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. “These numbers continue to grow, and our hope is that the report will inspire a collaborative, integrated approach that supports improvements to the built environment, access to healthy food and education programs, and access to necessary medical and lifestyle interventions.”
To launch the report, CHLPI will host the PATHS Diabetes Leadership Dinner on Thursday, May 29, and the North Carolina PATHS Diabetes Strategy Forum on Friday, May 30. The events will convene elected and appointed officials and healthcare and nonprofit leaders to discuss the report’s findings and identify opportunities for synergies based on the report’s recommendations, which include:
1. Promoting team-based, whole-person models for delivery and financing of
diabetes care
2. Increasing access to diabetes prevention and self-management programs
3. Expanding evidence-based telemedicine programs to help alleviate provider
shortages
4. Expanding access to durable medical equipment and insulin
5. Improving behavioral health services for people with diabetes
6. Increasing economic access to healthy food
7. Increasing geographic access to healthy food
8. Increasing opportunities for physical activity in the built environment
9. Improving nutrition and cooking education opportunities
10. Expanding early childhood, school food, nutrition, and wellness programs
To continue its efforts, CHLPI will host the Western North Carolina Diabetes Strategy Forum on June 9 at UNC – Asheville. The event will convene leaders in the Western region and focus on issues specific to rural communities.
Contact:
Wayne Hurder
Randolph E Cloud & Associates
919-821-1004
whurder@att.net
Wayne Hurder
Randolph E Cloud & Associates
919-821-1004
whurder@att.net
Robert B Butler | PR | www.NCPressRelease.com
Related story: Harvard Law School report on Type 2 Diabetes in New Jersey
Robert B Butler | www.NCPressRelease.com
