PROVIDENCE – As part of its national effort to develop health insurance products that respond to what it termed the national epidemic of diabetes and obesity, UnitedHealthcare of New England will be rolling out a diabetes prevention program in Rhode Island in 2011, UnitedHealth Group officials said.
The plans will include a pre-diabetic prevention program (with co-pays eliminated), a diabetic care program, working with primary care providers, and a diabetes control program, working with pharmacists.
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Details on when and how the programs will be offered in Rhode Island are not yet available, according to UnitedHealthcare officials. Currently, there are about 100,000 members enrolled in these UnitedHealthcare programs nationwide. The diabetes control program is initially being done in partnership with Walgreen’s, UnitedHealthcare officials said.
More than 50 percent of Americans could have diabetes or pre-diabetes by 2020, with medical costs projected to be $3.35 trillion over the next decade, according to an analysis prepared by UnitedHealth Group’s Center for Health Reform and Modernization.
“We need a concerted effort that focuses on this epidemic that ultimately could bankrupt the health care system in this country,” said Tom Beauregard, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group and executive director of the Center for Health Reform & Modernization.
Beauregard, who is responsible for United Health’s strategy for health care reform, also called for a broad national consumer awareness campaign, similar to public awareness campaigns about smoking, with an emphasis on screening and earlier identification. “Some 90 percent of pre-diabetics don’t know it. More than one-quarter of all diabetics don’t know,” he said.
Beauregard, however, stopped short of support for bans on the use of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener, or legislated taxes on sugary soft drinks such as Coca-Cola or Red Bull.
“Food strategies will evolve,” he said. Instead, he continued, it was more important to create incentives for consumers to participate in prevention programs, and to remove cost barriers for participation. “We know what the right health interventions are, we know how to identify people, we have models that effectively engage individuals. We’re not advocating specific strategies for legislation.”
In terms of focus and age group demographics, Beauregard said while diabetes is a disease that affects every age group, he recommended an initial focus on children and childhood obesity, which he said is a precursor to diabetes. “We have a big problem; 17 percent of our children are obese. The earlier we get involved with prevention efforts, the better. This is an epidemic that starts with childhood obesity.”
Beauregard urged businesses that offer health insurance, or those that are self-insured, to offer diabetes prevention programs to their employees.
In Rhode Island, about 62,000 adults, or 7.4 percent of the state’s population, have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the R.I. Department of Health. In addition, there are an estimated 31,000 adults who have diabetes but who remained undiagnosed. Taken together, some 12 percent of Rhode Island adults have diabetes.
In addition, about 22 percent of Rhode Island’s population is considered obese, according to America’s Health Rankings.
