Health Reform Campaign

RECENT ACTIONS

Open Letter to President Obama and Congress

"The Need to Increase Prevention, Treatment and Care of Diabetes"

"NCDP Health Care Reform Recommendations Advocate for Diabetes Prevention, Treatment and Care" – Press Release

On July 14, NCDP sent an open letter to President Obama and Congress commending their efforts to reform the current US health care system and encouraging them to increase their focus on diabetes.

Working with several member associations and other organizations committed to fighting diabetes, NCDP stressed the growing prevalence and death rates of diabetes in the country as well as the increasing financial burden, citing that the estimated cost of diabetes and pre-diabetes in 2007 was $218 billion in medical care and lost productivity.

Along with NCDP, the following organizations signed this letter to lawmakers: American Association of Diabetes Educators, American College of Physicians, American Diabetes Association, American Optometric Association, Center for Health Transformation, National Business Coalition on Health, Tethys Bioscience and VSP.

The letter noted:

Changing diabetes by emphasizing prevention, and improving detection, treatment and care management should be a top priority area for health reform, including all new or expanded initiatives in Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and other public programs. Specifically, diabetes should be explicitly identified as a priority condition for:

• Patient-centered care models
• Chronic care management programs
• Quality improvement initiatives
• Programs to reduce racial/ethnic disparities
• Prevention and health promotion initiatives
• Quality-based incentives
• Medicare and Medicaid demonstrations of new care models and delivery systems

Just as our country has had a national response to cancer and AIDS, diabetes requires a national response focused on prevention. Without significant national investment in prevention now, Americans, particularly those in the Hispanic, African-American, and Native American communities who are disproportionally impacted, will continue to needlessly develop diabetes.

Letter to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

"Meaningful Use Comments" for Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems

On June 26 2009, NCDP wrote to Dr. David Blumenthal, Director of ONC, and commended his work of defining “meaningful use” for electronic health record (HER) systems in new Medicare and Medicaid payment incentives.

NCDP, along with the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American Association of Diabetes Educators, commends Dr. Blumenthal’s inclusion of diabetes-related uses including diabetes-specific data elements, capabilities to support patient decision making and self-care management and quality measures, among others.

This letter also calls for including pre-diabetes in EHR usage:

As you finalize the year 2011 goals for the meaningful use of EHRs, both pre-diabetes as well as diabetes must be included within the use cases needed for certification. The data set should also include screening test results, including hemoglobin A1C assay results. This initial step of capturing diabetes specific information will help lead to an integrated, patient centered decision support system and improved patient outcomes by 2013.

Changing diabetes prevention, detection, treatment and care management must remain a top priority area. Diabetes prevalence is increasing at an alarming rate, and unlike several other chronic diseases, Type 2 diabetes is often preventable. Improved diabetes treatment and self-care can dramatically reduce the risks of complications for those already with the disease.

Roll Call Ad Calls on Congress to Change Diabetes

Roll Call "Changing Health Care Means Changing Diabetes"

True health care reform can’t happen without confronting the diabetes crisis in America. Federal leadership can help reverse the trajectory of diabetes and set he nation on a path for a healthier life.

Letters to Senate Finance Committee

In May 2009, the Senate Finance Committee released a series of three papers that covered health reform policy options under consideration by the committee. NCDP championed the fight against diabetes by responding to each of these papers.

Finance Committee Paper 1: Transforming the Health Care Delivery System: Proposals to Improve Patient Care and Reduce Health Care Costs

NCDP’s response letter had four key recommendations:

• Diabetes should be a flagship for testing the effectiveness of new models, initiatives and program changes.
• Patients must be at the center of the system
• Team-based diabetes care, supported by health information technology, is a vital clinical model to promote, test, and finance.
• Accuracy in forecasting diabetes-related costs is essential.

Finance Committee Paper 2: Expanding Health Care Coverage: Proposals to Provide Affordable Coverage to All Americans

NCDP’s response letter advocated for strong coverage of prevention for diabetes, particularly in minority communities. In addition, we raised concerns about using U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) as it is currently operating to determine coverage options. Excerpts from the letter follow:

Diabetes requires a national response focused on prevention. Without significant national investment in prevention now, Americans, particularly those in the Hispanic and African-American communities, will continue to needlessly develop diabetes, and the economic burden of diabetes and other chronic diseases will affect our country’s ability to stay competitive in the global marketplace.

… we share the concerns of others… broadening federal reliance on the USPSTF raises serious concerns… We urge the Committee to review carefully the ADA and AHA's excellent issue brief on USPSTF… We concur with their statement that "Simply put, to cover only those preventive services that meet the current criteria used by USPSTF would limit opportunities for the prevention of costly chronic disease within the context of health care reform."

Finance Committee Paper 3: Financing Comprehensive Health Care Reform: Proposed Health System Savings and Revenue Options

NCDP’s response letter emphasized the significant budget savings that would result from solving the diabetes crisis. In addition, we urge Congress to direct the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide information on the savings of preventive health beyond the existing ten-year scoring window. Excerpts from the letter follow:

Diabetes is one of the most costly diseases in the U.S. Many of the cases of Type 2 diabetes are preventable, which means solving the diabetes epidemic would significantly impact the nation’s health budget… while the death rate of diseases such as cancer and heart disease have declined since 1960, diabetes related deaths have increased significantly – despite the ability to prevent many of the type 2 diabetes cases.

For Congress to act in the long-term best interest of the country, Congress should modernize the way it looks at the costs and benefits of preventive health care. To ensure a complete, long-term picture when setting policy and budget priorities, the Committee should consider including language in the health reform bill that narrowly and reasonably directs the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide information on the savings of preventive health, when modeled with solid data, beyond the existing ten-year scoring window.