An Asheville, N.C., program that gives municipal workers with diabetes no-cost medicines and supplies if they agree to monthly counseling from specially trained pharmacists has helped participants better manage their disease, the New York Times reports. According to city officials, the decade-old program has saved more than $2,000 in medical costs per patient annually. Barry Bunting, pharmacy director at Mission Hospitals, which runs the program, said that for every dollar spent on medicine and counseling, the city saves $4 by preventing emergency department visits, dialysis, amputations or other complications related to diabetes. In addition, during the first five years of the program, enrollees took an average of six sick days annually, half the number taken in previous years, the Times reports. After three years of enrollment, participants' risk of going blind or needing dialysis or amputation was reduced by half, Bunting said. A 2003 study of the program found that after one year, half of the participants had their blood sugar under control and that, after three years, two-thirds had their blood sugar under control. Diabetes drug manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Aventis jointly have given about $1 million over the past five years to the American Pharmacists Association Foundation to help promote and replicate the program in other areas. About 40 other employers nationwide have adopted some form of the program (Urbina, New York Times, 12/30).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.