Business
Chrysler's diabetes program nets positive patient results
■ The company is among many that have started case management programs in an attempt to improve workers' health while cutting costs.
By Mike Norbut — Posted May 1, 2006
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A six-month pilot program conducted by the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler AG helped improve the health of some diabetic employees, results the automaker is hoping will translate into cost savings and better productivity in the future.
The program, offered to employees in Chrysler's Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters, included confidential individual case management meetings, group education sessions, and continuous glucose monitoring. While the number of participants was small -- 570 employees were initially screened and 126 participated in the program -- the results were noticeable, the company said.
The number of participants who had their diabetes under control rose from 68% in August 2005, when the program started, to 77% in February, the company said. The percentage of participants who were better able to control their weight and cholesterol also rose slightly, while the number of those better able to control their blood pressure declined somewhat.
Chrysler executives are still waiting to receive financial results from the program. However, clinical results seem to fit the general theory that healthier workers are more productive and save the company in health care costs, Chrysler said. That's important for a company that spent $2.1 billion for health care last year and is forecasted to spend $2.3 billion this year, said Cyndy Parker, a registered nurse and Chrysler's healthy people initiatives manager.
"We feel this is a way to manage some of those costs," Parker said. "We do firmly believe worksite education is definitely the way to go."
Automakers have been struggling in recent years to control the cost of health care for employees and retirees. Many manufacturers are resorting to saddling their workers with a greater share of their health care costs, although Chrysler has even announced plans to include its executives in that cost sharing as well.
In March, the company unveiled a sliding-scale plan in which higher-paid executives and managers would pay more in health care premiums. General Motors and Ford Motor Co. also have negotiated deals with union laborers to lower their health care costs.
Chrysler's diabetes pilot program earned the praise of outgoing Michigan State Medical Society president Alan Mindlin, MD, whose term ended April 30. There are commonsense advantages to practicing preventive medicine with diabetic patients as well, Dr. Mindlin said. Preventing some of the damage diabetes can cause up front can help in employee productivity and absenteeism, and it also can help address those risk factors that can be dangerous in their own right, he said.
"The up-front costs are going to be a drop in the bucket compared to the down-the-road costs," Dr. Mindlin said.
Other companies have used cost-control strategies with their diabetic employees to great success. For example, Stamford, Conn.-based Pitney Bowes Inc., an office technology and services company, has seen savings of $1 million annually since it started reducing prescription drug co-pays for diabetic and asthmatic employees.
Patients who pay less for their drugs are taking them more regularly, which helps the company save on fewer hospitalizations and emergency department visits on the back end, a company spokesman said.