Business & Health Care Providers
Helping People Prevent Diabetes
Lifestyle changes can help prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 Diabetes for your employees. Individuals who receive support from multiple sources are more likely to be successful.
The Costs to Communities and Organizations
The cost of preventing diabetes is much smaller than the cost of managing Type 2 Diabetes. Prediabetes can be reversed, but diabetes cannot.
- Increased time off: Employees with diabetes may need to take time off work to manage their health-related issues.
- Higher turnover rates: Employees with diabetes can have serious health complications and disability that may cause them to stop working.
- Reduced morale: A sick workforce is not as energized, motivated, and productive as a healthy workforce.
Productivity losses related to personal and family health problems cost U.S. employers $1,685 per employee per year, or $225.8 billion annually. Read the complete article.
Higher Costs for Health Insurance and Workers' Compensation
- People with diabetes have medical expenses that are approximately 2.3 times higher than the medical expenses of people without diabetes. In the general population, the average total medical expense incurred by people with diabetes is approximately $16,750 per year.
- All this can impact an employer's health insurance loss ratios, health insurance premiums, workers' compensation medical costs and workers' compensation insurance premiums.
You Can Help
The Actions You Can Take
- Talk with your health plan provider about covering the National DPP as a health benefit and offering it to your employees.
- If your health plan does not cover it, set aside funds for wellness programs that include the National DPP.
- Work with your health plan to identify and enroll eligible employees into the National DPP.
- Use benefit design to reward employees for healthy lifestyle choices including on-site risk assessments, fitness centers, healthy snack options and educational programming.
- Improve access to the National DPP. Consider hosting the National DPP at your workplace and allow employees to attend while "on the clock."
- Partner with third party administrators, local health departments or community organizations to implement a program.
The National DPP Coverage Toolkit for Employers is a great resource to explore your options and find more detailed information. You will even find a step-by-step guide to assist you.
The Benefits of Investing in Diabetes Prevention
Over 3 years you could expect to see:
- A possible savings of approximately $8,000 in medical expenditures per participant who does not progress to Type 2 Diabetes.
- A one to two percent decrease in absenteeism and lost productivity.
Calculate your potential medical costs savings over a 3-year period from providing the National Diabetes Prevention Program as a covered benefit for your employees. Use this Impact Toolkit to project the health and economic effects of the National DPP lifestyle change program on your workforce at risk for diabetes. The Return on Investment for a company that offers eligible employees a National DPP Program is about $55,000 over 10 years for each employee with prediabetes who does not develop diabetes
Additional benefits include:
- Strengthening the organization's culture and public image.
- Becoming a more attractive organization for candidates to fill open jobs.
- Increasing satisfaction and retention of employees.
Help Us Grow the National DPP
- Begin or continue your journey to coverage of the National DPP.
- Consider joining the National Association of Chronic Disease Director’s National DPP ELC Employer Network.
- Learn more about HALTDiabetes. HALTDiabetesKS is a National DPP platform – not a program provider – that allows certified coaches the ability to offer the National DPP lifestyle change program virtually. It is a fully integrated, online delivery system complete with video curriculum, food-logging, messaging, dashboards and apps.