03.27.06 Milwaukee to Participate in Diabetes Ten City Challenge

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 27, 2006

Contact:	Eileen Force, Communications Director
	Office of Mayor Tom Barrett
	414-286-8504 (phone) 414-286-3191 (fax) eforce@milwaukee.gov

Milwaukee to Participate in Diabetes Ten City Challenge
City seeks improvements to overall health and reduced healthcare costs

MILWAUKEE (March 27, 2006) – The City of Milwaukee has partnered with the American Pharmacists Association Foundation and network pharmacists in the Milwaukee area to implement a new approach to improve patient health care and reduce health care costs for city employees and retirees with diabetes.

Milwaukee is one of 10 communities participating in this effort as part of the Diabetes Ten City Challenge, a national program sponsored by the American Pharmacists Association Foundation with support from GlaxoSmithKline. The Diabetes Ten City Challenge is modeled after the highly successful Asheville Project in North Carolina, a diabetes management program proven to improve overall health, reduce absenteeism, shorten hospital stays and reduce health care costs. As one of the participants, the City of Milwaukee receives support to help set up the program and analyze data.

"I am very excited about the potential value of this program – both in terms of the improved quality of life that it offers employees, retirees and dependents and the potential savings in overall health care costs for participants and the City," said Mayor Barrett. "In an era of soaring health care costs, we are seeking to address issues compounding our expenditures where we can. This program is an excellent step."

The program is targeted to a limited population of people with diabetes who will be engaged in an educational/health monitoring program to learn how to self-manage their condition. As an incentive for participation in the program, the City of Milwaukee will make arrangements to waive the co-pays currently required on purchases of diabetes medications, related supplies and specific diabetes related medications.

In addition to the immediate cost-savings, participants will benefit from the health care services that will be provided to them by the specially trained project pharmacists in the Milwaukee area.

The desired goal of this 12-month program is to demonstrate that individuals who participate in the program can learn how to successfully self-manage their own diabetes treatment and by doing so, improve and maintain their good health while reducing the need for expensive medical services.

About the Diabetes Ten City Challenge

The Diabetes Ten City Challenge, sponsored by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation with support from GlaxoSmithKline, is an innovative national program that improves people's lives and saves on health care costs by putting people in charge of their diabetes with the help of a pharmacist coach. APhA Foundation is a non-profit organization that serves thousands of patients, physicians and pharmacists each year by designing solutions to medication-use problems including those related to cardiovascular health, diabetes and other chronic diseases. GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.

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