Diabetes Cost Calculator for Employers

NBCH offers access to two Web-based calculators to help employers and health plans with managing diabetes for their covered populations.

Use these two tools to help make the "business case" for the steps you need to take for improving your diabetes benefit plan and care system performance,

1) Quantifying the Impact of Value Based Benefit Design: Diabetes Outcomes AnalyzerTM

Through a partnership with Pfizer, Inc., the National Business Coalition on Health is able to bring to you, the Diabetes Outcomes AnalyzerTM, a tool for assessing the impact of implementing value based benefit design for diabetic-related pharmaceuticals. To access to tool, you must visit this website:

https://diabetesoutcomesanalyzer.com/welcome.htm

This website was designed to give you some background on the Diabetes Outcomes Analyzer™, and to allow you to order a free copy of the Diabetes Outcomes Analyzer™ CD-ROM. The Diabetes Outcomes Analyzer™ was created to help employers predict the potential economic impact of changing their benefit design relative to employee cost sharing for diabetes drugs. The model displays results to help decision makers assess the impact of benefit design change on employee medication adherence, as well as on direct and indirect health-related costs. Using employer specific data or national benchmarks of salary, benefits, and cost sharing, the scenario building tool allows end-users to compare the economic impact of various benefit designs for employees with diabetes. The Diabetes Outcomes Analyzer™ is an employer's benefit design scenario building tool.

2) Estimating the Return on Investment possible from Improved Diabetes Care: Diabetes Cost Calculator for Employers

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has created an evidence-based tool that employers can use to estimate how much diabetes costs them and the potential savings that would result from better management of diabetes. The calculator was developed at the request of members of the Mid-Atlantic Business Group on Health and will be made available to employers in partnership with the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH).

Based on an employer's industry, location and firm size, the calculator estimates:

  • Number of people with diabetes
  • Annual diabetes-related medical costs
  • Annual diabetes-related productivity costs
  • Potential savings associated with better management of diabetes

Cost savings estimates are based on evidence that better management of diabetes (e.g., improved blood glucose control) is linked to lower health care costs. The calculator draws on the best available evidence from peer-reviewed medical journals and trusted data sources such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the National Health Interview Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

The calculator is:

  • Evidence-based. It combines findings from literature, analysis by The Lewin Group and expert opinion.
  • Easy-to-use. It requires minimal information from the user.
  • Individualized. For most user inputs, the calculator provides default data based on state, industry and firm size.
  • Adaptable. Users can choose to model projected savings based on several interventional scenarios.
  • Scalable. Users can adjust potential savings based on the percent of covered lives likely to receive an intervention or achieve a target.
  • Transparent. Assumptions and sources are stated.

To try out the calculator for your own organization, click here for instructions and access to the required downloadable files.

For more information about the calculator, please contact Sarah Stout at sarah.stout@lewin.com.