CHLPI Launches Federal Report on Type 2 Diabetes Prevention, Management, and Policy Reform

The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) of Harvard Law School released the 2015 Providing Access to Healthy Solutions (PATHS) Federal Report, Beating Type 2 Diabetes: Recommendations for Federal Policy Reform, during an event today on Capitol Hill. The report, developed with the support and guidance of people living with and at-risk-for diabetes, health and social service professionals, food providers and producers, government officials and other stakeholders, offers specific recommendations to decrease the incidence of type 2 diabetes and to promote effective management of the disease in those who have already been diagnosed.

The Report release also includes the kick-off of a series of federal policy roundtables, with today’s roundtable, Beating Type 2 Diabetes: A Policy Roundtable on Increasing Access to the Diabetes Prevention Program and Diabetes Self-Management Education, focused on the need for stronger national laws and policies to support cost-effective diabetes prevention and self-management programs. The roundtables will gather thought leaders from across disciplines, including legislators, federal and state agency staff, health payers and providers, and diabetes advocates, to move the diabetes policy agenda forward as outlined in the Report.

“As diabetes is the 7^th leading cause of death in the United States and causes more deaths per year than breast cancer and AIDS combined, CHLPI’s Report and today’s roundtable stress the significance of preventive measures to avoid type 2 diabetes and sheds light on policy reform to ensure that those living with the disease are provided with quality treatment,” says Robert Greenwald, JD, Director of CHLPI and Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Greenwald adds, “Without federal action, one in three Americans will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes by 2050. The staggering total cost of the disease to the US is up to $245 billion dollars a year and continuing to climb.”

Read the executive summary.

Read the full report.

Read the full press release.