Advancing Policy to Make the DPP Accessible/Affordable for Colorado Adults

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Submission Date: December 2013

State/Territory Submitted on the Behalf of: Colorado

States/Territories Involved: Colorado

Domain Addressed:

Community-Clinical Linkages

Public Health Issue:

  • Planning and implementing sound health policy are essential public health services.
  • Health departments have “played a smaller role in policy development than they should,” according to a recent Institutes of Medicine report; policy development “requires cultivating skills
as well as developing and implementing strategies.” 1 

 

Program Action:

  • The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) invited the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors’ Policy State Technical Assistance Team (PSTAT) to provide training and skill development for addressing prediabetes-related policy issues.
  • In March 2012, CDPHE organized a group of stakeholders, many of whom continue to participate in an advisory group to create and advance an action plan. This group includes three Colorado health plans, the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Finance (Medicaid), three health systems, the Colorado Health Foundation, Denver-Metro YMCA, the Center for African American Health and the Governor’s Office on Policy and Research.
  • The stakeholder group identified the following priority issue through the PSTAT process: “To make the evidence-based National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) easily accessible to Colorado adults with pre-diabetes, balancing affordability and accountability among providers, payers and patients.”

Impact/Accomplishments:

  • The PSTAT process resulted in the development of a written action plan for implementation by the stakeholder/members of the Colorado Advisory Group. Goals include: 1) achieving health plan reimbursement for the NDPP, 2) increasing referrals to the NDPP, and 3) identifying and training appropriate community-based organizations to provide the NDPP.
  • A website was developed to provide updates on Colorado’sNDPP Advisory Group meetings and linksto NDPP implementationsites inColorado. These resources can be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/diabetespreventionprogram/home.
  • Nine organizations will be trained to offer the NDPP, including Clear Creek Public Health, San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center, Central and South East Colorado Area Health Education Centers, Kit Carson County Health and Human Services, Kaiser Permanente – Colorado, Denver Health, Center for African American Health and the American Diabetes Association. Denver-Metro YMCA also will offer the prevention program under their trademark of Y-DPP.

Program Areas:

Diabetes

State Contact Information:

CO
Marcelle Thurston, CDPHE
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
303-692-2519
Marcelle.thurston@state.co.us

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