As rates rise, Brown introduces new diabetes bill

WASHINGTON — As diagnosed diabetes cases continue to rise in the Lima region and throughout the nation, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced new legislation Thursday in hopes to curtail the alarming trend. Brown, along with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced the bill, which would increase diabetes screening, establish an advisory group to make recommendations about employee wellness programs, improve the collection of diabetes mortality data and create a national diabetes report card.In a conference call on Thursday, Brown outlined the new bill and spoke briefly about newly released figures that highlight the need for better diabetes legislation.Brown said in the last seven years, diagnosed cases of diabetes have increased 14 percent in Ohio. One out of 14 people in Ohio suffers from diabetes and the vast majority of those are elderly, Brown said."Diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death in Ohio and over six million Americans don’t even know they have it," he said.Brown’s office also issued a release Thursday, which documented diabetes rates in every county in Ohio. According to the release, counties in the "Lima Region" – which includes Allen, Auglaize, Hancock, Hardin, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam and Van Wert – had more than an 18 percent increase in diabetes rates in 2006. Mahoning County in eastern Ohio recorded the highest spike with a 58.6 percent increase in diabetes since 2000.Among the initiatives in Brown’s bill is a Diabetes Screening Collaboration and Outreach Program which would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate diabetes screening and create a screening outreach program.Brown also outlined his plan for an advisory group that would aid in employee wellness and the introduction of a National Diabetes Report Card. Brown said the report card would be updated every two years and would report on diabetic practices, risk factors and outcomes nationwide.A Vital Statistics Collection also would be authorized under Brown’s bill which would aid in diabetes mortality rate reporting."There’s a great deal of underreporting of diabetes as a cause of death and it’s often not listed in a death certificate," Brown said.Brown said that according to the CDC, only 35 to 40 percent of those who die from diabetes had it listed on their death certificate and just 10 to 15 percent had it listed as the underlying cause of death.Because medical students are required to have less than four hours of diabetes education, Brown said his bill would also introduce an Institute of Medicine study that would determine the amount of diabetes education a student needs before they become a board-certified physician.You can comment on this story at www.limaohio.com.