American Diabetes Assoc. chair tackles disease’s workforce impact

More than 780,000 adults in Virginia have diabetes. The indirect cost from lost productivity due to the disease in 2017 in this state alone was a whopping $2.3 billion, according to the American Diabetes Association.

That’s why Rhodes Ritenour, national chairman of the ADA’s board and vice president for external and regulatory affairs with Bon Secours Health System in Richmond, wants to engage the commonwealth’s business community in a discussion about the disease’s impact on employees and employers. He will moderate a panel discussion about the financial impact of diabetes on employees and employers Thursday during the ADA’s 2024 Central Virginia State of Diabetes event at the Bon Secours Training Center in Richmond.

Ritenour, who is serving a one-year term as ADA’s 2024 board chairman, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 5. He spoke with Virginia Business about how employers can make a difference in reducing diabetes health care costs and improving quality of life for their workers.

VB: One of the other panelists at Thursday’s State of Diabetes event will be Dr. John Clore, a Bon Secours physician who is board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism.

Ritenour: He really is a pioneer in trying to help diabetics with their primary care providers. With the proliferation of the disease, we just don’t have enough specialists, enough endocrinologists to see all the patients. The idea is, if we can get the general practitioners focused on on the disease and how to help people, that’s really the way of the future. It’s hard enough to get in to see your primary care physician [and] even harder to see a specialist. And so Dr. Clore is really helping Bon Secours, and, for that matter, other [health] systems, to figure out a way to get the care that people need … at the front lines. We’ve got an all-star panel of people. … We’ve got a pharmacist, a clinician … [and] Gina Elbert, who’s … the head of HR at Dominion Energy. So, we’ve got a lot of different perspectives.

VB: Why is it important to focus on workforce issues for Virginia’s State of Diabetes event?

Ritenour: We have so many great companies in Virginia and so many generous ones. We’ve really gotten to the point with the cost of diabetes [and] with the number of people who have it [and] with the number of people who are affected by it that … a lot of companies are really focused on it. It not only costs those of us affected by diabetes time and money, it’s also to the point where it’s costing employers time and money. So the idea is to get an audience that’s very employer-heavy to talk about the state of things and then also how they can work more closely with their employees to make them healthier and perhaps even more productive at work

VB: What role can businesses play in helping their workers with diabetes?

Ritenour: One in four health care dollars right now [are] being spent on diabetes in the U.S. A lot of employers want to help their employees … because it’s the right thing to do. I see that at Bon Secours or Dominion Energy. All the great companies, you see them wanting to have a healthier patient population because it’s the right thing to do. But diabetes has put us in a corner now where it’s costing so much that we also have to do it to help our bottom lines. Capitalism is a tool that we can use to really help people be healthier.  [On human resources websites,] you see a lot about healthy lifestyle choices. A lot of people who are employed don’t necessarily have … access to the health care that they need, the nutrition they need and the knowledge they need. …  Employers can play an amazingly pivotal role in educating the employee about what they need to be healthier and to manage the chronic condition, but [employers can] also provide the tools. Maybe there’s a benefit where if you report your lab results, including your Hemoglobin A1C, which is a diabetes lab test, and you improve, maybe there’s financial or other incentives that an employer can provide to further motivate you to be healthy. Maybe there is a live counselor that’s available 24/7 to answer questions. Mental health is [also] a real big challenge in the diabetes community because of all you have to deal with, especially when you get to the point of having complications, and so having crisis and mental health counselors available through as an employee benefit is really important.

VB: You and your wife, Alana, have produced self-published children’s books involving a diabetic character. What are those about?

Ritenour: It’s about two 8-year-old kids who are best friends and live in Richmond. It’s us as 8-year-olds, and my character has Type 1 diabetes in the book. We had our second book came out in June, and our third book is going to come out next spring. … By then, the characters will be pretty much developed, and it’ll be more of just an adventure series after that. We try not to be diabetes-heavy or like a medical book. There’s a lot of one-off books about chronic conditions, but we really wanted ours to be a series where two children go on everyday activities that turn into adventures, and one of the characters just happens to be dealing with a chronic condition. So, the idea is we’ll get our third book out, and then we’ll try to really find a commercial publisher to pick it up after that.

The 2024 State of Diabetes will be held at the Bon Secours Training Center at 2401 W. Leigh St., Richmond from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The event is free.