The tab for diabetes hospitalizations in Pennsylvania keeps growing, with a new state report finding that the number of hospital admissions due primarily to the disease increased nearly 9 percent in the past five years to 23,725 in 2004.

Those hospitalizations generated more than $673 million in hospital charges last year alone, according to the study from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. That's a significant amount of money, council officials say, even though health plans typically pay hospitals a fraction of their charges.

Pittsburgh-area employers have worked for years to figure out ways to lower the health-care costs associated with employees with diabetes and to keep them out of the hospital and on the job.

Their latest initiative will get started in January, under a program being launched by the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health -- a coalition that includes human resources and benefits executives from 62 area companies -- that will provide "health coaches" to 4,200 diabetic employees at 10 companies in the region.

"This is certainly one issue where the employer community, in a broad sense, has certainly gotten educated about the cost consequences, as well as the health consequences, of their employees who have diabetes," said Marc P. Volavka, executive director of the cost containment council.

"So, there is some good news out there, but there is still a lot of work to be done, particularly in the western part of the state."

Although the rate of increase in diabetes hospitalizations has moderated in Pennsylvania to less than 1 percent during the last two years, Mr. Volavka stressed that Pennsylvania had a serious problem with diabetes. He noted that an estimated 8 percent of adults in the state are thought to have the disease, vs. 7 percent nationally, and that patients in several counties in Western Pennsylvania have especially high rates of end-stage kidney disease, a complication of diabetes.

In the new program from the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health, employees who volunteer to participate will have counseling sessions with pharmacists about using diabetic medications, said Christine Whipple, the coalition's executive director.

The health coaches also will check to make sure patients are getting the tests needed to monitor their condition and are following recommendations about diet and exercise.

The idea is that the pharmacists will help diabetic patients stay healthier, thereby saving employers money as emergency room visits and hospitalizations are prevented, said Ms. Whipple.

"It's hard to say how much will be invested [by the companies], because each employer will be different," she said. "The employer will be paying for the co-pays the person would normally spend for diabetic medications and supplies, and ... will be paying for the counseling sessions with the pharmacist."

The American Pharmacists Association Foundation, which has developed the program with employers in other markets, such as Asheville, N.C., is helping with the Pittsburgh effort.

Pharmacists who receive training to serve as coaches typically see anywhere from $300 to $600 in annual revenue per diabetic patient, said William Ellis, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based foundation. But employers save even more, he said.

"Health-care costs are reduced by $918 per patient per year from the employer's projected expenditure," Mr. Ellis said.