Medical claims proportional to employee health risks
Comparing excess costs across multiple corporate populations. Wright D, Adams L, Beard MJ, Burton WN, Hirschland D, McDonald T, et al. J Occup Environ Med. 2004. 46: 937-945.
Aim
To determine the relationship between health risk status and medical claims costs across multiple organisations.
Looked at
165,770 employees from six corporations (manufacturing, insurance and financial services sectors), of whom 21,124 had taken a health risk appraisal (HRA).
How?
- Two years' worth of medical claims data were merged with HRA data.
- The health risk level of each individual was determined by the number of the following health risk factors they had: stress, perception of physical health, life satisfaction, job satisfaction, tobacco use, alcohol use, seat belt use, drug/medication use, physical activity level, illness absence days, blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, serious medical problems, and health-age index.
Results
- Costs of medical claims increased as the risk level increased from low (0-2 risk factors) to high (≥5 risk factors) across all corporations and types of business.
- Excess medical costs for medium-risk and high-risk employees ranged from 15.0% to 30.8%; excess costs related to raised risk level accounted for a large portion of the medical costs of each company.
What does this mean?
Economic benefit could be gained from the use of schemes to reduce the health risk level of employees.