In the world of absence management, anecdotal evidence isn’t always
enough to convince benefit managers that the approach offers a
meaningful return on investment. Today’s challenging business climate
requires hard numbers and proven outcomes. Combining the largest
private disability database with state-of-the-art reporting technology
enables a certain company to deliver claim incidence results and
comparative data both within a particular industry and across its
entire customer base. This powerful capability allows a team of
clinical and claim specialists to craft appropriate programs that
support the return-to-work (RTW) needs of employees.
The upshot: significantly lower disability benefit costs as well as
improved employee health and productivity. So it should come as no
surprise that the company results are running about 30% to 35% better
than industry averages.
“The real value is using the database to help employers understand how
their incidence and duration of STD and LTD claims compare with
others,” notes by senior vice president of return-to-work services of a
certain company. The process can be revealing. He recalls working with
a large paint company that was able to translate the cost of employee
absences into about 500,000 gallons of paint based on annual retail
sales. “When you talk about absence within the currency of the
company,” he says, “it captures their attention and allows for an
analysis that serves as a basis for comparison.”
Another corporate customer used the comparative reporting and analysis
tool to uncover different absence patterns across multiple worksites.
The key was addressing issues that contributed to employee absences in
the first place, including poor managerial practices and work
conditions as well as inconsistent use of technology to assist
employees in their work.
A well known company has set the gold standard for disability and
absence management programs, with an unmatched line-up of more than 100
physicians in 18 sub-specialties, 350 nurses and vocational
rehabilitation specialists, and 1,000 field-based nurses and case
managers in 85 locations at the company’s GENEX subsidiary. The roughly
$60 million by the company spent in 2002 on medical, clinical and
vocational resources is more than double the combined total expenses of
Unum, Provident and Paul Revere before the three companies merged. The
figure also is 30% more than the company’s eight closest competitors.
The company’s comprehensive array of absence-management tools can be
incrementally added and integrated into overall health plan management.
Complex or longer duration claims expected to last six months or longer
are assessed for their potential duration and routed to one of five
claims management panels with resources specializing in cancer,
cardiac, orthopedic, psychiatric and general medical conditions.
Studies show that shortening disability duration will help employers
lower their overall health care costs, about 55% of which are traced to
roughly 10% of disability claimants. For instance, a 28% decrease in
short-term disability duration during a three-year period lowered
medical costs by 40% on an inflation-adjusted basis. In the same
timeframe, medical costs for those who were not disabled rose 19%.
