|
|
| Alcohol Treatment More Valuable Than Wireless Email Devices |
|
|
|
|
New Web Tool Calculates Benefit of Screening and Treating Employees with Alcohol Problems
Employers can realize a 215 percent return by investing in screening and treatment of employees with alcohol problems, according to Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems, creators of the Alcohol Treatment Return on Investment Calculator. This return on investment ratio (ROI) is comparable to the returns achieved through employer investments in heart disease management (278 percent) and exceeds returns on BlackBerry® wireless e-mail devices (162 percent), according the latest ROI research on disease management and BlackBerry, respectively.
Alcohol problems contribute more than $35 billion to the cost of health care coverage provided by American employers. Investing in efforts to identify and treat alcohol problems can significantly reduce this cost. The Ensuring Solutions calculator shows that encouraging health plans to screen and treat employees with alcohol problems can yield, on average, more than $2 in health care savings for every dollar invested by a company.
"If alcohol screening and treatment were as pervasive in today's workplace as BlackBerrys, companies would see increased productivity, a stronger workforce, and real savings in health care expenses," said Eric Goplerud, PhD, executive director of Ensuring Solutions. "Employers and health plans need to do a better job screening and treating employees who suffer from alcohol-related problems because it saves money and it's the right thing to do."
Employees with alcohol problems are likely to miss more days of work, have lower productivity and have higher medical costs than employees without alcohol problems. More than 11 percent of full-time workers (between the ages of 18 and 49) have an alcohol problem in a given year. In addition, more than 50 percent of adults have a close family member with an alcohol problem. Most working family members of alcoholics report that their own ability to function at work is diminished by their family member's drinking.
"Making the business case for supporting better quality health care is absolutely critical," said Greg Pawlson, MD, executive vice president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance, which measures the quality of managed care plans. "To be able to show that there is a positive return on your investment for treating alcoholism is an enormous step forward - it will help get the financial, medical, and patient advocacy types all together on the same page. We're extremely pleased to see the Ensuring Solutions calculator launched on the Web."
The Alcohol Treatment Return on Investment Calculator is available online at www.alcoholcostcalculator.org/roi/.
Ensuring Solutions now offers a suite of tools that employers can use to estimate the cost of alcohol problems and the potential benefit to addressing those problems. In addition to the ROI Calculator, Ensuring Solutions also provides the Alcohol Cost Calculator for Business and the Alcohol Cost Calculator for Kids (both available at www.alcoholcostcalculator.org).
|
|
|
|
|
| No Feedback Yet. |
| Login using the form on the top of the page to post feedback if you have registered with TxDirector. If you have not yet registered, click here. Registration is free. |
|
Related Links
|
|
|
|
| About These Links: The links above are dynamically generated. Some links may be more relevant than others. |
|
 |
|
|
 |
© 2005 TxDirector.com - Maintained by Lanstat Incorporated - Design by Cumuli Design
Page Load Time: 0.114 secs
|
|
Disclaimer: TxDirector.com cannot accept any responsibility for any injury or damage that you may cause to yourself, others, or property when following any advice given on this site. TxDirector.com has no control of how you may use information you get from this site and does not attest to the validity of any information found within. Much of this information comes from third parties (newsletter readers and other contributors). Use advice found in our newsletters and on our site with common sense and at your own risk. If you see something in our newsletters or on our site that you disagree with, please let us know. Our goal is print only valuable information and advice. If you find any information on TxDirector.com or in our newsletters that is either erroneous and/or potentially harmful to others, please Contact Us, immediately.
|
|
|
