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What Can You Do?

Use this calculator. See for yourself the impact on your own business…

Armed with information from The Alcohol Cost Calculator for Business, you can strengthen your company’s programs. You can implement low-cost, high-gain practices to improve health outcomes and constrain costs.

Cover Substance Use Problems– and control health care costs as a result.

By providing treatment for employees, businesses can improve health and increase productivity while cutting down on costs of health care and personnel.

Workers and their families who have untreated substance use problems cost their companies because they are likely to miss more days of work and require more emergency hospital care and longer hospital stays. Health care costs for employees who have substance use problems are twice as high as for those who do not. In this period of rapidly escalating benefit costs, when businesses are paying more attention to health promotion and disease management, improvement of substance use treatment is an important part of the cost-saving equation.

Solutions to Substance Use Problems

  • Build greater awareness of how to deter harmful alcohol problems, including through the establishment of clear company policies
  • Increase expectation of value from company health benefits to improve the provision of alcohol treatment
  • Establish the basic tools for employee assistance

Employers Addressing Substance Use Problems Save By:

Increasing Awareness of Substance Use Issues

Along with strengthening health benefits and employee assistance programs, businesses can help employees at all levels of the company to become more aware of the consequences of and solutions to substance abuse issues.

Establish and Disseminate Treatment-Friendly Policies. Employees should know that they work in a place with treatment-oriented workplace policies. Company policies about alcohol and drug use, employee assistance services and health benefits should be highlighted in new employee orientation, company newsletters, personnel handbooks and similar corporate communications.

The Department of Labor and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention have very helpful guidance in establishing treatment-oriented workplace policies.

Promoting Health and Wellness. Many companies make substance abuse awareness part of their overall health education program.

Detecting and Treating Substance Problems Early. Through workplace screening and short sessions of counseling, called brief interventions, employees can become more aware of their own alcohol and drug habits and identify problems that can be addressed before they become more intractable.

Other Solutions

Promoting Health and Wellness Among Their Employees

Over the last decade, wellness, fitness and preventive health care have become important parts of many companies' human resource programs. Wellness programs that include information about hazardous alcohol use, along with diet and weight management, fitness and high blood pressure control are quite effective. One program developed by Max Heirich at the University of Michigan, the Wellness Outreach at Work, provides comprehensive health risk-reduction services to all employees at a workplace, using health screening, follow-up and worksite health promotion programs. The program has been used in more than 100 worksites and has reached more than 75,000 employees in organizations ranging in size from 5 to 6,000 blue- and white-collar employees.

Company Internet sites are tremendous resources for educating employees and their families about alcohol and other health problems. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, a government health agency, has created a Web-based educational resource that is free, effective, and can be incorporated into a company's employee Website. Ensuring Solutions, a research project at the Center for Integrated Behavioral Health Policy, has included this government resource in its Website at: http://www.ensuringsolutions.atgetfit.net.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2005, can be a tool to educating employees about moderate use of alcohol. According to the guidelines:

If adults choose to drink, they should have no more that 1-2 drinks a day. Moderation is defined as the consumption of up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men. Twelve fluid ounces of regular beer, five fluid ounces of wine, or 1.5 fluid ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits count as one drink for purposes of explaining moderation. This definition of moderation is not intended as an average over several days but rather as the amount consumed on any single day.

The guidelines further specify who ought not drink:

Alcoholic beverages should not be consumed by some individuals, including those who cannot restrict their alcohol intake, women of childbearing age who may become pregnant, pregnant and lactating women, children and adolescents, individuals taking medications that can interact with alcohol, and those with specific medical conditions. Individuals engaging in activities that require attention, skill, or coordination, such as driving or operating machinery, should avoid alcoholic beverages.

Companies have worked effectively with interested workers and organized labor to set up health promotion programs that include modules on alcohol problems.  Xerox workers who participated in a wellness program and limited their alcohol consumption enabled the company to reduce its costs for both healthcare and health insurance over four years, achieving a five to one return on investment.1 Ensuring Solutions has worked with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and its district labor-management committees to increase awareness of the impact of harmful and hazardous alcohol use among USPS employees and their families.

Find out how General Motors and the United Auto Workers reduced alcohol problems in their workplace through a health promotion program.

Use these tools and resources to educate workers about substance use disorders

Increasing Awareness

Other Solutions

1. S. Musich, D. Napier and D. W. Edington, “The Association of Health Risks with Worker’s Compensations Costs,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 43, 6, 534-541.

Disseminating Treatment-Friendly Workplace Policies

Every business should have clear policies on alcohol and drug problems. All employees should know their company's policies and understand their rights and responsibilities. The policies can be distributed at orientation sessions for new employees and in posters and publications.

The U.S. Department of Labor provides many helpful resources to help businesses develop alcohol and drug policies tailored to their industry and to individual company needs.
Most companies with safety-sensitive transportation employees in the aviation, motor carrier, railroad and mass transportation sectors must have policies and programs regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Ensuring Solutions has identified the likely occurrence of serious substance use disorders in 14 major occupational groups. Construction workers have the substance use disorders — over 15 percent, followed by workers in the entertainment, sports, and media workers (12 percent) and workers in the service industry (12 percent).  Professional workers, and workers in the education field were approximately half as likely to have a substance use disorder.

The federal government encourages an approach to company policies established through the Drug-Free Workplace programs. Companies doing business with the federal government and with many state governments are required by law to have these programs. In 11 states, companies with comprehensive Drug-Free Workplace programs get a bonus: 5-10 percent reductions in their workers' compensation premiums. The Department of Labor has a complete listing of Drug-Free Workplace laws, including those on workers' compensation premium reductions.

Did you know: Random drug testing during employment, followed by immediate firing of an offending employee, may be more costly for the employer than assuring access to treatment because replacing an employee costs from 25 percent to almost 200 percent of his or her annual compensation – not to mention the loss of institutional knowledge, service continuity, and coworker productivity and morale that can accompany employee turnover.

There are many reasons employees do not come forward to get treatment. Many fear that seeking substance treatment through their company Employee Assistance Program or health plan will get back to their employer and lead to termination or retaliation. Sometimes, their fears are well grounded. When employees know that their employer will assist them in getting help and will not punish them for getting treatment, they are more likely to come forward.

Increasing Awareness

Other Solutions

Detecting and Dealing With Substance Use Problems Early

Substance use disorders occur along a continuum. Many people don't seek treatment on their own until they have serious problems and are in acute need of medical care. But finding and treating substance use disorders before they get out of hand are much more effective and less costly to businesses and to workers.

Screening

An effective start is asking about alcohol and drug use. Screening makes early intervention possible. Each year, companies and government agencies sponsor a National Alcohol Screening Day. In 2009, it was on April 9th. Thousands of physicians, and hundreds of companies large and small offer educational materials and confidential screening for alcohol problems.

More than 20 countries, including the U.S., use a simple 10-question test, the Alcohol Use Disorders Inventory Test (AUDIT), to identify problem drinkers. The online AUDIT provides immediate feedback to the user, comparing his use against national guidelines and suggesting what can be done. You can use a confidential, online or a printable AUDIT. Other brief questionnaires are also widely used to identify problem drinking: CAGE, MAST, TWEAK, CRAFFT or the NIAAA Screen for Heavy Drinking. Screening can be as simple as asking the first three questions on the AUDIT on company-sponsored health risk appraisals:

  • How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
  • How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking?
  • How often in the last month do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?

For males, more than 14 drinks per week, or one or more times of heavy drinking, suggests possible hazardous drinking; for females, more than seven drinks in a week, or one occasion drinking four or more drinks, suggests possible hazardous use. Questions about alcohol use can be part of Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs) or standard intake forms for corporate wellness programs that ask employees about a broad range of health concerns such as glaucoma and hypertension. Your Employee Assistance Program or employee health unit can use the AUDIT or similar alcohol questions when employees seek help for stress, depression, marital difficulties and other problems that can be alcohol-related.

The World Health Association suggests screening for a variety of substance abuse issues using the ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test). The ASSIST is a tool that measures domains such as lifetime use, past 3-month use, and related substance abuse problems. Specific substances covered by the ASSIST include: tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine type stimulants, sedatives, hallucinogens, inhalants, opioids, and other drugs.

The CAGE has also been adapted to include questions that assess general substance use. Like the original version of this measure, the CAGE-AID has only four questions, and has been shown to indentify people with substance use problems. A link to both the original CAGE and the CAGE-AID can be found here.

An additional brief tool that measures drug abuse, dependence, and related problems is the DAST (Drug Abuse Screening Test). Items included in the DAST refer to “drug use” in general terms, and include both illicit and prescription drugs, but specifically exclude alcohol use.

Use these tools for screening

A free, confidential online alcohol screening is available at www.alcoholscreening.org.

Alcohol Screening: A Quick First Step to Reduce Problem Drinking tells how some employers have set up screenings.

Brief Treatment

People with substance use disorders typically fall into one of two categories:

Problem users may benefit from brief interventions. These brief counseling sessions can be conducted in five or fewer encounters lasting less than 20 minutes. Often, the best people to provide this treatment are staff of the company's Employee Assistance Program or doctors. Many research studies have demonstrated that problem users respond well to brief treatment, reducing their use and changing risky behaviors such as driving under the influence. For people who are dependent on substances, brief interventions can be very helpful in motivating them to get started with treatment and stick with it. Company awareness campaigns help problem users to understand that recovery can be within their reach. Each September, for example, the federal government makes available to businesses posters, brochures, fact sheets and videos so that companies can participate in National Addiction and Alcohol Recovery Month.

How Employers Can Promote Screening

Employers can take the following steps to ensure screening of employees who are at risk for substance abuse:

  • Provide comprehensive health benefits that cover substance use screening, treatment, and aftercare.
    • Comprehensive coverage ensures that employees have access to the individualized care they need at every stage.
    • One study found that providing comprehensive substance use benefits costs just $.06 more per member per year than imposing a $10,000 limit on those benefits
  • Evaluate current health plans to determine whether they require their providers to screen for drug and alcohol problems. If an existing plan doesn’t, the employer may be paying more for healthcare than necessary.
  • Establish standards and outcome measures for health plans to meet when they require routine screening for substance use problems in physicians’ offices, emergency rooms, clinics and behavioral health centers. For instance, a company might negotiate with its plan to include within the terms of a new contract improvements in the identification rate of alcohol problems.

Find out more about brief interventions.

Other Resources

Increasing Awareness

Other Solutions

Improving Substance Treatment Health Insurance Benefits

The Substance Use Disorder Cost Calculator for Business demonstrates that companies pay a hefty cost for untreated substance use disorders. But many companies offer health benefits to their employees that make getting effective treatment for substance use disorders difficult. The costs of untreated substance use disorder can easily exceed the cost of treating employees' substance use disorders.

Employers with successful track records in preventing and treating substance use work proactively to:
Offer equitable coverage: In 2008, Congress passed the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. This act requires that employers who offer mental health and substance abuse benefits do so at a level commensurate with other medical and surgical benefits. Plan elements such as copayments, deductibles and treatment limitations for substance abuse and mental health services can be no more restrictive than the terms attached to general medical services. Most plans with 50 or more members will be required to meet these guidelines by January 1, 2010.

Recent evidence suggests that upgrading health insurance coverage to include equitable coverage for addiction to alcohol and other drugs in a managed care plan will increase premiums at most companies by 0.2 percent, as little as $5.00 per member per year.

One simple way employers can encourage health plans to provide access to drug and alcohol screening for employees is by remembering to ask a few key questions about a plan’s coverage and standards regarding substance use services:

  • Does the health plan cover confidential substance use screening for all employees and brief intervention services for individuals who would benefit from them?
  • Does the plan encourage physicians and other clinicians to screen for, diagnose and treat substance use problems in primary care settings, hospital emergency rooms and trauma centers?
  • Does the plan work with other health plans, treatment providers and community groups to promote common approaches to screening and treatment for drug and alcohol problems?

Other Solutions

Expect value: monitor the effectiveness of treatment: Expect more from your health plan and employee assistance program. Make sure that you are getting good value for your investment.

Offer state-of-the-art treatment: You can monitor the standards of the care that employees and family members with substance problems receive to be sure that treatment practices are effective and up to date. Nationally established standards can guide your evaluation.

Offering Equitable Coverage

Do you offer health insurance coverage for substance treatment that is comparable to that for other medical conditions and illnesses? Are the copays and deductibles the same as for other illnesses?

People needing treatment for substance problems put it off or drop out quickly if they feel they cannot afford treatment. A company that has a health insurance benefit that inhibits substance treatment may be penny wise and pound foolish. For example, a study by the RAND think tank found that one-third of patients with a copay of $25 or more for outpatient alcohol treatment did not follow up for outpatient treatment. Dropping copays to $10 increased follow-up more than 30 percent, and dropping copay completely increased outpatient use by more than 50 percent. The cost of lowering barriers can be as low as $5.00 per employee per year.

Where state insurance laws require that substance treatment coverage be the same as that for other illnesses, a practice known as parity, people are much more likely to get services they need. In 2008, Congress extended the mandate for parity by passing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act which requires that employers who offer mental health and substance abuse benefits do so at a level commensurate with other medical and surgical benefits. Plan elements such as copayments, deductibles and treatment limitations for substance abuse and mental health services can be no more restrictive than the terms attached to general medical services. Most plans with 50 or more members will be required to meet these guidelines by January 1, 2010.

For more information about parity in health plans, see Workplace Solutions: Treating Alcohol Problems Through Employment-Based Health Insurance.

Improve Alcohol Treatment Health Insurance

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Expecting Value: Monitoring Health Plans'
Provision of Substance Use Treatment

Would you purchase a piece of equipment for your business if you knew that it routinely injured your employees and that safer equipment was readily available at a comparable cost? No? Well, why would you buy health insurance that hurts employees with substance use disorders by failing to adequately address this health crisis, one of the nation's most pervasive (and expensive) health problems?

A quick check of the numbers will show whether your health insurance benefit is working. Most health plans use a standard report card, the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set.  There are three required alcohol and drug treatment measures: rates of identifying substance use problems; rates of starting treatment; and rates of engaging patients in continuing care. Your health plans should be at least average, and many employers are setting stretch goals for their health plans like the following:

Identification of alcohol and other drug problems at least 3 percent of all covered beneficiaries
Initiation into treatment at least 66 percent of all patients identified
Engagement in treatment at least 50 percent of all patients who start alcohol treatment

If your health insurance plan is below average, your health plan design or the way it is being managed needs improvement.

Work with Other Businesses

Companies can work with others — national and regional business coalitions on health — to combine their purchasing muscle to push health quality. Business groups are putting improved quality of care for alcohol problems on their health quality agendas. The National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), one of the leading organizations of businesses pushing health care quality, conducts an annual assessment of health plan quality through its eValue8 RFI. The business coalitions and large employers such as, American Express, Marriott International, TIAA CREF, Boeing, Target and Pitney-Bowes that participate in the eValue8 RFI set out very clear expectations of alcohol screening and treatment quality3 that they expect their health plans to meet. These businesses are asking:

  • Do health plans cover confidential alcohol screening for all employees and brief intervention services for individuals who are not yet dependent on alcohol?
  • Do they encourage health care providers such as primary care physicians, hospital emergency departments and trauma centers to screen, diagnose and treat alcohol problems?
  • Do they provide guidance about alcohol problems and treatment to health practitioners who provide services in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, primary care, specialty care, and emergency care?
  • Do they monitor how effectively health providers assist people with substance abuse problems?
  • Do health plans work with other health plans, treatment providers and community groups to promote common approaches to screening and treatment for alcohol problems?

The Mid-Atlantic Business Group on Health, for example has used the results from the eValue8 survey to set as its first priority quality improvement among its health plans. The group hopes to improve alcohol screening and treatment by the four largest health plans in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.
The Center for Integrated Behavioral Health Policy offers guidance for improving alcohol treatment benefits in your company's health plan(s).

Improve Alcohol Treatment Health Insurance

Other Solutions

Offering State-of-the-Art Treatment

Patients often receive out-of-date treatment when they seek medical help for substance problems. While scientists have learned a great deal about addictions in the last two decades, the actual care for too many people with alcohol and other drug problems lags behind. A 2003 study assessed the quality of treatment for the nation's 30 leading causes of death, illness, hospitalization and doctors' visits. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the quality of alcohol treatment ranked dead last. Researchers found that just 10 percent of Americans with alcohol problems receive effective treatment that matches quality benchmarks recommended by alcohol treatment researchers and authoritative clinical practice standards.

What's more, up-to-date physicians now know more about what happens when people with serious substance problems suffer from other illnesses, such as depression, at the same time that they struggle with substance problems, but treatment for such co-occurring illnesses often goes unaddressed.

The Active Ingredients of Treatment

Ensuring Solutions has identified the 13 components of effective treatment for substance use disorders. They are:

  • Early detection, including screening and brief interventions (for nondependent problem users)
  • Comprehensive assessment and individualized treatment plan
  • Care management
  • Individually delivered, proven professional interventions
  • Contracting with patients
  • Social skills training
  • Medications
  • Specialized services for medical, psychiatric, employment or family problems
  • Continuing care
  • Strong bond with therapist or counselor
  • Longer duration (for substance dependent persons)
  • Participation in support groups
  • Strong patient motivation

National Standards

In 2004, the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set, a widely used, standardized performance measurement tool developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, began asking health plans to measure how many people with alcohol and other drug problems they identify among their enrolled populations, as well as how quickly they initiate and engage them in treatment. Businesses are able to benchmark their health plans with other health plans and to use this information to negotiate quality improvements. The Center for Integrated Behavioral Health Policy recommends employers consider holding their health plans to at least these NCQA standards:

Identification of alcohol and another drug problems at least 3 percent of all covered beneficiaries
Initiation into treatment at least 66 percent of all patients identified
Engagement in treatment at least 50 percent of all patients who start treatment

Using Performance Measurement to Improve the Quality of Addiction Treatment describes the impact of performance measurement on health treatment.

Other Resources

Chronic Disease Comparison Chart

Improve Health Insurance Benefits for Substance Use Problems

Other Solutions

Assisting Employees Facing Substance Use Disorders

Workers with substance use disorders don't always seek help on their own. That's why it's important to assist workers in a variety of cost-effective ways.

Initiate an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that includes confidential substance abuse screening, education, treatment referral, and recovery support. Such programs provide the tools that enable employees to get referrals and interact with people who understand their work situation. Generally, EAPs serve 3-5 percent of employees each year. Many of the requests of the EAP are substance-related.

  • ✓ Develop a policy for dealing with substance abuse in the workplace: at a minimum, provide training for supervisors in recognizing and dealing with drug or alcohol problems and support treatment for and recovery from substance use disorders.
  • ✓ Offer employees health insurance that provides comprehensive benefits for substance abuse treatment, including a broad range of service options, such as therapy, medications, and recovery support.
  • ✓ Be sure that health plans require their physicians to screen patients confidentially for substance use problems.
  • ✓ Support drug-free workplace policies.

Other Solutions

Promoting Use of an Employee Assistance Program

Do you have and maintain an effective Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help employees with personal and work problems?

EAPs are designed to help identify and resolve productivity problems affecting employees who are impaired by personal concerns. EAPs come in many different forms, from telephone-based to on-site programs. Face-to-face programs provide more comprehensive services for employees with substance use disorders, including confidential screening, treatment referrals and follow-up care. Assuring that workers with substance use disorders receive treatment can help employers save money. Intervening early can prevent the need for more intensive treatment and hospitalizations down the road.

Many companies provide EAPs to come to the aid of employees with alcohol, drug, family or emotional problems that negatively affect their job performance. The estimated 20,000 EAPs in the U.S. reach more than 48 million people. Workers who use EAPs report that after EAP treatment, they have fewer substance use and mental health problems, fewer health symptoms, better job attendance and greater job satisfaction.


Employee Assistance Program Achieves Positive Results3

For workers with substance problems, EAPs generally include:

  • worksite awareness programs
  • referrals for diagnosis, treatment and other assistance
  • training of supervisors and union representatives
  • confidential and timely assessment
  • links to community-based services
  • Web-based tools
  • follow-up and recovery support after initial treatment

The Federal Occupational Health agency, in a prospective cost-benefit estimate of Employee Assistance Programs, showed that for every $1 spent on the EAP, the expected savings for the first year would be $1.27, and those savings would rise to $7.21 by the fifth year. (Wrich, 1998).

Make an EAP Part of Your Benefits Package

Most EAP providers charge for their services on a per-person basis, and annual fees of $12 to $30 per employee are common. It also is possible to contract with an EAP provider for services used, usually at an hourly rate.

Find an EAP Provider

To locate a provider in your area, check local directories for EAPs and for substance use information and treatment centers. Good sources of information include chambers of commerce, trade associations and other employers, as well as local hospitals, health maintenance organizations and your insurance carrier. The Employee Assistance Professionals Association offers a Guide to Employee Assistance Programs and Services on its Web site: http://www.eapassn.org/public/providers/.

How to Hire an EAP

  1. Develop specifications and request proposals from several EAP vendors.
  2. Evaluate their qualifications.
  3. Include performance standards in your EAP contract so you can measure the effectiveness of your investment.

Additional help on selecting an EAP can be found here.

For More Information

The Division of Workplace Programs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration offers an EAP “tip sheet” at workplace.samhsa.gov/WPWorkit/ts8.html.

The Employee Assistance Professionals Association offers an online guide to EAP services at: eapassn.org/public/providers.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Working Partners program provides information about EAP issues at: http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/drugs/workingpartners/dfworkplace/ea.asp

Assist Employees With Substance Use Disorders

Other Solutions

Following Up Over the Long Term

Continued monitoring and EAP supports for employees who have been treated for substance use disorders can preserve the investment that an employer has made in their treatment. Studies indicate that routine EAP or health plan follow-up for a year helps prevent relapse. Personal follow-up, including phone calls and handwritten notes for EAP providers or health plan care managers produces even better results.

Effective EAP follow-up can prevent employees who have been treated for substance use disorders from falling into old, destructive patterns of behavior by identifying "trigger mechanisms" — experiences that prompt cravings to drink or use drugs — and referring clients to additional counseling services as needed.

Assist Employees With Substance Use Disorders

Other Solutions

Addressing Co-Occurring Mental and Substance Use Disorders

Failure to deliver effective care to people with mental health and drug or alcohol problems results in significant costs to the nation’s economy, including considerable costs to employers that result from employee absenteeism, poor job performance, disability and on-the-job accidents. But employers can take action to mitigate these problems.

When a person simultaneously has a mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety disorder, and a substance use disorder (misuse of or dependence on alcohol or other drugs, including prescription drugs), these conditions are said to be co-occurring.

Nearly 17.5 million adults had a serious mental illness in 2004; about 4 million or 23% of those also were dependent on or misused alcohol or illicit drugs. Among people with co-occurring disorders, only 12 percent received both mental health and substance use treatment.

How Co-Occurring Disorders Cost Employers

Untreated mental and substance use disorders contribute to:

Increased healthcare costs

  • One study found that people with co-occurring substance use disorders and depression incurred healthcare costs that were about $5,300 higher than those without the disorders.
  • Co-occurring disorders can complicate existing health conditions and increase the risk for developing other serious medical problems such as cardiac and pulmonary diseases.
  • People whose co-occurring disorders go untreated often access medical care at the acute stage and require high-cost services such as inpatient and emergency room care.

Decreased work productivity:

  • Depression, the most common mental disorder, costs employers $44 billion a year in lost productivity (including worker absenteeism and reduced job performance).
  • Alcohol problems alone cost employers nearly $134 billion in lost productivity in 1998, mostly due to absenteeism and poor work performance.

Risk management concerns

  • Both mental and substance use disorders represent significant risk management issues, because they are associated with increased injuries on the job and increased disability claims.

Treating Co-Occurring Disorders Can Save Employers Money

Substance abuse and mental health treatment tailored to the needs of individuals with co-occurring disorders can save companies money by:

  • Improving employee health and lowering healthcare costs,
  • Reducing absenteeism,
  • Reducing risk,
  • Improving job performance, and
  • Reducing costs associated with short- and long-term disability and workers’ compensation

The first step in helping employees get treatment is screening for the disorders. Confidential screening can be conducted by qualified professionals

  • As part of a workplace wellness program,
  • Within an employee assistance program (EAP), or
  • In a physician’s office.

Employees who are determined to need it can then be referred to appropriate treatment. Care and support following treatment may be required to help employees recover from and manage the chronic nature of many co-occurring disorders.

To learn more about the extent of depression in the workplace and the return on investment that your company may get from investing in high-quality depression care, visit the Depression Calculator of the MacArthur Initiative on Depression in Primary Care.

Assist Employees With Substance Use Disorders

Other Solutions