Health Care Costs Measures

The cost of insurance premiums and employee medical claims is at an all time high and continues to rise. Business leaders are being called upon to make changes at the workplace in order to curb rising costs. Many are turning to workplace health programs to help employees adopt healthier lifestyles and lower their risk of developing costly chronic diseases.

• An investment in employee health may lower health care costs, insurance claims, or worker’s compensation costs
• A workplace health program has the potential to both keep healthy employees in a “low-risk” category by promoting health maintenance, and to target unhealthy employees in higher-risk categories, therefore lowering overall health insurance costs
• Potential evaluation measures for health care costs following an assessment of health care and pharmaceutical claims include:
  • Changes in the number and type of health insurance claims over time (e.g., hospitalizations, outpatient visits, or pharmacy claims)
  • Changes in health care utilization (e.g., use of preventive health services such as cancer screening)
  • Quality of care indicators (e.g., percent of employees with high blood pressure that is being controlled through medication)
  • Changes in direct medical costs due to illness or injury