Transcript RTW IN A BOX

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
© 2004
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company NY, NY
All Rights Reserved
L03125IB9(exp1204) MLIC-LD
 Rising health care costs are forcing businesses to demand ROI
from their benefits investments.
 Demands on people productivity are driving employers to consider
better targeted investment in human capital.
 A company’s disability experience offers a unique “window” to
identifying solutions for the health and welfare of a working
population.
 There is no other reference tool that provides
this type of overview in the industry.
 Contains often requested statistics and
information.
 Visualization of quantitative information.
 Provides solutions and resources for
employers and their consultants.
 The impact of work disability has, until recently,
been under-recognized by employers.
 Income is often not recognized as an important
asset.
 Absence from work carries the direct costs of
wage replacement but also a sizeable indirect
cost.
 Workers submitting disability claims consume
the lion’s share of employee health care dollars.
TOP FIVE MOST COMMON
CHRONIC DISABILITIES
 Lower Back Disorder
 Depression
 Coronary Heart Disease
 Arthritis
 Pulmonary Disease
 The demographics of a working population drives its disability experience
 Younger women: Pregnancy is most common cause of disability
 Younger men: Musculoskeletal injury is most common cause of disability
 Older workers: Cardiac disease and arthritis are most common cause of
disability (regardless of gender)
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC TRENDS
 Industries have distinct demographic patterns
 Call centers are young and female
 Heavy industry is older and male
 Department stores are female, 35 - 50 years old
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC TRENDS
 Industries have distinct patterns of disability
 Blue-collar environments have higher rates of injuries and higher rates of lifestylerelated disabilities
 White-collar environments have higher rates of behavioral health disabilities
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC TRENDS
 Industry size drives experience
 Return to work opportunities are often driven by economies-of-scale
THE STD* WINDOW
* Short-Term Disability
THE STD WINDOW:
Benchmarking
 One employer may have dozens of
medical carriers, but usually only
one disability carrier.
 Therefore, a disability carrier can
potentially provide benchmarks
unavailable in the group health
environment.
 Disability experience offers an
employer a detailed “fingerprint”
of its high volume utilizers.
THE STD WINDOW:
Investment Decisions
 Understanding where a working
population has greater-thanexpected disability incidence is
one way to focus benefits
investments:
 Excess psychiatric disability may
help justify investment in
expanded employee assistance
program (EAP) services.
 High rates of myocardial infarction
may help support onsite
cholesterol screening.
 Greater rates of STD claims for
asthma may support investment in
an asthma disease management
program.
THE STD WINDOW:
Intervention
 A short-term disability carrier is
interfacing with individual
employees at a point in time
where health care behaviors are
ripest for influencing
 There are opportunities to
describe to STD claimants of key
employer-sponsored programs
that may be of benefit.
 There are also opportunities to
warm transfer (telephonic) STD
claimants to appropriate
programs.
A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
EIGHT PREDICTIONS
Work, Health and Human Capital
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
ARTHRITIS
The aging workforce could drive 2X the prevalence
of arthritis in the workforce in the next 15 years.

Employers will need to reengineer job tasks, job
sites and job tools with a new ergonomic focus on
arthritis.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
CANCER
The aging workforce could drive 2X the incidence of
cancer in the workforce in the next 10 years.

Employer-sponsored health plans will face new cost
challenges. Penalties for risky lifestyle choices (e.g.
smoking) may become economically unavoidable.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
HEART DISEASE
The aging workforce could drive 3X the prevalence of
heart disease in the workforce in the next 10 years.

Greater societal intolerance of sedentary lifestyles,
obesity and smoking could challenge how employers
make hiring and promotion decisions.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
BLUE-COLLAR
As productivity demands continue to surge, and
complexity of work on the rise, look for a significant
increase in the prevalence of stress, anxiety and
depression in blue-collar workers in the next five years.

The Behavioral Health industry will push for further
de-stigmatization of mental health care, especially
in working men.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
With antibiotic-resistant strains on the rise and greater
international migration, look for new epidemics of
infectious diseases to challenge the American workforce
over the next ten years.

The health care industry, and industries with large
foreign-born populations will face greater
immunization requirements for their workforce.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
CONSUMERISM
 As individuals are increasingly responsible for managing -- and paying
for -- their health care, there may be greater discrepancies between
haves and have-nots. Higher socioeconomic status (SES) groups will
see a decrease in disability incidence; lower SES groups will
experience greater incidence.

Industries with large populations of low-wage workers will
face rising disability and health care costs. Health care
coverage for these workers may be in jeopardy.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
OUTCOMES
 In the next five years, employers will hold medical carriers
accountable to deliver on absence and return to work as part
of the value they bring to employers.

There will be blurring of the roles traditionally assumed by
medical carriers and disability carriers. A greater premium
on absence reduction and productivity will force many
medical carriers to reinvent themselves.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM
OBESITY
 As the obesity epidemic comes increasingly under public scrutiny,
Americans will become much more aware of the inherent risks and
hazards, and change their behaviors. This could significantly curb the
upward trend.

Americans will look to lifestyles in other countries (e.g.,
France, Japan, Sweden) and become more creative in
finding less conventional solutions.
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A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF
A MILLION AMERICAN WORKERS SM