A single high-cost employee in the workforce can cost a business more than $100,000 each year.
Employers already understand that a handful of employees can significantly drive up experiences, but a new study by Healthentic documents just how expensive they can be. The Seattle company provides health analytics for businesses.
"The fact that employers can save more than $110,000 by preventing just one high-cost member is pretty eye-opening and shows why it's so important for organizations to understand their population's health and how it impacts their bottom line," Healthentic COO Sean Gallivan said.
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Employers paid $113,379 in medical and pharmacy expenses for each high-cost member (defined as $50,000 or more annually), compared to $2,751 for other employees. The percentage of total costs attributed to high-cost patients ranged from a low of 8 percent to a high of 41 percent, with a median of 26 percent.
Three conditions — cancer, chronic kidney failure and complicated births — are the biggest contributors to the high-cost category. Therefore, Healthentic recommends that businesses:
- Promote evidence-based cancer screening.
- Effectively manage diabetes and hypertension.
- Make case management available for high-risk pregnancies and complicated births.
Researchers looked at 28 different organizations with at least 1,000 insured members.
The complete analysis is available online.
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
