Scant Drug Benefits Called Costly to Employers

Employers, which shift too much of the costs of the drugs on workers in their company, health, the plans up losing more, as if they store windings could, by absenteeism and lost productivity, according to a study by public health policy researchers. The three-year study, today to be released, regarded medical stories of some thousand workers with a diagnosis of rheumatoid Arthritis. The condition is a painful and incurable illness of the connections, but patients can hold it at the bay, by taking a special category drugs. The costs, as much as $18,000 one year, can be large expenses for employer health of plans. Still setting can obviously back-slam too much the cost load on the employees. Among the 17 employers in the study, led of non-profit integrated Nutzen-Institut, more than half of workers with rheumatoid Arthritis did not take their drugs - in many cases, because they regarded the out of bag CO payments too highly. Consequently found the study of the institute, which took itself employers $17,2 on million in the costs of lost productivity, 26 per cent more than the estimation of, which they would have spent, if the workers had taken their Arthritisdrogen. The CO payments of the workers were relatively low and computed $26 for a supplying material 30-day and indicated a rather low threshold before out of bag costs to requested workers, in order to let medication go. "this is an important study,", said Michael Chernew, a public health policy economist Harvard at the medical school, which was not referred into the Arthritisstudie. "the fundamental announcement is very continuous with that whole work, which we settled: CO-PAID above, use people their medications go smaller, and bad things happen." Integrated Nutzen-Institut is supported by the insurers, by the Drogenfirme and by the employers. The information about drug use came of the health and requirements for inability data, which were made available of the UnitedHealth Groups Ingenix unit, which did not mark the 17 companies in the study. The researchers regarded the number the requirements after short term inability and lasted from one week to six months. Employees, who took the Arthritispillen, or injected medications "were less probable, in order to arrange a requirement," said Kimberly Jinnett, research director of the integrated institute for use, which referred the study. She said that the study of the institute for publication was submitted with a equalequivalent journal. The Arthritisstudie supports and extends to earlier research, which employees of Pitney Bowes, which regarded service company and the city government of Asheville, N.C. Those studies of found improved productivity and from lower medical costs, after drug CO payments for diabetes, asthma and heart in connection standing problems were reduced or eliminated. Begin an increasing number of large employers to regard entire costs by adding productivity mass their financial calculation for health care. "the proof forces that we should regard the results of total health care illustration," said Dr. Pamela Hymel, the global medical director at information technology company the Cisco Systems, a member of the integrated institute for use. She said that in the case of their own company, entire recordings health of the employees studying Cisco on the expensive conditions like the lowest point and muskuloesen and skeleton-like problems had alarmed, the productivity of some workers to affect. The employees concerned became lively to look for and treatment look for advice from the health coaches to, said Dr. Hymel. Chris McSwain, to which reconciliation and the director of use of another institute member, Scana corporation, an electrical and gas customs company, which were created in Colombia, S.C., said that its company won also its health of requirements data. In the last autumn, he said, began Scana to combine all its data including health and medically, pharmacy and inability costs, as well as information from the employee health questionnaires and the programs, which handle diseases such as diabetes.