By adapting how they manage mental and behavioral health in the workplace, employers have an opportunity to reduce absenteeism, cut workers’ comp claims and improve staff engagement. Behavioral health claims do not only affect the individual employee, they have a wider impact on the whole workforce, including the bottom line.
Conference Chronicles recently reported on a session at the recent DMEC conference, which highlighted a recent study by IBI. “The study found that four of the top six employment-related concerns of employers related to the health of their workforce,” Conference Chronicles reported. “The study also found that mental health was the second-highest duration of disability diagnosis for their short-term disability programs.”
Comcast, an organization which has 1,300 to 1,600 behavioral health claims per year and pays millions of dollars in benefits, conducted an investigation into the nature of their claims. The company discovered that 60% of those employees being treated for a mental health or behavioral issue were not being seen by a licensed behavioral health expert. Instead, they were being treated by general practitioners who lacked the expertise to adequately address the issues.
In an attempt to cut disability and health claims, Comcast has introduced an employee assistance program (EAP) which provides a certain number of behavioral health visits at no cost to the worker. The organization is also hopeful that the program will have a positive impact on workers’ compensation claims.
As awareness around the impact of employee engagement grows, more organizations are realizing the importance of encouraging staff to become educated consumers who are more involved in their healthcare experience. Comcast hopes this change in culture will lead to a healthier staff, which will result in fewer disability and workers’ compensation claims.
