IBI Research: Productivity Costs of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE)

Spotlight on article published in

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

IBI Spotlights call attention to important health and productivity findings from peer-reviewed work. The research described in this particular Spotlight is authored or co-authored by an IBI researcher. IBI members are encouraged to obtain the original articles from the copyright holder.

What is the Issue?

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a cardiovascular disease associated with modifiable risk factors such as obesity, smoking hypertension diabetes and high cholesterol. With about a million Americans suffering a VTE incident each year, the risks of productivity losses for employers are high.

What are the findings/solutions?

The diseases that comprise VTE – deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and PE (PE) – impose substantial economic burdens on employers and employees alike when they result in disability claims. Average productivity losses per short-term disability (STD) and long-term disability (LTD) claim were $7,605 and $48,751, respectively.

Journal Citation

Page, R.L. II, Ghushchyan, V., Gifford, B., Read, R.A., Raut, M., Brookhart, B.K., Naim, A.B., Damaraju, C.V., Nair, K.V. (2013). (2014). Hidden Costs Associated With Venous Thromboembolism: Impact of Lost Productivity on Employers and Employees. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 56(9).

Objectives

To determine productivity loss and indirect costs with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE).

Method

We analyze short-term disability (STD) and long-term disability (LTD) claims from 2007 to 2010 from the Integrated Benefits Institute’s Health and Productivity Benchmarking (IBI-HPB) database (STD and LTD claims) and medical and pharmacy claims from IMS LifeLink™ data.

Results

• Employees with DVT lost an average of 57 STD and 440 LTD days per disability incident. The average per claim productivity loss from STD and LTD was about $7,400 and $58,200, respectively.
• Employees with PE lost an average of 56 STD and 364 LTD days per disability incident. The average per claim productivity losses from STD and LTD were about $7,600 and $48,800, respectively.
• Health care costs for DVT and PE patients with at least one hospital admission were about $9,600 and $11,800, respectively. Most of these costs were driven by hospitalizations.

Conclusion

DVT and PE impose substantial economic burdens to employers and employees alike.

Author Details

Brian Gifford, Ph.D., Director-Research & Measurement, Integrated Benefits Institute, contributed as an author to this research article.