Health care spending is 10 percent higher for hospital employees than it is for the general employee population, according to a study by Thomson Reuters.What's more: the gap is even wider when employees' dependents are factored in: 13 percent above average.
In addition to using more health care services, hospital employees and their dependents also were found to be less healthy. They had an 8.6 percent greater illness burden than the U.S. workforce at large and were more likely to be diagnosed with chronic medical conditions including asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure, HIV, hypertension and mental illness.
The study also found that hospital workers and their families had fewer physician office visits, yet were 22 percent more likely to visit the emergency department.
Thomson Reuters calculates that a hospital or health system with 16,000 employees could save an estimated $1.5 million annually in medical and pharmacy costs for each 1 percent reduction in health risk. For more information, visit http://www.thomsonreuters.com.
