Data Integration Helps Employers See Bigger Benefits Picture

Employers seeking to reduce the costs of injury and illness claims and increase the health and productivity of their employees should look to data integration to give them a comprehensive view of how workers compensation programs can have an impact on expenses related to group health, disability, wellness and pharmacy programs.

“Employers typically do not have a broad understanding of how to value illness and disability as it affects the bottom line of their business,” according to Phyllis Ruez, vice president, property & casualty group for Ingenix. “Information tends to be in silos, located in separate departments and governed by separate budgets, and because of this, workers compensation data often flies under the radar,” she said.

Integrating data provides a more expansive view of population health issues. “When you look at all of the specific benefits programs and how together they contribute to a healthy workforce and high productivity, the issues are not separate – they work together to have a significant overall cost impact on the business,” she explained.

Workers comp data adds value, improves synergy

Measuring how employees’ health and well-being affects their work-related performance is a way for employers to better understand the role each benefit plays. Because group health is perceived by employers as the most important cost to control, workers compensation expenses – usually managed by the finance or risk-management department – do not appear to be a priority.

“Measurement of workers compensation factors – using a robust data warehouse, data integration and innovative mining tools – helps employers understand how to change their strategies to improve employees’ health,” Ruez stated.

Dawn Phillips, principal vice president, property & casualty group for Ingenix, concurred, adding that using integrated data can result in integrated business strategies. “When you look at data on health benefits and workers comp independently, you get only a snapshot of what issues or problems are driving costs,” Phillips said. “However, when you tie the programs together and target similar issues across departmental lines, you see a different picture.”

When workers compensation data are integrated with other employee health data, employers can more accurately assess how injuries and health problems affect employee health and absence. “If an employee is injured, the ultimate goal is to get him as close to pre-injury status as possible, and back to meaningful employment,” she said.

Programs that help the injured employee – often crossing departmental lines -- can help reduce the secondary costs that result from the employee’s absence. “If someone isn’t working, you still have to find a way to get that work done, and that’s usually accomplished through overtime, temporary workers or workers who may need additional training and supervision,” Ruez added.

Employee-centric approach is more inclusive

Although employers may view group health costs as the most important costs to control, they can’t ignore that workers compensation costs are rising. According to a recent study by the National Council on Compensation Insurance, workers compensation medical costs, as a portion of total claims costs, have increased up to 12 percent annually.

Workers compensation program management – which includes coordination among benefits – can help tamp down those costs by reinforcing efforts that return employees back to work faster. Using data integration, employers can take an employee-centric and not a program-centric approach by looking for patterns that may lead to systemic change and improvements across department lines. “Integrating workers compensation data can provide information about work-related injuries and time lost for all employees.” Phillips said.

For example, she explained, employers can tie programs together so that they are targeting the same issues in health and wellness programs that they may be targeting in safety programs. Another point to consider when analyzing integrated data is whether the company is managing injuries similarly for both occupational and nonoccupational disability.

“You want to make sure that the recovery process for a broken leg is managed the same way, whether it is covered under the nonoccupational health care program or it is covered under the workers compensation program,” Ruez said, pointing out that employers have long believed that they should not contact an employee who is out due to a nonoccupational event, because of concerns about employee privacy and intrusion. 

However, health and productivity suffer when there is little or no communication with that individual, according to Phillips. “It is a myth that we can’t ‘bother’ someone out on nonoccupational disability,” she said. “Expressing that you would like to help an employee get back to work is a good thing. People have reported that when the employer does not have contact with them after a nonoccupational injury, that they feel like nonentities and their morale suffers,” which can lead to cost-shifting and double-dipping can increase.

“Without intervention, Ruez added, “costs can run amok and employee recovery suffers.”

Data integration supports programs, business strategy

Companies that seek to move beyond a program-specific approach often struggle with where to begin, Phillips said. “Once you decide to examine this information, there are 50 different things you could do. Data integration helps employers focus and get the most bang for their buck. With an integrated approach, you can learn not only what is driving workers compensation costs, but also what is driving cost and health issues across your entire employee population.”

Ingenix can help companies determine a sound strategy for moving forward. According to Phillips, Ingenix offers innovative products and services that can integrate a company’s data across multiple platforms and can help management understand how to refine and change their programs to improve productivity, using sophisticated financial models.

Parallax i, an Ingenix web-based health and productivity decision support portal, provides comprehensive reporting functionality, data analysis and valuable web content directly to a client’s desktop, she explained. Ingenix Medical Bill Review System – the next generation of PowerTrak – also can help companies by streamlining their bill review process for workers compensation claims and giving them access to new data.

But getting that information to work for the employer by supporting program decisions also requires data interpretation and an understanding of the company’s core competencies and objectives. “Data integration can lead to many positive changes, but it is only as good as what you do with it,” Ruez pointed out. “If you have tons of information and you don’t know how to interpret it or make it actionable, you are not really getting anywhere.”

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