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Depressed-Employee Programs Pay Off for Companies, Study Says |
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Written by News Editor
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Wednesday, 26 September 2007 |
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Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Depressed employees worked an average of two more hours a week and were more effective in their jobs when assigned a telephone ``care manager'' who counseled them on treatments, a study showed.
The findings, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest employers may save money by adding managed treatment of depression to their insurance plans, according to Philip Wang at the National Institute of Mental Health in Rockville, Maryland, who led the study.
Depression is ``grossly under-treated,'' costing the U.S. economy between $50 billion and $70 billion a year from lost productivity, Wang said. Annually about 6.6 percent of adult Americans meet the medical criteria for major depression, which can be disabling, Wang said, citing a 2003 study he co-wrote.
``Health care is viewed as just this black hole, a cost with very little coming back,'' Wang said in a telephone interview. ``The whole point of this was to see if there is something coming back to the employer. It appears there is, and it even looks as if the benefits outweigh the costs.''
The study reviewed work habits of 604 depressed employees from 16 large companies, all with employer-paid insurance that covered mental health treatment options, including therapy and medication. Clinicians provided ``phone coaching'' to 304 participants, and those participants were more likely than the other 300 to report improved health and to work more effectively, the study found.
Medical Illness
Depression is a medical illness that leaves sufferers persistently sad or anxious and unable to concentrate, sleep properly or enjoy activities as before, among other symptoms, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Getting an extra 2 hours a week of work from a staff member earning the average wage equates to $1,800 in value a year, which ``far exceeds'' the cost of the telephone outreach of $100 to $400, the study authors said. This is before factoring in savings from retaining staff and other costs associated with depressed workers.
Study authors plan to conduct a broader economic cost- benefit analysis to determine a return on investment for employers offering extra mental health support, Wang said.
``You could imagine a whole host of potential conditions, where if you improved the care it might also yield productivity benefits for a company,'' he said.
Employers don't see health benefits as something that pays dividends, said Mark Olson, a Boston-based principal and chief actuary at Towers Perrin, a management consulting firm. Still, some are recognizing a productivity value in reducing the cost burden of health insurance and medication for employees.
``That does have an impact on productivity and does have other cost benefits that will help improve employee performance,'' Olson said in an interview. ``It means they're there and they're not worried about the money that they have to spend.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at
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