HR Info
According to the Numbers …

Following are some recent facts and statistics that might be of interest:

Backup care continues to be one of the fastest-growing employee benefits; the percentage of U.S. companies now offering the benefit has doubled year-over-year and exceeds the growth among all other work-life benefits, according to survey conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management. (Backup Care Emerges as Fastest-Growing Work-Life Benefit, The Earth Times, Feb. 13, 2008)

	A co-pay as small as $10 can stand in the way of a woman getting a potentially lifesaving mammography, new research suggests. When women in Medicare managed-care plans were asked to contribute small co-pay, in some cases around $10 to $20, 8 percent of the women decided to forgo mammograms altogether, according to a study published in the January 24, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. (Co-Pays Contribute to Drop in Preventive Care, HealthDay, January 23, 2008)
	One-quarter of workers and more than one-third of retirees report they have long-term care insurance (separate from health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid) to help pay for care they might need in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or at home. But only 10 percent of Americans age 65 and older are estimated to have had private long-term care insurance in 2002, suggesting that many are counting on coverage they do not actually have. (2007 Retirement Confidence Survey, Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates)
	Indirect costs (e.g., lost days of productivity, presenteeism) attributed to cancer, mental disorders, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, pulmonary conditions, and stroke will total $3.4 trillion annually in 2023, more than four times the cost of treatment (direct costs). Adding direct costs will bring the total annual economic burden associated with these diseases to $4.2 trillion, according to “An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease,” issued by the Milken Institute, which describes itself as publicly supported and nonpartisan. (The increasing burden of chronic disease, Managedcaremag.com, February 2008)