Pain Management: The New "Big Deal" for Employers

Learning the Business Case to Effectively Manage Your Population

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There has been significant media attention highlighting the rising epidemic on the use and misuse of prescription drugs that manage pain. According to a recent Institute of Medicine report, the annual cost of care for pain is about a third more than the cost of heart disease and about double the cost of cancer.

The latest employer benchmarking surveys indicate that employers are largely unaware of the costs or the challenges associated with appropriately addressing pain management which can lead to substance abuse disorders that cause an increase in health care costs, absences, workers compensation and disability claims in addition to increased safety risks and reduced productivity.

In this session, participants will learn:

• Industry data that highlights the use and misuse of prescription drugs and the cost-related impact to employers
• The challenges associated with defining the problem of pain management at the worksite and what employers can do to understand their data to determine the cost impacts
• How to work with their vendors and other health care providers to enhance their current strategies
• Which resources to assess to best meet the needs of their employees suffering from chronic pain including assessing an employer’s benefit designs, program offerings and current policies around the use of opioids and other pain medications
• Employer case studies that highlight a comprehensive approach to pain management