Speak with an adviser 678.821.3508

START HERE
START HERE
"drug
Uncategorized

Addictions Are Rising Among Workers; What Employers Can Do

by Inoventive Solutions
July 30, 2024

According to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 10% of America’s workers are dependent on one substance or another.

The nation is still battling the biggest drug scourge: opioid and fentanyl. Provisional data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate that in 2023 there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the U.S., 81,083 of which were opioid-related. While those are shocking statistics, the majority of addicts are hooked on other drugs or alcohol, and that includes millions of American workers.

A study by the American Addiction Center found that 22.5% of respondents admitted to using drugs or alcohol during work hours. The most common substance used during working hours is cannabis.

Those who work from home at least part of the time are more likely overall to abuse drugs or alcohol than those who work in offices. Overall, people who work from home part-time or full-time are about 10% more likely than people who work full-time in offices to get drunk at work.

As an employer, the costs are great if you have someone on staff who has a substance-abuse problem. Workers with addictions to drugs are alcohol have:

  • Lower or lack of workplace productivity;
  • Higher health care costs;
  • Increased absenteeism and presenteeism;
  • Diminished quality control;
  • More disability claims;
  • Increased workplace injuries;
  • Lower morale;
  • Higher job turnover; and
  • Employee theft.

How your health plan can help

If you have an Affordable Care Act-compliant health plan, it will offer access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, which is considered one of 10 essential benefits plans must offer.

The ACA requires health plans to pay for prevention and early intervention as well for substance abuse issues. 

Health care plans also have to comply with a “parity” law, which requires them to treat mental health issues the same way they do physical diseases. Since the COVID-19 pandemic demand for mental health services has soared, straining both providers of those services and the health plans.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2024 also started requiring all ACA-compliant health plans to contract with at least one substance use disorder treatment center and one mental health facility in every county where they are available in the plan’s service area.

What else can you do?

Some employers have tried to help employees tackle their addictions or abuse problems by implementing workplace prevention, wellness and disease-management strategies. These programs improve health, which lowers health care costs and insurance premiums and produces a healthier, more productive workforce.

Considering offering an employee assistance program. These programs offer temporary free access (typically a set amount of sessions) to a number of services like counseling as well as substance abuse assistance. These sessions are confidential and the employer will not know if an employee is accessing them.

Consider offering more accessible substance use management solutions, like digital and telehealth-based solutions. There are a growing number of these types of service providers, which make accessing counselors more convenient and cost-effective.

Offer confidential screenings and assessments. There are a number of screening, brief-intervention and referral-to-treatment modules available to help people confront their drinking or drug use and get the help they need. 

"help"/
Uncategorized

Pandemic Fallout: Employers Boost Mental Health, Substance Abuse Benefits

by Inoventive Solutions
December 21, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on health insurance in the U.S., with many employers improving mental health and other benefits to help their workers during this trying period, according to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic, the proportion of employers that offer their staff health coverage has remained steady, while health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expense increases have remained moderate, according to KFF’s “2021 Employer Health Benefits Survey.”

With the stress of the pandemic weighing on workers in all industries, as well as the effects on their families and society from lockdowns and other changes brought on by COVID-19, many Americans have been struggling with mental health as well as substance abuse.

Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate that there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States during the 12-month period ending in April 2021, an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same period the year before.

Besides drugs, alcohol abuse has also skyrocketed during the pandemic, according to the CDC.

Another report by the CDC found that 40% of U.S. adults had reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse:

  • 31% reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depression.
  • 26% reported symptoms of trauma/stressor-related disorder.
  • 13% started or increased substance abuse.
  • 11% reported seriously considering suicide.

It’s no surprise then that since the pandemic started, 39% of employers surveyed said they’d boosted their benefits covering these issues.

Of those that made changes:

  • 31% increased the ways employees can access mental health services, such as telemedicine.
  • 58% of employers with 200 or more employees and 38% of those with 50 to 199 employees expanded online counseling services.
  • 16% started offering employee assistance programs or other new resources for mental health.
  • 6% expanded access to in-network mental health providers.
  • 4% reduced cost-sharing for such visits.
  • 3% increased coverage for out-of-network services.

How did employers act? For example, after the pandemic hit, Rhode Island-based Thundermist Health Center’s employee health plan reduced the copayments for behavioral health visits to zero from $30.

As to employees, they responded by taking advantage of the new and expanded services:

  • 38% of large companies (1,000 or more workers) said their workers had used more mental health services in 2021 than the year before.
  • 12% of companies with at least 50 employees said their workers had increased their use of mental health services.

What you can do

With so many people suffering from mental health and substance abuse issues that may have been exacerbated by or are a direct result of the pandemic, it’s certain that most employers have staff who are struggling.

Talk to us about what your current plan choices offer in terms of substance abuse and mental health counseling benefits. Many insurers, in response to rising demand, have been increasing access to these treatments.

If you do not have one, you may also consider an employee assistance program, which will provide a set amount of counseling appointments as well as substance abuse treatment to complement your health plan.

"substance
Uncategorized

Coverage for Virtual Substance Abuse Treatment Grows

by Inoventive Solutions
September 28, 2021

Thousands of American families have been affected by the tragedy of someone with a substance abuse problem.

For many, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding available and affordable treatment has been difficult or impossible. Recently, however, virtual treatment options have become available, and some insurance companies are beginning to pay for them.

This is an important development for both the group health insurance arena as well as the individual health insurance market. For employers, this is another lifeline that they can highlight for their staff as so many people have been affected by the stresses of the pandemic. For individual policyholders, they could have access to convenient and timely treatment.

Start-up companies across the country are offering virtual substance abuse treatment, including:

  • Boulder Care, which provides digital opioid-addiction treatment.
  • Pear Therapeutics, which provides software-based disease treatments; its lead product is a treatment for substance abuse disorders approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
  • Ria Health, which employs 45 clinicians who can prescribe treatments online for alcohol-addicted patients.

These start-ups have attracted the attention of group health insurance companies, some of which are starting to cover their treatments for people insured under their health plans. For example:

  • Ria Health has contracts with at least four insurers covering millions of people.
  • Boulder Care has a partnership with Anthem.
  • Pear Therapeutics has contracts with regional health plans in three states.
  • An opioid-addiction treatment provider in Massachusetts has partnerships with UnitedHealth Group and Kaiser Permanente.

Virtual treatments for addiction are becoming popular for several reasons. Patients may feel a social stigma from receiving in-patient treatment at rehabilitation centers.

Instead, virtual treatment in their homes permits them to keep their conditions private. It also provides flexibility. Ria Health offers its services on demand while enabling patients to customize their goals.

Receiving treatment faster

Demand for substance abuse treatment has grown during the pandemic.

Studies show that a quarter of American adults reported drinking more alcohol during the health emergency, including more than half of parents of elementary school children. As a result, space has been at a premium at in-patient rehabilitation facilities. Some have had lengthy waiting lists.

Virtual treatment gives new options to patients who cannot get admitted to rehab centers.

Because of the pandemic:

  • Some states made new rules for prescribing medicine via telehealth visits less restrictive.
  • The federal government started requiring payment parity for physician visits done via video.

Both of these factors have encouraged the growth of these start-ups.

These solutions are attractive to insurers because they reduce costs. Substance abuse patients who cannot get into rehab centers may overdose and end up in emergency rooms.

ERs are often the most expensive places to obtain care. Planned treatments over periods of time reduce the need for ER visits.

Multiply the savings over hundreds of thousands of patients, and it should be no surprise that insurers are signing seven-figure contracts with these providers.

Employers see these new plan features as an additional way to retain valuable employees. In any large group of employees, there will be some who are suffering from addiction or have family members who are, and they will value this benefit.

If you are an employer who offers these plans, you may want to check with your health insurers to see if they’ve changed coverage terms for this type of treatment. If so, you may want to consider spreading the word among your staff.

For some of your employees or their family members, life-saving help may be just a video chat away.

Recent Posts
Recent Comments
    Archives
    Categories
    Meta