ABSTRACT
Ill health costs organizations money in three ways: through direct medical care expenses, through illness or injury-related absences and business interruption, and through productivity lost when employees are not feeling their best. Traditionally, employers have provided for the medical management of illness or injury, after it occurred, through open-ended health and workers' compensation insurance benefits. Some companies have started to make significant changes in the way they purchase medical care. Strategies include techniques to reduce the unnecessary use of medical services and to provide more cost-effective health care. Optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the medical care delivered to employees and their dependents may well reduce expenditures significantly. Health management may seem to be even farther away from a company's main line of business than management of medical care. Traditional occupational medical programs have offered some of the medically related components.
