Data: Health Care Spending for Hospital Workers Higher Than Average

By Haydn Bush	September 23, 2011
A new Thomson Reuters report finds the cost of care for hospital employees and their dependents is 10 percent above the overall workforce.

A new report from Thomson Reuters finds that health care spending on hospital employees and their dependents is roughly 10 percent higher than average, in part because hospital workers are less healthy than the general population. The report, which analyzed the health risk and utilization of 1.1 million hospital workers and their dependents, found that health care workers and their dependents had an 8.6 percent greater illness burden than the overall workforce, and were more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic condition.

The report also found:

• While hospital workers and their families had fewer physician office visits, they were 22 percent more likely to visit the emergency room.
• The cost of insuring hospital workers and their families is 13 percent higher than average.
• The average cost of health care for hospital workers and their dependents was $4,668, or $538 higher than that of the general population.
• The researchers projected that a hospital or health system with 16,000 employees would save $1.5 million annually in health care costs for every 1 percent reduction in health risk for its employees and their dependents.

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Haydn Bush is senior online editor for Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the policy of Health Forum Inc. or the American Hospital Association.

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