Economic burden of illness for employees with painful conditions.

Objective: We sought to compare the medical services utilization and average annual direct (ie, medical and medication) and indirect (ie, work-loss) costs for employees with painful conditions to a random sample ("average employee").

Methods: An employer administrative claims database (approximately 600,000 insured lives) was used to identify patients with ICD-9 codes for painful conditions. Direct costs were total employer medical and medication costs and indirect costs were associated with medically related absenteeism days and disability claims.