Comparing excess costs across multiple corporate populations.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of health risk level to charged medical costs and determine the excess cost of higher risk individuals compared to low risk. Two years of medical claims from six corporations were used to determine costs of health risk assessment (HRA) participants and nonparticipants. A total of 165,770 employees, 21,124 of which took an HRA, were used for the study.

Association of health risks with the cost of time away from work.

The purpose of this study was to combine absences, short-term disability, and workers' compensation into a sum of the cost of time away from work (TAW) and compare it with health risk status and individual health risks of 6220 hourly workers at Steelcase Inc. The study used 3 years (1998 to 2000) of TAW and health risk appraisal data. Higher TAW costs were associated with illness days, drug/medication use, the individual's lower perception of physical health, job dissatisfaction, high stress, life dissatisfaction, and physical inactivity.