Complete Story
07/08/2019
From Legal to Fatal: How Opioids Became an Epidemic
How employers should respond
The opioid problem has reached epidemic proportions, affecting 40% of Americans in some way and costing businesses $26 billion to $54 billion per year in lost productivity. The best way for employers to combat the problem is through a holistic response including robust return-to-work programs, effective management and solid company policies.
Those were some of the major revelations from a June 20 webinar by the Disability Management Employer Coalition, featuring Lincoln Financial Group’s scientific adviser Dr. Glenn Pransky and AVP of the Absence & Statutory Group Product Solutions Kim Rudeen.
During the webinar, Pransky and Rudeen laid out some sobering statistics:
- Drug overdoses (52,404 in 2015) kill more people than automobile crashes (38,022) and gun homicides (12,979) combined.
- 21 percent to 29 percent of chronic opioid users take more medication than prescribed.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Risk & Insurance; this article was shared with OSAE by our Member CompManagement.