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.