A new study has quantified what you may already have suspected: Obese employees can drive up a company’s workers’ comp costs.
Preliminary results of a study by NCCI show:
- Obese claims were roughly 3 times more expensive
- Added treatments related to obesity can balloon cost differences by as much as 30 times
- Workers who are morbidly obese (body mass index of 40 and above) filed 45% more claims, missed eight times the number of workdays and experienced medical costs that were more than five times higher when compared with non-obese workers.
These results are in line with previous research by Duke University.
So when companies are looking at return on their investment into wellness programs, reductions in workers’ comp costs should be included.
You can read more about NCCI’s research here (requires Acrobat Reader).
