ABSENCE: Liability or Opportunity? Consumerism and Short Term Disability

Health care costs continue to be a primary concern for businesses across the country. For those leaders in the "human capital industry" challenged with this issue, it is important to understand the relationship between medical activity and disability claims. For instance, the ten percent of a working population who submit short term disability claims in any given year account for more than fifty percent of medical expenses (and activity) for that population.

Tapping into absence and disability administration can help bolster an employer's return on investment for consumer-driven health care initiatives; disease management, wellness and prevention programs; employee assistance programs; and lifestyle communications.

By enhancing their understanding of the relationship between disability and medical claims experience, employers can better:

• Identify chronic illnesses significantly affecting the workplace.
• Understand how to benchmark their disability claims experience.
• Prepare for the needs of a naturally aging workforce.
• Develop targeted workplace solutions with a meaningful return on investment.
• Plus get your questions answered during the Q & A Session!

To learn more about this subject matter and to request a complimentary copy of Dr. Leopold's book, A Year in the Life of a Million American Workers, an almanac of absence management an nonoccupational disability data, visit this site.

Presented By:

Ronald S. Leopold, MD, MBA, MPH
National Medical Director, Vice President,
MetLife Disability

Ronald S. Leopold, MD, MBA, MPH, is National Medical Director and Vice President of MetLife Disability. He is a Board Certified Occupational Medicine Physician who holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters in Public Health from Boston University. He is an active member of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Dr. Leopold currently serves as clinical thought leader for MetLife Disability and has led development of the MetLife Disability Durations Guidelines and MetLife's Clinical Triage Claims Model. His role includes clinical program development, industry thought leadership, clinical data analysis and new product development. He is the author of A Year in the Life of a Million American Workers, an almanac of absence management and non-occupational disability data that provides a comprehensive picture of one million American workers and their health conditions, illnesses and absence patterns over a one-year period.

Helen Darling
President,
National Business Group on Health, and the Institute on Health
care Costs and Solutions

Helen Darling is President of the National Business Group on Health (formerly Washington Business Group on Health), a national non-profit, membership organization devoted exclusively to providing practical solutions to its employer-members' most important health care problems and representing large employers' perspective on national health policy issues. Its 221 members purchase health and disability benefits for over 45 million employees, retirees and dependents.

Darling also heads the Business Group's Institute on Health Care Costs and Solutions which is devoted to finding practical solutions from a business perspective to the nation's growing crisis of rapidly rising costs and affordability of care, on top of continuing problems of patient safety and quality. As president of the Business Group, she was named in 2003 and 2004 as one of "100 Most Powerful People in Health Care " in the United States by Modern Healthcare. Darling currently serves as co-chair of the Committee on Performance Measurement of the National Committee on Quality Assurance. She is a member of: the Medical Advisory Panel, Technology Evaluation Center, run by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; the Institute of Medicine's Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; the Board of the VHA Health Foundation, along with a number of other advisory and editorial boards. She is featured on CNN, CNBC, ABC, and NPR on trends in health care costs and benefits. She is also widely quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Business Insurance and many other journals.

Previously, Darling served as Senior Consultant, Group Benefits and Health Care for Watson Wyatt Worldwide. From 1992 through 1998, Darling directed the purchasing of health benefits and disability for 55 thousand US employees, plus their dependents and retirees at Xerox Corporation. Before joining Xerox, Darling was a Principal at William W. Mercer. Earlier in her career, Darling was an advisor to Senator David Durenberger, the ranking Republican on the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee. She directed three studies at the Institute of Medicine for the National Academy of Sciences. Darling received a master's degree in Demography/Sociology and a bachelor's of science degree in History/English, cum laude, from the University of Memphis.

Continuing Education:

• This program has been approved for 1.5 recertification credit hours toward PHR and SPHR through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI).