A new study finds that the health care costs of employees who provide care to elderly relatives or friends are 8 percent higher than those of employees who are not caregivers.
Working family caregivers potentially cost U.S. employers an estimated $13.4 billion a year — or possibly more, if the employee provides care to a spouse or younger family member.
“This report highlights the tremendous economic cost to our nation due to the toll that family caregiving takes. This cost is directly linked to the inadequacy of our current eldercare services programs and the instability in our direct-care workforce,” said PHI National Policy Director Steve Edelstein.
“Over the coming decade, this cost will grow geometrically unless we take steps now to build an adequate workforce to meet both the current and growing future demand for long-term services and supports,” he said.
The study, entitled “Working Caregivers and Employer Health Care Costs: New Insights and Innovations for Reducing Health Care Costs for Employers,” examines the relationship between family caregiving, caregivers’ health status, and employer health costs.
Corporate Eldercare in Tandem with Wellness Programs
The report concludes with the recommendation to supplement corporate eldercare services with corporate wellness programs to benefit both employees and employers.
Corporate eldercare services are typically offered through Employee Assistance Programs that provide information and referral services to eldercare resources in the community, including respite care, home care, and other services and supports. These services are declining, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Only 11 percent of corporations provided this service in 2009, down from 26 percent in 2006.
Corporate wellness programs, by contrast, are on the rise because they help to hold down health care costs, the researchers report. Among their suggestions for corporate wellness programs, which are designed to reduce stress and prevent disease, is to develop decision support systems that provide information about the best services for caregivers and their older relatives.
Family Caregiving Takes a Toll
The joint report, released in February 2010 by the National Alliance for Caregiving, the University of Pittsburgh Institute on Aging, and MetLife Mature Market Institute, also found that employees providing eldercare were more likely to report:
- fair or poor health in general
- depression, diabetes, hypertension, or pulmonary disease, regardless of age, gender and work type
- having greater health risk behaviors such as smoking and higher alcohol use
- finding it more difficult than non-caregivers to take care of their own health or participate in preventive screenings
- missed days of work
– by Deane Beebe
