the cost of mental illness

from: www.mhlg.org/business_3-03.pdf -
Coalition for Fairness in Mental Illness
Coverage



EMPLOYERS SHOULD SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH PARITY

Mental health and physical health are inextricably linked. Mental illnesses can affect a person’s
productivity and health as much, if not more than, a physical illness. An employee with an untreated or undertreated
mental illness may add to employer costs via: absenteeism, turnover and retraining expenses, poor morale and lower
productivity, injury and compensation costs, conflict among employees and increased medical costs. Investing in
mental health parity provides a return of productivity and economic gain.




UNTREATED/UNDERTREATED MENTAL ILLNESS COSTS EMPLOYERS

• The 1999 Surgeon General’s report on mental illness estimates the direct business costs of lack of parity
coverage of mental illness treatment of at least $70 billion per year, mostly in the form of lost productivity
(absenteeism and “presenteeism”) and increased use of sick leave. Other studies have show that employees
with inadequate mental health coverage resort to increased use of general health care services.

ß An MIT Sloan School of Management report showed in 1995 that clinical depression costs American
businesses $28.8 billion a year in lost productivity and worker absenteeism.

ß Depressed workers have between 1.5 and 3.2 more short-term work disability days in a given thirty-day
period than other workers. The average salary equivalent disability costs of these days range between $182
and $395 per depressed worker (Health Affairs; Volume 18, Number 5; 1999).

ß Of the 11 million individuals who suffer from depression in any given year, approximately 7.8 million are
found in the workplace (American Journal of Psychiatry; 1996; 145:1351-1357). The annual cost per
employee is $4,200 (Journal of the American Medical Association; 1997; 277:333-340).