Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER July 11, 2016 NEWS 3 RECRUITING FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS? O er positions to over 200,000 Members Highly targeted advertising Immediate matching resume database access FOR MORE INFORMATION, cpacanada.ca/CPASource TELEPHONE•416 204 3284•EMAIL•TGardiner@cpacanada.ca 14-126a_EN_CPAsource_fullpagead_9.625x7.indd 1 1/5/2016 3:24:31 PM Employers underestimating prevalence, impact of chronic diseases: Survey But both employees, employers would like better understanding of issues BY SARAH DOBSON PLAN SPONSORS may be underestimating the impact of chronic disease in the workplace, and how the workplace can nega- tively affect employees' ability to manage their conditions, accord- ing to a survey by Sanofi Canada. Fifty-nine per cent of employees have at least one chronic condition, such as high blood pressure, diabe- tes or depression. Broken down by age, 79 per cent of employees aged 55 to 64 have at least one condition, compared to 40 per cent among those 18 to 34. But employers think just 32 per cent of employees have such a condition, found the survey of 1,500 primary holders of group health benefit plans and 500 health benefit plan sponsors. Many chronic illnesses are not visible, such as high cholesterol, so the only way an employer would know how many work- ers are affected is by looking at claims plans, said Marilee Mark, vice-president of market develop- ment, group benefits, at Sun Life Financial in Toronto. And with issues around data privacy, employers don't have all the answers, said y Dinh, di- rector of health economics at the Conference Board of Canada in Ottawa. "They just know how much money's being spent on drug plans and other benefits that are being used under their plans, so unless you know exactly who's getting these drugs or certain services or programs, it's really hard to tell the exact number or prevalence of any particular type of chronic diseases within their employment base." At the same time, there may be employees with chronic condi- tions who aren't using the benefits for those issues, she said. Sixty-two per cent of employ- ees said their condition had no impact on their work, so that's also invisible to employers, said Anne Nicol, vice-president of business development at Medavie Blue Cross in Toronto. "But if they start looking at their costs, they look at the utilization for health plans and drug plans, I think that starts to paint a very different picture, and hopefully with more time and analytics and awareness of how broadly chronic disease is impacting individuals in Canada, that gap will close." e gap likely means plan spon- sors also underestimate the impact of chronic disease in the work- place. More than one-third of plan members (38 per cent) with chron- ic conditions said their illness has caused them to miss work (25 per cent) or made it harder to do their job (19 per cent). is jumps to 62 per cent for those with depression, found the Sanofi Canada Health- care Survey. If employers aren't thinking about the impact, they're not nec- essarily thinking about what they can do to support people, said Mark, "because if chronic condi- tions are not managed or caught early, it can lead to absences or higher utilization of claims, which then translates into costs, so that's the danger." But 70 per cent of plan sponsors would like a better understanding of the burden of chronic disease in their employee population, found the survey. In understanding the illnesses that are driving the costs, an em- ployer can "make a business case to be able to identify more sup- ports and inclusions and interven- tions to try and address that cost, but also to understand the burden in terms of how it breaks out to identify what to do, because there are different types of supports available depending on where the bulk of the need is," said Nicol. "So it's partly a needs assessment and it's partly a business case." An employer doesn't need to know an employee's condition, only if accommodation is re- quired at work, so that's part of the role an insurer needs to play, said Mark. "And with privacy concerns, the insurer can be a conduit of infor- mation for resources, but it really has to be the employee who has to agree to that." However, 33 per cent of plan members said their work environ- ment negatively affects their abil- ity to manage their chronic condi- tion, rising to 63 per cent among dissatisfied employees. Some of it could be work de- mands, so workload can make it difficult to manage a condition, with increased stress, said Mark. e connection between physi- cal and psychological health is an important one, said Nicol. "It's very hard to separate those things because if you're find- ing that there's too much work and the demands put on you are overwhelming, then it leaves less room for someone to make those choices and make those healthy choices." A great way to help employees is to take more positive action and PERSONALIZE > pg. 16 irty-three per cent of plan members say their work environment negatively affects their ability to manage their chronic condition.

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