Rheumatoid Arthritis Disability and Absence Trends in the United States

Objectives: Employers increasingly focus on absence benefits and connections with employee health. United States include Sick Leave (SL), Short- Long-Term Disability (STD LTD, respectively) for non-work-related injuries/illnesses, Workers’ Compensation (WC) work-related injuries/illnesses. This research explores all-cause (SL, STD, WC) utilization changes from baseline eligible employees rheumatoid arthritis to determine if the use a constant payment factor is appropriate models. Study Design: Retrospective multi-year database analysis. Methods: The Workpartners (1/1/2001-12/31/2019) was used identify adjudicated medical claims. Annual prevalence, benefit utilization, mean days of leave, median payments (as % salary) were analyzed. outcomes calculated as percent (2001). Results: Rheumatoid prevalence averaged 0.5% between 2001 2019. At baseline, using STD = 15.5%, LTD 0.7%, WC 1.7%, SL 61.7%. Mean 48.5, 367.5, 43.8 WC, respectively 70.5%, 22.2%, 65.7% salary respectively. From 2002-2019: 11.7%-16.9% filed claims 82.1%-995.9% 80.4%-125.9% payments; 0.6%-2.9% 66.6%-114.7% 63.2%-254.8% 0.3%-1.6% 44.0%-472.8% 70.4%-271.5% payments. Median highest in 2012, 2019, 2003 most 2017 2008 2005 WC. Conclusion: Employees at differing rates over time varying leave-lengths Using cost or replacement costs across not accurate.