Gathering Meaningful Data

Diabetes Management in the Workplace

Building a Business Case: Gathering Meaningful Data

Data from your health plan, PBM and other vendors (e.g. disease/disability/absence management programs) can provide rationales for your business case. Ask your account representatives from each of these vendors to help you determine the prevalence of diabetes, prediabetes and related health conditions in the population by reviewing:

  • Data on direct costs of medical treatment (e.g. inpatient, outpatient, pharmaceutical) from medical and pharmacy claims; click here for more information on health care cost data from the CDC
  • Data on lost time or absence (e.g. short-term disability, worker compensation)
  • Data on lost performance at work or “presenteeism” from a health risk appraisal or a presenteeism measurement instrument; click here for the Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS-6) assessment tool

If you have different vendors for medical and pharmacy, make sure you get data from both. The easiest way to ensure this is to include the request in your vendor contracts. If you have a data management vendor, the coordinated results will help you build a more compelling business case.

In addition, use these calculators to start estimating the cost of diabetes to your organization: