Getting more employees into recovery programs could lead to significant savings for U.S. businesses. The U.S. economy loses an estimated $185 billion each year to alcohol-related problems, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. That’s equivalent to $683 for every man, woman and child in the country. A large portion of this cost is paid by businesses in the form of lost productivity and alcohol-related healthcare costs, while only a fraction is spent on treatment. 

Estimates indicate that corporations spend less than 0.1 percent of their total healthcare bill on treatment, but businesses end up paying much more for the consequences of untreated alcohol abuse. According to government statistics, healthcare costs for alcohol-related problems have increased by 5.4 percent a year, while spending on addiction treatment has decreased by 0.6 percent. 

“If better programs were available to educate people on the anatomy of addiction and alternative solutions to the problem, more employees would seek help,” said Michael Sanders, founder of ExecuCare Addiction Recovery Centers, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment facility based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Statistically, a company with 22,000 employees will have 1,200 employees and 2,700 dependants with addiction problems. Studies by Ensuring Solutions show that businesses would save $2 for every dollar invested in treatment. This represents a 100 percent return on investment, not to mention the immeasurable human costs for alcohol abuse.

Many employees now fail to reach out to EAPs for several key reasons: fear of getting fired; inability to miss 30, 60, or 90 days of work (during treatment); apprehensions toward the negative stigma of addiction; and mistrust in the 12-Step Program, which is the basis for 97 percent of all traditional treatments referred to by EAPs. This is compounded by the fact that many treatments have a very low success rate.

While employees who abuse alcohol account for just 7.4 percent of the full-time work force, they impose a disproportionate financial burden on businesses. Research has shown that employees with alcohol problems are more likely to miss days of work, change employers and use worker’s compensation than employees who don’t. In addition, employees with untreated alcoholism go to the emergency room 60 percent more often, are nearly twice as likely to be hospitalized overnight, and stay in the hospital almost three days longer than their peers, according to research by Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems at the George Washington University Medical Center. 

The trend toward spending less on treatment arises despite the fact that two-thirds of American corporations have Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). The EAPs were designed to protect the privacy of the employee and to ensure treatment would be available without penalizing the employee. These programs offer companies a way to show that they care about addiction and treatment, while protecting them from employee initiated litigations. 

“Access to successful and comprehensive treatment for employees is the best way to begin to control the financial costs associated with alcohol abuse,” Sanders said.  “By investing more in such treatment options, employers could significantly lower their costs and improve the lives of their employees.”

About ExecuCare

Located in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta, Ga., ExecuCare Addiction Recovery Centers offers drug and alcohol addiction treatment tailored to busy professionals who might not ordinarily seek lengthier treatments. Founded in 2006 by Michael Sanders, a career executive and recovered addict, ExecuCare uses a proven, 10-day, all-natural, amino acid treatment with outstanding success rates. For more information, visit www.execucarearc.com.