Employers with modern data systems and employee benefits programs can perform surveillance for occupational health problems. Although work-related health problems involving medical treatment for lost time should be handled by workers' compensation, experience suggests a large burden of work-related illness is actually processed through medical insurance and disability insurance systems. This results from failure to identify work-related problems. In addition, there are financial incentives such as delays in payments for both the affected worker and medical providers that occur with workers' compensation. Several projects undertaken by the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) with cooperation from the Chrysler Corporation (now DaimlerChrysler) and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan shed light on the role of medical insurance in work-related illness and reveal possibilities and limitations for occupational disease surveillance. Likewise, the UAW and General Motors (GM) Corporation jointly investigated the utility of the GM Sickness and Accident benefit system by examining the experience over a 4-year period at a large automotive stamping and assembly complex in Lordstown, Ohio.
Keywords
Health care; Health programs; Health surveys; Automotive industry; Worker health; Workplace monitoring; Medical treatment; Medical care
Publication Date
20001001
Document Type
Book or book chapter
Editors
Maizlish NA
Fiscal Year
2001
ISBN No.
0195128885
NIOSH Division
EID
Source Name
Workplace health surveillance: an action-oriented approach
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