San Francisco – February 21, 2008 – To compete in a global economy, American business must continue to improve workforce productivity through improving benefits program performance. To that end, the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) announced that it is accepting 2007 data for workers’ compensation, short-term disability, long-term disability and/or family and medical leave for IBI Benchmarking. The resulting information provides employers with critical data to enable them to more effectively manage their health benefits programs.
“Costs of labor and benefits significantly impact a company’s ability to compete, so it is important to have a healthy, productive workforce,” said Thomas Parry, PhD, president of the Integrated Benefits Institute. “IBI’s benchmarks help employers focus on what is actionable to improve their workers’ use of their benefits programs, which can considerably impact expenditures and the employer’s bottom line.”
Over the next several months, IBI will work both with employers and its Data Consortium member companies to expand its industry-leading occupational and non-occupational benchmarking database. IBI will accept data through the end of April with results expected to be available by the end of June.
New program enhancements this year
The 2007 program features a new, flexible reporting framework which enables employer participants to choose the industry group(s) they desire for their company comparisons, compare results by plan design, select the metrics of interest for inclusion in their reports and retrieve reports immediately on-line from IBI’s point-and-click benchmarking website.
With this expansion, participating employers can access up to three different comparisons for each benefit program submitted, by industry and/or by plan design, both within industries and across industries. This enhancement accommodates employers with multiple business lines in their organizations or those simply interested in how they compare.
Expanded database for 2007
For 2007, IBI will continue to expand its comparison groups through data collected from employers and from IBI’s Data Consortium members. For 2006, IBI constructed the largest single-source database for disability/leave benchmarks cutting across occupational and non-occupational programs, containing data on nearly 30,000 employer programs and over 3.1 million claims. IBI now has the capacity to report on more than 400 industry groups at the one-, two- and three-digit SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code levels with at least 30 employers in each group.
Contributing Data Consortium members include Aetna, Broadspire/Crawford, Cambridge Integrated Services, CIGNA, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual, Matrix, Metropolitan Life, Nationwide Better Health, Prudential, Reed Group, The Regence Group, Sedgwick CMS and Wellpoint Life and Disability.
IBI Benchmarking is completely independent from another industry initiative – EMPAQ. Employers can receive an IBI Benchmarking report – with its powerful comparisons using national, standardized data – only by submitting data directly to IBI, or through their supplier.
About the Integrated Benefits Institute
The Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) is a national, not-for-profit organization that focuses on health and productivity issues across group health, workers’ compensation, disability and other leave programs. IBI provides a full range of health and productivity research, educational forums and benefits measurement and benchmarking tools. The Institute’s work is supported by employers and leading benefits and program providers. For additional information visit: ibiweb.org.