Closing the Gap: The Business Value of Preventive Screenings

Screenings for serious health conditions save lives, reduce treatment recovery times, and lower healthcare costs. They may also improve workplace productivity if early detection helps avoid disability leaves. Unfortunately, screening gaps exist for several conditions with well-known recommendations. The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional barriers for screening to recommended guidelines. To illustrate the potential productivity impact of preventive screenings, this report examines disability leave outcomes for conditions that have well-defined population screening guidelines: breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, hypertension, depression, diabetes, and obesity. It identifies gaps in screening rates among the populations identified by guidelines and simulates the potential disability leave cost savings from closing these screening gaps.