The nation’s hospitals, which are spending more money on developing wellness programs and preventive medicine, released a study this week showing the soaring costs of chronic illness to the workplace.
The American Hospital Association, an advocate for nearly 5,000 hospitals, said the price tag for just three common chronic conditions — asthma, diabetes and hypertension — is $30 billion a year. That translates into 164 million lost workdays annually.
“The message is clear: Preventive medicine and wellness programs must be central to our health-care system,” said Rich Umbdenstock, president and chief executive of the American Hospital Association. “We can manage chronic conditions.”
Increasingly, hospitals are under pressure from health insurance companies and employers to come up with wellness programs aimed at lowering health-care costs, which are rising 6 percent to 8 percent or more annually, or more than double the general rate of inflation.
Nationally, about 1,221 workdays are lost each year for every 1,000 Americans suffering from asthma, diabetes or hypertension.
COVERING BOTH SIDES: In Aurora, Chicago public relations firm Jasculca-Terman and Associates is assisting the public affairs strategies of two health organizations that don’t always agree when it comes to reproductive health services.
Jasculca is representing Catholic-owned Provena Health, parent of Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, while also working with Planned Parenthood.
The Planned Parenthood clinic is providing an array of reproductive services, including contraception, and has been met with large protests in Aurora, where the facility opened last week.
Provena Health, an operator of six Catholic hospitals in Illinois, does not provide certain reproductive services such as tubal ligations, vasectomies and abortions.
Neither Provena nor Jasculca sees problems with representing two organizations often at odds over reproductive issues, notably abortion.
“Our clients have determined there is no conflict,” said Beth Kanter, vice president at Jasculca-Terman in reference to Provena and Planned Parenthood.
Before Provena hired Jasculca, the hospital operator’s executives, which included a priest who works full time as the system’s ethicist, evaluated hiring Jasculca and determined there was no conflict.
“We are not advocates of Planned Parenthood,” said Provena spokeswoman Lisa Lagger. “Provena’s relationship is with Jasculca-Terman and not Planned Parenthood.”
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Hear Bruce Japsen on WBBM-AM 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Mondays and 11:20 a.m. Saturdays.
bjapsen@tribune.com
