Impact of COVID-19 on work loss in the United States- A retrospective database analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Attrition criteria.

Overall employee population	(2018–2022)	2020	2021	2022
	N	N	N	N
All employees from 01 January 2018 to 31 December 2022	1,266,323	691,840	719,936	735,305
Age > =18	1,255,180	687,054	715,184	729,348
Eligible for any work loss benefit	989,098	531,129	555,985	579,630
Eligible for medical/pharmacy benefits	757,523	436,030	427,140	417,358
Eligible for STD	428,756	262,103	269,663	279,523
Eligible for LTD	323,982	195,413	207,113	208,749
Eligible for WC	952,562	505,479	527,647	557,970
Eligible for FML	768,184	414,742	441,387	449,315
Eligible for DITO	94,408	64,852	69,906	71,719
COVID-19 cohort	(2020–2022)	2020	2021	2022
	N	N	N	N
Identified through any source	72,539	14,560	23,815	34,164
Identified through medical claim	64,421	13,043	22,844	28,534
Identified through pharmacy claim	5,005	0	0	5,005
Identified through STD claim	3,105	1,515	965	625
Identified through LTD claim	8	2	6	0
COVID-19 with work loss eligibility	(2020–2022)	2020	2021	2022
	N	N	N	N
COVID-19 and eligible for any work loss benefit	56,447	11,147	28,144	52,292
COVID-19 and eligible for STD	37,634	7,332	18,336	34,932
COVID-19 and eligible for LTD	26,919	4,555	12,599	25,165
COVID-19 and eligible for WC	54,210	10,913	26,734	50,223
COVID-19 and eligible for FML	45,353	8,529	22,952	42,572
COVID-19 and eligible for DITO	10,085	1,279	4,250	9,909

Abbreviations. STD, short-term disability; LTD, long-term disability; WC, workers' compensation; FML, family medical leave; DITO, discretionary/incidental time off.

Table 2. Cohort demographics and baseline information.

Characteristics		2018–2022		2020–2022
		Influenza	Overall	COVID-19	Overall
Employee count (N)		24,199	1,255,180	72,539	1,010,051
Age continuous
	Mean (SE)	41.6 (0.08)	37.0 (0.01)	43.7 (0.05)	37.9 (0.01)
Age
	18–49 years	71.8%	78.3%	64.4%	74.9%
	50–64 years	26.2%	19.7%	32.6%	21.3%
	65+ years	2.0%	1.9%	3.0%	2.5%
Sex
	Male	49.4%	49.3%	47.3%	48.9%
	Female	50.4%	49.4%	52.6%	50.0%
	Unknown	0.2%	1.3%	0.14%	1.1%
Marital status
	Married	18.2%	12.4%	13.1%	12.2%
	Single	18.9%	27.3%	15.2%	25.0%
	Other/unknown	62.9%	60.3%	71.7%	62.8%
Race/ethnicity
	White	14.5%	10.4%	12.8%	10.6%
	Black	2.9%	2.6%	3.1%	2.8%
	Asian	2.1%	1.1%	1.4%	1.3%
	Hispanic	6.5%	3.6%	6.5%	4.1%
	Other	1.2%	0.7%	1.2%	0.9%
	Unknown	72.9%	81.5%	75.0%	80.4%
Geographic region (first zip code digit)
	New England (0)	6.0%	7.7%	6.8%	7.7%
	East North Central (1)	14.1%	17.8%	21.9%	19.1%
	Mid-Atlantic (2)	15.7%	12.2%	11.1%	11.8%
	South-East (3)	11.7%	8.3%	10.1%	8.5%
	East Central (4)	5.5%	6.1%	7.2%	6.1%
	North Central (5)	2.3%	3.9%	2.4%	3.7%
	Central (6)	5.0%	5.4%	4.2%	5.2%
	South Central (7)	19.3%	10.4%	13.0%	10.3%
	Mountain (8)	11.4%	13.1%	12.0%	12.7%
	Pacific (9)	8.6%	13.4%	10.6%	13.6%
	Unknown	0.4%	1.7%	0.8%	1.5%
Tenure (years)
	Mean (SE)	7.3 (0.05)	3.9 (0.01)	8.1 (0.03)	4.8 (0.01)
Status
	Full time	74.5%	58.0%	75.9%	60.2%
	Part time	1.1%	20.1%	1.2%	18.7%
	Unknown	24.3%	21.9%	22.9%	21.0%
Compensation (annual salary)
	Mean (SE)	$87,354 ($451)	$63,429 ($67)	$86,331 ($278)	$66,621 ($76)
Pay grade
	<40K	10.4%	33.9%	9.4%	31.2%
	40–89.9K	38.3%	26.4%	40.7%	28.2%
	90 + K	27.1%	15.8%	25.8%	17.5%
	Unknown	24.1%	23.9%	24.1%	23.1%
Job type
	Exempt	26.8%	16.5%	26.1%	17.9%
	Non-exempt	45.9%	58.1%	46.7%	56.7%
	Unknown	27.3%	25.4%	27.2%	25.4%
Industry type (NAICS code)
	Utilities (22)	4.9%	3.0%	6.1%	3.4%
	Construction (23)	0.6%	0.2%	0.4%	0.3%
	Manufacturing (31–33)	20.5%	13.0%	16.8%	12.5%
	Retail trade (44–45)	13.8%	28.1%	12.4%	27.6%
	Transportation and warehousing (48–49)	1.4%	1.9%	1.7%	1.7%
	Information (51)	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%
	Finance and insurance (52)	10.9%	8.9%	9.8%	10.2%
	Professional, scientific, and technical services (54)	1.0%	1.4%	0.4%	0.8%
	Administration and support and waste management and remediation services (56)	9.0%	7.6%	9.2%	7.8%
	Educational services (61)	5.4%	3.3%	6.5%	3.4%
	Health care and social assistance (62)	25.1%	26.4%	31.4%	26.9%
	Other services (except public administration) (81)	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
	Other	7.0%	5.9%	5.1%	4.9%

Table 3. Top five reasons for STD claims in the overall population.

Year	STD reason	Rank	No. of claims	Claims per 10,000 FTEEY	% of total STD claims	Mean duration of closed claims (days)	Mean cost of closed claims^a ($)
2020–2022	Other pregnancy and delivery including normal	1	7,440	102.2	13.1%	37	$6,773
	COVID-19	2	3,916	53.8	6.9%	24	$3,477
	Other complications of birth; puerperium affecting management of mother	3	3,031	41.6	5.3%	49	$9,032
	Mood disorders	4	2,600	35.7	4.6%	53	$9,814
	Spondylosis; intervertebral disc disorders; other back problems	5	2,519	34.6	4.4%	57	$7,973
2020	Other pregnancy and delivery including normal	1	2,417	102.0	13.0%	39	$7,123
	COVID-19	2	1,814	76.6	9.7%	21	$3,075
	Other complications of birth; puerperium affecting management of mother	3	1,025	43.3	5.5%	51	$8,840
	Spondylosis; intervertebral disc disorders; other back problems	4	872	36.8	4.7%	52	$7,436
	Mood disorders	5	809	34.2	4.3%	53	$8,862
2021	Other pregnancy and delivery including normal	1	2,521	104.7	12.7%	36	$6,636
	COVID-19	2	1,322	54.9	6.7%	28	$3,816
	Other complications of birth; puerperium affecting management of mother	3	982	40.8	4.9%	49	$8,459
	Mood disorders	4	965	40.1	4.9%	53	$9,874
	Anxiety disorders	5	890	37.0	4.5%	52	$10,189
2022	Other pregnancy and delivery including normal	1	2,502	99.8	13.7%	36	$6,578
	Other complications of birth; puerperium affecting management of mother	2	1,024	40.9	5.6%	48	$9,763
	Mood disorders	3	826	33.0	4.5%	54	$10,662
	Spondylosis; intervertebral disc disorders; other back problems	4	793	31.6	4.4%	59	$8,369
	COVID-19	5	780	31.1	4.3%	24	$3,828

Abbreviations. STD, short-term disability; FTEEY, full-time-equivalent employee-year.

^aExcludes claims with missing payment information.

Table 4. COVID-19 LTD and WC claims in the overall population.

Year	COVID-19 rank among claim reasons	No. of claims	Claims per 10,000 FTEEY	% of total claims	Mean duration of closed claims (days)	Mean cost of closed claims^a ($)
LTD
2020–2022	13	24	0.4	1.7%	153	$19,254
2020	20	5	0.3	1.0%	296	$25,358
2021	11	13	0.7	2.6%	53	$6,204
2022	12	6	0.3	1.4%	119	$39,673
WC
2020–2022	16	36	0.3	0.5%	46	$29,981
2020	9	23	0.6	1.1%	53	$29,163
2021	16	12	0.3	0.5%	38	$34,311
2022	28	1	0.0	0.0%	2	$375

Abbreviations. LTD, long-term disability; WC, workers’ compensation; FTEEY, full-time-equivalent employee-year.

^aExcludes claims with missing payment information.

Table 5. COVID-19 cohort six-month post-period direct medical and prescription costs.

	2020	2021	2022
Employee count, N	11,442	18,790	27,516
All cause total health costs, mean (SE)	$8,743 ($403)	$9,898 ($439)	$7,865 ($181)
All cause medical costs, mean (SE)	$7,566 ($395)	$8,540 ($431)	$5,907 ($169)
All cause pharmacy costs, mean (SE)	$1,177 ($50)	$1,358 ($66)	$1,958 ($53)
Covid-related total health costs, mean (SE)	$2,952 ($336)	$3,866 ($291)	$853 ($63)
Covid-related medical costs, mean (SE)	$2,952 ($336)	$3,866 ($291)	$849 ($63)
Covid-related pharmacy costs, mean (SE)	$0 ($0)	$0.01 ($0.00)	$3.47 ($0.04)

Note: Clinician-administered medications, such as remdesivir are included in the costs associated with the medical claims.