Among survey respondents, 60 percent say their workers are facing more mental health and substance abuse issues compared with two years ago (Photo: Getty Images)

Amidst the growing opioid epidemic, many employers have no idea of the extent to which their workers are abusing the drug—or any other drug for that matter, according to the report, “Mental Health and Substance Abuse Benefits: 2018 Survey Results,” by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

The foundation surveyed its members and found that nearly half (42 percent) of the respondents say they are unsure of the prevalence of prescription drug addiction/substance abuse in their organization. That's because less than a third (30 percent) are conducting claims analyses.

Related: HR departments struggle to respond to opioid epidemic

For those employers who do, 22 percent found that opioid-related claims moderately increased from five years ago, 20 percent found such claims slightly increased, 8 percent saw claims significantly increased and 43 percent saw no change.

“Taking measures to prevent and treat substance abuse is critical for an organization and can possibly be life-saving for employees and their families,” says Julie Stich, the foundation's associate vice president of content.

There are other ways that employers are trying to mitigate the opioid crisis within their own workforce, according to the survey:

• Half of the respondents (50.5 percent) are using carrier prescription drug monitoring programs or pharmacy benefit managers
• 34 percent are requiring prior authorizations for outpatient opioid prescriptions in excess of a specified number of days
• 26 percent are offering alternative pain management treatments; 26 percent are limiting the number of pills allowed post-surgery
• 11 percent are increasing drug testing
• 5 percent make available in the workplace the opioid antidote Narcan, in the event of overdose

More broadly, 60 percent of respondents say their workers are facing more mental health and substance abuse issues compared with two years ago. Such issues are impacting job performance, with increased levels of absenteeism/tardiness and accidents, and lowered levels of presenteeism, relationships with coworkers and morale.

Moreover, the majority (55 percent) of organizations are reporting an increase in health care costs attributed to mental health and substance abuse issues. Nearly all (95.3 percent) offer mental health or substance abuse coverage, and the most commonly covered benefits are outpatient treatment sessions with a medical professional, followed by inpatient services and return-to-work programs. A majority of organizations also offer educational and preventative benefits through their employee assistance programs.

“Employers are tasked with the challenge of finding and continually reassessing the most effective ways to identify someone in crisis, to see they get appropriate care, and then to reintroduce them to the workplace and manage their work,” Stich says.

Read more: 

• Data-mined patient 'risk scores' being used to police opioid use
• There's still a lot of work to do to stem the opioid epidemic
• Addressing opioids in the workplace: Why altering your benefits isn't enough