Patient outcomes and productivity: Employers fail to make the connection

Because of the shortcomings in useful data, employers and benefits specialists have not made much use of PRO-P measurements. (Photo: Getty)

A new study from the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) asks whether a common tool of cancer research, patient-reported outcomes on productivity (PRO-P), could help businesses improve benefit plans. With such patient-reported outcomes, the study said, employers and insurers might learn more about the productivity value of specific interventions.

To explore how PRO-P results are currently being used, researchers did a literature review of 138 cancer studies that included PRO-P measurements, and then asked a panel of benefits specialists whether businesses utilized such measurements, and if not, how they could be incorporated into benefit design.