Quantifying the clinical and economic cost of stress

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Our client – Cigna- is one of the largest health insurers globally, with a significant portfolio in the US and increasing presence in the Middle East and Asia. Cigna have long advocated for increased attention to be paid to the impact of stress on individuals and populations. They are active partners to their insured populations; supporting wellbeing, offering increased coverage for mental ill-health conditions and working with health system partners to help tackle the root causes of stress. 

To further their efforts in this space, Asia Care Group were commissioned to undertake a “first in kind” study to quantify the direct economic and clinical costs of chronic stress on nine health systems.

WHAT WE DID

We developed a novel health economic model to derive stress-related utilisation rates. Using actual utilisation and cost data from the markets included in the study, we were able to express the likely costs associated with stress-related illness and what this translated to in terms of appointments, A&E attendances, GP visits and hospitalisations. We looked in detail at the differences across markets and the reasons for variation, and developed our findings into a published report.