The Value of Prevention

.Purchasers can avoid or reduce the costs associated with preventable conditions by offering
coverage for — and promoting the use of — clinical preventive services.
• Clinical preventive services can help individuals avoid disease altogether (e.g., tobacco
use treatment).
• Clinical preventive services can also catch disease it in its earliest stages (e.g., cervical
cancer screening). Identifying patients with early stage disease allows clinicians to
begin treatment sooner, when interventions are generally more effective and less
expensive. Early detection and treatment of some important infectious diseases can
also prevent spread of infection to others (e.g., influenza).
• Disease avoidance and early identification have financial benefits for employers
including:
> Averted medical costs; and
> Reductions in absenteeism, lost productivity, turnover, and disability.
Like any investment aimed at keeping a workforce
healthy and productive, clinical preventive services
offer value. The value of a preventive service is
determined by its ability to prevent a significant
amount of morbidity and mortality in relation to
the cost of offering the service. Because offering a
clinical preventive service has a real (monetary)
cost and an opportunity cost (there is a finite amount of services that can be delivered and
received in a given period of time), it is important for purchasers to quantify the value of
clinical preventive services in relation to one another when making coverage decisions.
The effectiveness of most clinical preventive services, particularly those considered evidencebased,
is well-documented. The effectiveness of clinical preventive services recommended in
the Purchaser’s Guide is detailed in Part III: Evidence-Statements for Recommended Clinical
Preventive Service Benefits. The cost-effectiveness (or economic value) of clinical preventive
services is described below. More information on the economic value of preventive
intervention can be found in each evidence-statement.