BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND OPIOId ADDICTION PANELISTS Jason Youngblood, MA, LPC, CPT – Moderator Account Executive – Behavioral Health, Cigna Bee Courtois The Center for Health Care Services Stephen Williams, Director Health and Human Services, City of Houston Dr. Akunyili ER – Waterbury Hospital When health issues are left unmanaged, it can raise costs and lower productivity. And most importantly, it can impact the life of someone on your team. These issues are more prevalent than you may think. Let’s look at a few of these points: Depression - Depression is one of the most common chronic illnesses in the US, and it is the leading cause of disability between ages 15-44. It’s commonly seen along with other chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. People with depression are more likely to get diabetes, and those with diabetes are twice as likely to become depressed. Substance Use Disorders are also very common, and 75% of those with addiction are employed. If we include family members 1 in 3 people are affected by addiction. https://www.shatterproof.org/real-cost-substance-use-employers Mental Health/Substance Use Disorder (MH/SUD) claims can account for 5-8% of the total medical spend from a direct benefit cost standpoint. But these costs increase exponentially when adding the excess medical costs due to treating patients with chronic medical and comorbid MH/SUD conditions With Cigna Total Behavioral Health we manage behavioral health issues before they become more serious through a combination of wellness, medical, and pharmacy components. Through increasing the use of behavioral services across the employee population, employees can improve their health while the client can decrease total medical costs With over 40 years experience delivering behavioral programs and a large national networks of providers, Cigna manages the behavioral spend by treating the whole person and through proactive wellness solutions. Confidential, unpublished property of Cigna. Do not duplicate or distribute. Use and distribution limited solely to authorized personnel. © 2018 Cigna