Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb;24(S1):S3-S15.
doi: 10.1089/pop.2020.0261. Epub 2020 Dec 21.

Return to Work: Managing Employee Population Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Maren S Fragala  1 , Zachary N Goldberg  1 , Steven E Goldberg  1
Affiliations

Return to Work: Managing Employee Population Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Maren S Fragala et al. Popul Health Manag. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has abruptly transformed the outlook of employer health benefits plans for 2020 and 2021. Containing the spread of the virus and facilitating care of those infected have quickly emerged as immediate priorities. Employers have adjusted health benefits coverage to make COVID-19 testing and treatment accessible and remove barriers to care in order to facilitate the containment of the disease. Employers also are introducing strategies focused on testing, surveillance, workplace modifications, and hygiene to keep workforces healthy and workplaces safe. This paper is intended to provide evidence-based perspectives for self-insured employers for managing population health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such considerations include (1) return to work practices focused on mitigating the spread of COVID-19 through safety practices, testing and surveillance; and (2) anticipating the impact of COVID-19 on health benefits and costs (including adaptations in delivery of care, social and behavioral health needs, and managing interrupted care for chronic conditions).

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; SARS-CoV-2; employee population health; health benefits and costs; return to work practices.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Drs. Fragala and Goldberg are employees of and own stock in Quest Diagnostics. Mr. Goldberg declares that he has no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Workplace measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.,
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. Coronavirus resource center. 2020. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html Accessed October26, 2020
    1. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The latest on the coronavirus. 2020. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/the-latest-on-the-cor... Accessed August11, 2020
    1. Zhao S, Lin Q, Ran J, et al. Preliminary estimation of the basic reproduction number of novel coronavirus (2019-ncov) in China, from 2019 to 2020: a data-driven analysis in the early phase of the outbreak. Int J Infect Dis 2020;92:214–217 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19). Interpretation of cumulative death forecasts. 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/forecasting-us.html Accessed October26, 2020
    1. Basu A. Estimating the infection fatality rate among symptomatic covid-19 cases in the United States. Health Aff (Millwood) 2020;39:1229–1236 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources