Where Does Disability Insurance Fit On The Health/Productivity Continuum?
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IDM, TAM, HPM–what do these acronyms stand for? What do they mean? And where does your disability product fit along the spectrum?
It helps to know because over the last several years, the U.S. market has seen employer interest move along the continuum of approaches. Employers have gone from integrated disability management (IDM) toward total absence management (TAM), and beyond to overall workforce health and productivity (HPM) solutions.
In any given conversation, you might hear all three acronyms being used interchangeably.
Or, if speaking with someone who really understands the issues, you might find the person using each acronym to mean something different.
If you are approaching employers with disability products, you need to know which term to use and when. Here is a refresher to help.
IDM refers to the concept of integrating the various pieces of disability management to achieve cost and administrative efficiencies for the employer, and a better "customer experience" for the employee.
The typical program elements included in IDM are short and long term disability, workers compensation coverage, and family medical leave administration.
By coordinating these three program elements through a single intake source, with immediate triage to the appropriate claims administrator, employers gain several benefits.
They can report a claim using one simple communications process. They can track both occupational and non-occupational absences to eliminate duplication of coverage. They can comply with state and federal family medical leave laws of notification and certification. And they can eliminate reliance on the employee in determining what type of claim they have.
In addition, IDM programs typically encourage early intervention, provide opportunities for common case management across occupational and non-occupational claims, and create an environment where formal return-to-work programs can be implemented throughout the organization.
Further, and perhaps most important, this integration allows employers to track effectively the data that is related to all these areas, establish a baseline against which to measure themselves, identify trends occurring throughout the organization and subsequently develop programs for improvement over time.
