Modeling U.S. Occupational Health Costs

The primary purpose of this research was to improve the effectiveness of cost comparison analyses for the 75th Aerospace Medicine Group, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Bioenvironmental engineers sought a more robust cost comparison tool, allowing engineers to quickly determine the viability of proposed occupational health-related expenditures. To justify the funding of potential projects, engineers must quantify the expected cost savings. Improved cost comparison analysis enables personnel to better justify worthy projects or filer out uneconomical solutions. A secondary purpose of this research to validate Department of Defense (DoD) occupational illness cost factors. This research effort focused on cost factors were developed in 1988, and no continuity or exisiting methodology is available to determine how the factors were developed. We modeled direct medical expenditures related to occupational illness for a specific set of illnesses for active duty Air Force personnel to validate the "no lost time" factor. Additionally, we attempted to validate and apportion the hospitalization factor into direct adn indirect occupational illness costs. This new knowledge will allow leaders to plan for and mitigate potential occupational illness costs.