Cost Savings Viewed as Critical Benefit of Combating Sleep Apnea
The diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea in U.S. workers suffering from the sleep condition is an ongoing battle. The cost of health care for those afflicted with sleep apnea is one of the main reasons why it is so difficult for those suffering to want to get tested and seek treatment. However, when looking at the healthcare costs resulting from untreated sleep apnea versus healthcare costs resulting from treated sleep apnea, the difference is apparent. The American Sleep Apnea Association (ASPA) is working with various fleet owners to seek treatment for OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) as an investment rather than a cost.
From the fleet owners’ standpoint, research shows that up to $165 billion in annual costs for the fleet company are related to sleep apnea with $5 billion to $10 billion as a result from lost productivity and $10 billion to $40 billion spent on traffic accidents related to fatigue. Additionally, as much as $45 billion to $80 billion are spent on “hidden” health care costs resulting from undiagnosed sleep apnea, such as hospitalization. On the other hand, only $2 billion to $10 billion in costs are spent on the diagnoses and treatment for OSA. When comparing this amount compared to the overarching $165 billion in potential costs of untreated sleep apnea, the numbers speak for themselves.
The treatment of sleep apnea not only benefits the fleet owner financially, it also provides healthy and happy drivers. Undiagnosed sleep apnea is connected with a variety of other chronic disorders such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. Treatment allows for the drivers to maintain a better quality of life and for the fleet owners to save costs on a variety of different healthcare conditions connected with sleep apnea.
Since 2010, awareness about OSA has been on the rise throughout the trucking industry, however now, medical officers are insisting to broaden the message and awareness of the impact of sleep apnea to other transportation sectors and the U.S. working community as a whole. The trucking industries exposer to OSA and its treatment, although viewed by truck drivers in a negative light, is in reality putting the trucking industry ahead of the curve regarding preventative health and cutting healthcare costs.
In a study done by Schneider National, it was reported that out of the 19,371 drivers tested, 79.7% suffered from some degree of sleep apnea, 31% of the total suffering from severe sleep apnea. The gold standard for treatment for OSA is a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device. Utilizing this treatment would result in significantly lower apnea symptoms, reduction in health care costs, and most importantly, a decrease in the risk of crashes caused by fatigue.
Another study compared those diagnosed with OSA and were being treated versus those diagnosed with OSA not receiving treatment. The results indicated that there was a 40.6% decline in missed workdays in the group that was undergoing treatment, as well as a 47.8% decline in disability claim rates, with a total of $6,341 in savings in annual health care expenses. A similar study found a 73% reduction in preventable accidents for treated OSA drivers.
In either scenario, funds will have to be set aside to finance the ongoing battle of healthcare costs, but in regards to OSA and its treatment, the research all points to diagnosing and treating sleep apnea as the cheaper and all around more advantageous path to take. AllTrans Medical understands the lengths it takes for fleet owners to diagnose and treat OSA for its drivers and plan to work with the fleet, providing a program that takes care of screening for sleep apnea to treatment. With our cost effective and comprehensive program, fleet owners can feel confident that their drivers are being taken care of.
Sleep Apnea: What Every Trucking Company Needs to Know
Sleep apnea has shown to be a prevalent and recurring diagnosis in the fleet trucking industry. By definition, sleep apnea is a temporary cessation of breathing while you are asleep. It can occur over 100 times each hour in some severe cases. It is a disorder that is treatable, however it also worsens with age and weight gain. If sleep apnea remains untreated, it can lead to serious health conditions such as high blood pressure, anxiety, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, depression, respiratory disorders, and heartburn. Untreated sleep apnea also makes the driver at 2 to 7 times more likely to get into a motor vehicle accident. In addition, drivers who remain untreated for sleep apnea tend to revert to less effective habits to stay awake and alert, including smoking cigarettes and drinking caffeine; these habits just perpetuate the unhealthy and detrimental lifestyles of these drivers. On the other hand, sleep apnea that is treated results in reduced healthcare costs for both the driver and the employer. Treated sleep apnea allows the drivers to increase their productivity immensely and go through their work day with an alert and active mind. As a fleet owner, becoming proactive and investing in a program to advise all of your drivers to get tested and/or treated for sleep apnea can be a very constructive decision, yielding higher retention of your drivers, loads being delivered on time since treated drivers will no longer have to pull over to nap during the workday, and self-assurance that your drivers are not adding danger to the roads.
Increasing Standards for Sleepy Truck Drivers
In the recent months, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has proposed stricter standards for commercial driver sleep apnea. These proposals recommend medical examiners to thoroughly evaluate and rule out sleep apnea as a condition for these drivers. The recommendations have been presented from the medical community, an advisory panel from the trucking industry, and various advocacy interests including labor and safety.
Specifically, it was recommended that any driver with the body mass index of 35 or greater should be evaluated for sleep apnea by the medical examiner. The regulation of 35 was determined to be a decisive indicator of sleep apnea. Those who have a higher body mass index, have a stronger likelihood of being diagnosed with sleep apnea. Although it is a request at the moment, the FMCSA and panels believe that in the near future, this screening process will be mandated for all drivers.
Once tested and compliant in undergoing treatment, the driver will be qualified to drive again. By taking these drivers off the road temporarily, the risk of a driver falling asleep or having decreased job performance due to fatigue will be lessened, thus making the roads safer for all drivers. Driving while fatigued due to sleep apnea can result in a driver having a slower reaction time and having larger lapses of attention. Charles Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated that “The crash risk for a person with sleep apnea is 242% greater than a person without the disorder.”
Lack of Sleep Has Negative Effects on Your Work
A shocking 40% of Americans do not get a sufficient amount of sleep at night. Knowing that a percentage of this 40% probably drive a motor operated vehicle daily, and some of them even work for Trucking Fleets as a profession, this alarming statistic would definitely cause alarm. Within the transportation industry alone, undiagnosed sleep apnea is a major cause of lack of sleep. Drivers are reported to feel fatigued and tired during the middle of the work day to the point where their job performance is affected. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has worked to decrease these reports by not only acknowledging the importance of sleep apnea screening, but also recommending more thorough screening for truck driver sleep apnea based on a selected criteria.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep-breathing disorder. An apnea event occurs throughout the night when the individual’s airway to the lungs becomes obstructed due to relaxation of muscles, resulting in snoring, or the individual to stop breathing temporarily. This event causes the individual to awake from their deep sleep to be able to breath again. If many of these events occur during the night, the individual will not feel well rested and refreshed.
Trucking companies are all looking for the overall safety of their drivers and the civilians on the road, and thus are looking to be extra careful when hiring new drivers by being sure to rule out sleep apnea and ensuring a sufficient amount of rest time before the driver is on the road.
Liability in the Trucking Industry has a Major Contributor – Sleep Disorders
The trucking industry has a major contributor when it comes to health care and liability costs, its sleep disorders. There are well documented and easy to spot losses that are incurred daily but not recognized. Sleep disorders that go untreated are linked to heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and many other medical conditions. We are trying to be proactive before the disease catches the patient.
AllTrans Fleet Services Program provides a Turnkey Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) Program that offers state-of-the-art remote testing and treatment technology to the transportation industry with the convenience of full program implementation and support, superior compliance reporting with little if any down time. The program is easy to follow and affordable for commercial truck drivers and keeps them on the road. Many Fleet managers are meeting the sleep apnea problem head on and reaping the rewards of lowering health-care costs and reducing the amount of accidents for their drivers. Treating sleep apnea will continue to lower costs in the long run by lowering liability premiums.
Keep Your Health Care Costs Down
For employers in every industry, health care costs are continuing to grow with no signs of stopping in the recent future. It is nearly impossible to find a decent coverage policy at a low cost to the company. One particular instance causing health care costs to increase is accidents. Accidents, although affect every industry to an extent, is extremely evident particularly in the trucking industry.
If a driver is fatigued due to undiagnosed or untreated sleep apnea, the risk for them to get into an accident is increased. A fatigued driver has a decreased ability to remain alert and concentrate, affecting their safety while on the road as well as safety of other drivers. Sleep apnea almost guarantees a driver to have an inadequate amount of sleep causing them to be fatigued during the work day.
Not only do they increase accident risk, untreated sleep apnea in truck drivers increases risk of other health issues. This included heart attack, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, immune problems, and more that are at a higher risk of occurring with the presence of untreated sleep apnea. Adding these conditions to the list would increase the company’s cost in health care immensely. Diagnosing and treating sleep apnea will, in the long run, decrease a company’s potential increase in health care due to the additional costs. Costs for health care associated with sleep apnea can be reduced by up to 50% for each driver who is diagnosed and treated with sleep apnea.
AllTrans Fleet works to screen, test, prescribe, and treat all drivers in your fleet. By monitoring the treatment of each diagnosed driver, we ensure that the treatment is successfully allowing your drivers to improve their lifestyles, while simultaneously preventing your health care costs from increasing.
The Economics of the TurnKey Sleep Apnea Program
Medical and accident avoidance costs are consistently increasing. Investing in our “TurnKey” Program will allow you to decrease these medical and accident avoidance costs in the long run. By ensuring driver compliance in Sleep Apnea treatment, your costs will only decrease once you sign up for our program.
Treated sleep apnea costs are far less expensive than medical and accident costs resulting from lack of testing and treatment for sleep apnea. With our program, not only do your drivers get diagnosed correctly, they will also ensure their safety as well as the safety of other through a regimented compliance program, verifying that the treatment is working.
Treatment for sleep apnea effectively cuts the risk of heart attack and stroke in half for diagnosed and treated patients. Decreasing these risks in turn decrease medical costs to the fleet owner and minimize the burden of paying penalties due to unhealthy or unsafe drivers on the road. Additionally, you would cut costs in Workers Compensation payments and expenses from sick-days taken by the drivers. Getting on board with our sleep apnea testing and treatment program can also assist you with reducing insurance costs in the long run.
AllTrans Medical Fleet will customize a program to allow maximized benefits for your fleet. Your drivers will get tested for sleep apnea using a simple and convenient home sleep test. And if positive, the driver will receive treatment and compliance monitoring for up to one month to ensure that no driver in your fleet will be suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea.
With our highly trained and motivated management team, we will be able to provide your fleet with all potential aspects you would need through this testing and treatment process. Our patient coordinators utilize all and any resources in order to maintain constant communication between your drivers, fleet owners, and ourselves, allowing this entire experience to be a smooth ride from start to finish. In the end, it is a win-win situation for both your drivers and yourselves. Not only are you putting healthy and safe drivers out on the road, but you are also cutting excessive cost out from your expenses.
The Dangers of Sleep Deprivation in the Transportation Industry
If you feel drowsy while driving, you’re not alone! In a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, it was analyzed that sleep problems in a variety of different drivers in the transportation industry are affecting their job performance. Safety is an important part of the transportation industry, and thus these results revealed a very serious issue. For specific responses from the poll, read on:
Train Operators in particular stated that they were extremely concerned with sleep problems and their impact on their lives and job performance. 44% stated that because of their daily routines, they are unable to sleep for an adequate amount of time. 14% were actually diagnosed with sleep apnea and reported nightly snoring and waking up not refreshed. 26% of train operators stated that their fatigue and lack of sleep impact their job performance at least once a week. 18% stated that they almost had an accident while at work due to sleepiness.
Truck drivers had similar responses in train operators. They also believed that their fatigue affected their work performance. Within truck drivers, 11% are diagnosed with various sleep disorders and 15% state that their sleepiness impacted their job performance at least once per week. 14% of truck drivers documented that they were involved in a “near miss” accident while driving at work.
Pilots also stated that their daily routines prevent them from getting the proper requirements of sleep. They stated that they tend to wake up feeling fatigued and “unrefreshed.”, affecting their job performance directly. 5% of pilots polled were diagnosed with a sleep disorder and 23% stated that sleepiness affects their job performance weekly. Since “near miss” accidents are not likely for pilots, they instead responded that 20% of pilots associated sleepiness with errors made during the work day.
Public Transportation Specialists were another arena polled during this study. Although their work hours are shorter than the other transportation industries polled above, they still stated overall that sleepiness affects their job performance. 18% also stated that they do not achieve the proper requirements needed for a good night’s sleep during the workweek. 5% are currently diagnosed with sleep disorders and 10% state that sleep does impact their job performance. 12% of public transportation specialists admitted to having a “near miss” accident during work due to lack of sleep.
Sleepiness and sleep-related disorders are prevalent in all working industries, however their association with job performance in the Transportation Industry is definitely more significant than most. The ability of the drivers in the Transportation industry to be safe and healthy must be insured since so many lives are at stake.
The Turn-Key Sleep Apnea program at AllTrans Medical Fleet Services helps drivers determine if sleep apnea is the culprit for causing their fatigue and sleepiness. AllTrans Medical Fleet Services provides home sleep testing to diagnose drivers for sleep apnea. By taking the initiative today, your drivers can begin treatment and enjoy a longer, healthier, and safer life.
