• Addicted senior executives succeed in achieving an addiction recovery rate as high as 90 percent when provided with access to substance abuse treatment and after-care services.[1]
  
  
• 89 percent of corporate Human Resources professionals are convinced that addiction treatment is effective in helping employees beat addiction. And most (72.6 percent) believe that workers who sought treatment for addiction have returned to the workplace as productive employees.[2]
  
  
• The largest study to date on the benefits of substance abuse treatment found that after treatment statewide emergency room admissions dropped by 1/3, crime declined by two-thirds - with the initial cost of treating 150,000 people for addiction leading to cost savings of $1.5 billion.[3]
  
  
• Reported job problems, such as incomplete work, absenteeism, tardiness, on-the-job injuries, mistakes, and disagreements with supervisors, are cut by an average of 75 percent among treated employees.[4]
  
  
• A California study concluded that the cost of rehabilitating an employee who had been addicted to alcohol or other drugs is half that of firing the problem employee and then hiring and training a new person.[5]
  
  
• Every $1 spent on treatment of addiction saves $7 in averted drug-related crime and criminal justice costs - when adding savings related to healthcare, the savings exceed costs by a ratio of 12 to 1.[6]  The Rand Corporation expects addiction treatment will save U.S. taxpayers over $5 billion, while not raising health insurance premiums more than 0.2%, or 44 cents per month per insured.
  
  
• Treatment outcomes for drug dependence are comparable to those for other chronic medical conditions such with behavioral components. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that success in treating drug dependence, including alcohol, was comparable to the medical profession's success in treating diabetes, hypertension and asthma.[7]
  
  
• Substance abuse treatment services can be made available to employees for $5.11 a year, or 43 cents per month.[8]According to the actuarial firm Milliman and Robertson, substance abuse parity will increase premium costs by less than one percent or less than $1 per family member per month.[9]

[1] Sherman, P., Recovery in the Executive Suite, Employee Assistance Program Digest, May/June 1999, p. 27-29.
[2] Hazelden Foundation, 2003 Workplace Addiction Survey.
[3] University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center and Lewin-VHI of Fairfax, Virginia for the State of California Health and Welfare Agency's Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs in 1994.
[4] CATOR Connection, Comprehensive Assessment and Treatment Outcome Research, St. Paul, MN, 1990.
[5] Effects of Alcoholism Treatment of State Employees, State of California Study, 1978.
[6] NIDA, Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment, 1999.
[7] Kleber, H.D., O'Brien, C.P., Lewis, D.C. and McLellan, A.T., Drug Dependence, A Chronic Medical Illness, Journal of the American Medical Association, 284 (13), Chicago, October 2000.
[8] Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, May 1999. How Expensive Are Unlimited Substance Abuse Benefits Under Managed Care, by Roland Sturm, Ph.D.
[9] Milliman & Robertson Inc., 1997, Premium Estimates for Substance Abuse Parity Provisions for Commercial Health Insurance Products.