Workers' compensation costs for employers could rise steeply asa result of a decision by the American Medical Association toreclassify obesity as a treatable disease, a new reportcontends.

The report by the California Workers' Compensation Institute,prompted by the AMA's mid-June decision to approve a resolutionreclassifying obesity as “a disease state,” says the AMAeffectively declared that one-third of all Americans suffer from amedical condition that requires treatment.

To quantify the potential impact, the CWCI research determinedthat paid losses on claims with the obesity co-morbidity averaged$116,437, or 81.3% more than those without; and that these claimsaveraged nearly 35 weeks of lost time, or 80% more than the 19-weekaverage for claims without the obesity co-morbidity.

That was based on a study of 1.2 million workers compensationclaims from accident years 2005 to 2010 in California.

In workers' compensation, obesity has historically beenclassified as a co-morbidity – a condition that occurs at the sametime, but usually independent of, an injury or illness, the reportsaid.

In the past, medical providers might include an obesityco-morbidity code on their medical bill if they felt the conditionneeded to be addressed so that the work injury could be treated andthe patient could recover and return to work (e.g., if an obeseinjured worker needed to lose weight before undergoing backsurgery), the report says.

It adds that, currently, obesity is infrequently deemed acondition that needs to be addressed in order to treat most workinjuries and illnesses.

“That may change, however, if medical providers feel agreater responsibility to counsel obese patients about their weightand to treat the condition, especially if there is a greaterlikelihood that they will be paid for doing so,” the reportcontends.

That could prompt an influx of claims that include obesity as aco-morbidity, as well as an increase in cases in which obesity isclaimed as a compensable consequence of injury (e.g., when aninjured worker gains weight due to lack of exercise or a medicationprescribed to them during recovery), according to the report.