Integrated Benefits Institute Announces Availability of 2007 IBI Benchmarking Data for Employers to Evaluate Effectiveness of their Health and Productivit...( New this year is addition of group he...),Health

New this year is addition of group health benchmark data providing information by disease state, prevalence and cost for a variety of industries

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --To help employers evaluate the need for and effectiveness of their health and productivity management programs, the non-profit Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) announced today the availability of its 2007 benchmarking data. Not only does IBI's benchmarking offer the ability to access the country's largest and most comprehensive single-source benchmarks across occupational and non-occupational disability/leave programs, this year users can also benefit from the addition of group health benchmark data. Through a partnership with Thomson Reuters encompassing 8 million covered lives from the MarketScan database, information is now available by disease state, prevalence and costs for a variety of industries.

IBI has amassed data based on 35,000 employer benefits programs comprising 2.32 million claims across workers' compensation, short- and long-term disability and family and medical leave. IBI now has the capacity to report on more than 400 industry groups, some down to the four-digit SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code level.

IBI employer members receive benchmarks for their industry for WC (workers' compensation), STD (short term disability), LTD (long term disability) and FML (family and medical leave) programs. No-cost, one-year employer IBI memberships now are available by contacting info@ibiweb.org.

"It's critical that employers and their supplier partners have access to credible, industry-specific, standardized data to benchmark results to help determine the impact and effectiveness of their benefits programs," said Chris McSwain, director, Global
'/>"/>