The Allergy Domino Effect: How Minor Symptoms Lead to Major Employer Costs

Leaving allergies untreated is like tipping the first domino – what may start as seasonal sniffling can turn into long term, comorbid conditions. Sinusitis, asthma, migraines, digestive issues, mental health conditions, and more, can all stem from an underlying allergy. From an employer’s perspective, that’s years and years of healthcare costs, all pointing back to the root cause of allergy. What can you do to stop that first domino?

Symptom Management Isn’t Enough

A past blog showed that over 20 billion dollars was spent in one year on medications made to help with allergy symptoms. Here are a few that you might recognize from your annual spend report:

• Advair: Inhaler for asthma
• Xolair: Biologic injections for hives and eczema
• Symbicort: Inhaled steroid for asthma and COPD
• Veramyst: Nasal spray for allergic rhinitis

Patients often have long-term dependency on these meds, which increases costs for employers, and doesn’t actually touch the underlying disease – just masks the symptoms.

Beyond what is seen on medication administration reports, patients are spending money out of their own pocket to buy over the counter drugs like antihistamines, creams, sprays and more to manage their symptoms. It’s a constant spiral that will continue, as none of these “treatments” get to the root cause.

Stopping the Domino with disease-modifying treatment

Though allergy is harder to detect through diagnosis codes and procedure costs, patients seek care at their healthcare clinics to find relief from their allergy-related symptoms. Symptom-relievers are the main form of treatment, but there is another option that is safe, effective, and treats the underlying cause of allergy – allergy drop immunotherapy.

Allergy drops following The La Crosse Method™ Protocol are suggested for patients ranging from those with seasonal allergic rhinitis to those with asthma, chronic sinusitis, headaches and other related conditions. After thorough allergy testing, history, and exam, patients are prescribed a custom allergy drop vial that contains tiny amounts of the allergens identified as problematic during testing.

The drops have enough of the allergens to help build tolerance, but not too much to cause unnecessary reactions. The body is slowly introduced to more and more of the allergen, so that over time, it learns that it’s not harmful, and there is no need to react when exposed. This leads to less symptoms, and less comorbid condition flare ups.

The best part is that the employees feel better, but employers also find that allergy drop treatment:

• Reduces healthcare utilization
• Reduces medication spend
• Reduces absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace
• Improves quality of life for chronically sick employees

It’s a win-win when offered as an option to employees.

What Employers Can Do Now

You may not know if this is a fit for your business, or if allergy is an issue for your employees, and that’s where Allergychoices’ Allergy Control Program fits in. Our team works with employers, brokers, clinics, and more to help discover allergy’s impact on your covered individuals, and how allergy drop immunotherapy could help improve their lives (and your bottom line).

Reach out to our Allergy Control Program team to take the first step in identifying allergies impact on your organization, and learn more about how custom treatment could help.