Abstract
BackgroundIn Finland like in many other countries, employers are legally obliged to organize occupational health services (OHS) for their employees. Because employers bear the costs of OHS it could be that in spite of the legal requirement OHS expenditure is more determined by economic performance of the company than by law. Therefore, we explored whether economic performance was associated with the companies' expenditure on occupational health services.MethodsWe used a prospective design to predict expenditure on OHS in 2001 by a company's economic performance in 1999. Data were provided by Statistics Finland and expressed by key indicators for profitability, solidity and liquidity and by the Social Insurance Institution as employers' reimbursement applications for OHS costs. The data could be linked at the company level. Regression analysis was used to study associations adjusted for various confounders.ResultsNineteen percent of the companies (N = 6 155) did not apply for reimbursement of OHS costs in 2001. The profitability of the company represented by operating margin in 1999 and adjusted for type of industry was not significantly related to the company's probability to apply for reimbursement of the costs in 2001 (OR = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.99 to 1.01). Profitability measured as operating profit in 1999 and adjusted for type of industry was not significantly related to costs for curative medical services (Beta -0.001, 95%CI: -0.00 to 0.11) nor to OHS cost of prevention in 2001 (Beta -0.001, 95%CI: -0.00 to 0.00).ConclusionWe did not find a relation between the company's economic performance and expenditure on OHS in Finland. We suppose that this is due to legislation obliging employers to provide OHS and the reimbursement system both being strong incentives for employers.
Highlights
In Finland like in many other countries, employers are legally obliged to organize occupational health services (OHS) for their employees
Because employers cover the costs of OHS it could be that in spite of this requirement OHS expenditure is more determined by economic performance of the company than by law
Based on these administrative sources, we studied if key ratios for a company's economic performance were associated with the OHS expenditure two years later
Summary
In Finland like in many other countries, employers are legally obliged to organize occupational health services (OHS) for their employees. Because employers bear the costs of OHS it could be that in spite of the legal requirement OHS expenditure is more determined by economic performance of the company than by law. Because employers cover the costs of OHS it could be that in spite of this requirement OHS expenditure is more determined by economic performance of the company than by law. A company's financial structure substantially affects its real operating decisions and the amount of risk the company is willing to bear, which have an impact on firm's input choices. Both safety and occupational health services are such inputs for a company
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