Posted on 01/20/2022 - 12:34 PM
Title:
Long COVID and the workplace: Case managers and disability management specialists must prepare to support clients and educate employers
Description:
Only recently have we begun to grasp the impact of long COVID on the workplace.
Despite knowing about COVID-19 and its symptoms, most health care professionals don’t completely understand what has come to be called “long COVID.” Case managers and disability management specialists need to learn as much as they can, says Patricia Nunez, MA, CRC, CDMS, CCM, secretary, Commission for Case Manager Certification. “As many as 30% of those who get COVID-19 have lingering symptoms, some debilitating.”
The medical term for long COVID illness is post-acute sequelae of COVID19 (PASC). PASC includes persistent or new symptoms that develop at least four to eight weeks after the initial infection with COVID-19. For some people, these symptoms persist for a year or more.
Estimates vary widely: About 10% to 30% of COVID-19 survivors develop PASC. “I’d say with the research that I’ve seen, it’s probably around 15%”, says Charles Glassman, MD, associate medical director, the Standard Insurance Company (The Standard). “That means up to 3.1 million people are expected to develop PASC, which is almost 2% of the workforce.”
Read the full issue brief to learn more.