The Business Case for Earlier Care: Absenteeism, Presenteeism, and Late-vs-Early Costs

Andres Jimenez MD MSED MBA MS

“Prevention isn’t a philosophy—it’s an operating system for your workforce. When risk is caught early, you avoid the painful cascade of procedures, hospitalizations, and recovery that pull people off the field for weeks. Most organizations treat absenteeism as the headline cost, but the quiet drain is presenteeism—employees who are at work yet underperforming because of undiagnosed or undertreated conditions. Reduce silent risk and you stabilize productivity.” Dr. Andres Jimenez, Board-Certified in Public Health & Prevention, and Clinical Informatics. Founder & CEO of HealthPrevent360

Late detection drives two hidden taxes on employers: time away (absenteeism) and time underperforming (presenteeism). The former is visible in schedules and payroll; the latter shows up in missed deadlines, error rates, and low energy. The business case for earlier action is straightforward: fewer crises, fewer invasive interventions, and less churn in high-value roles.

What employers should focus on now

• Find the “silent” risks. Uncontrolled hypertension, pre-diabetes, depression, and musculoskeletal pain often go unaddressed until they balloon into ER visits or surgeries.

• Shrink time-to-action. Rapid outreach and navigation after a risk is flagged prevents long spirals of avoidable utilization.

• Watch presenteeism signals. Repeated short breaks, reduced output, and task-avoidance can precede a medical event by months.

• Protect key teams. Finance closes, engineering launches, and clinical ops cycles are vulnerable to one or two people going down at the wrong time.

• Measure avoided disruption. Track days of restricted duty avoided and time from flag → appointment → resolution.

In a landmark analysis, depression alone cost U.S. employers an estimated $44 billion/year in lost productive time—over 80% due to reduced performance at work (presenteeism), not days missed. JAMA Network

Bottom line: Earlier identification doesn’t just lower medical spend; it reduces the operational drag that compounds across projects, teams, and deadlines.

How HP360 can support you—without changing your health plan

We streamline the “early” part: rapid consent, clinically informed risk surfacing, and fast next steps that minimize disruption to work and life.

• Identify silent, high-impact risks early

• Reduce avoidable ED visits and late detections

• Support employees through clear, low-friction next steps

• Focus on safety and harm minimization, not more testing

• Deliver executive dashboards that leaders can act on

Learn About our Employer Prevention Programs

About Dr. Jimenez

Board-certified physician, triple Ivy League–trained innovator leading the nation’s first prevention-only clinic. Dr. Jimenez has built physician-led technology adopted by 3,000+ hospitals and clinics, guided companies through acquisition and IPO, and serves as Assistant Clinical Professor (Environmental & Public Health) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NY. At HealthPrevent360, he applies clinical informatics and prevention science to help individuals anticipate risk, prevent and early-detect disease. The clinic’s prevention engine has analyzed hundreds of thousands of clinical pages and supports thousands of patients.