Economics of employer-sponsored workplace vaccination to prevent pandemic and seasonal influenza

Abstract

Employers may be loath to fund vaccination programs without understanding the economic consequences. We developed a decision analytic computational simulation model including dynamic transmission elements that estimated the cost-benefit of employer-sponsored workplace vaccination from the employer's perspective. Implementing such programs was relatively inexpensive (<$35/vaccinated employee) and, in many cases, cost saving across diverse occupational groups in all seasonal influenza scenarios. Such programs were cost-saving for a 20% serologic attack rate pandemic scenario (range: -$15 to -$995) per vaccinated employee) and a 30% serologic attack rate pandemic scenario (range: -$39 to -$1,494 per vaccinated employee) across all age and major occupational groups.