Mental health expenditures: Association with workplace incivility and bullying among hospital patient care workers

Objective: Bullied workers have poor self-reported mental health; monetary costs of bullying exposure are unknown. We tested associations between bullying and health plan claims for mental health diagnoses. Methods: We used data from 793 hospital workers who answered questions about bullying in a survey and subscribed to the group health plan. We used two-part models to test associations between types of incivility/bullying and mental health expenditures. Results: Workers experiencing incivility or bullying had greater odds of any mental health claims. Among claimants, unexposed workers spent $792, those experiencing one type of incivility or bullying spent $1557 (P for difference from unexposed ¼ 0.016), those experiencing two types spent $928 (P ¼ 0.503), and those experiencing three types spent $1446 (P ¼ 0.040). Conclusion: Workplace incivility and bullying may carry monetary costs to employers, which could be controlled through work environment modification.