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Evaluation of FTA Drug Abuse Testing Program April 2008

Evaluation of FTA Drug Abuse Testing Program April 2008. Jerry Powers, FTA Office of Program Management – Safety & Security. Evaluation Analysis Opportunities. Use DAMIS data and external cost measures to develop a cost benefit model

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Evaluation of FTA Drug Abuse Testing Program April 2008

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  1. Evaluation of FTA Drug Abuse Testing ProgramApril 2008 Jerry Powers, FTA Office of Program Management – Safety & Security

  2. Evaluation Analysis Opportunities • Use DAMIS data and external cost measures to develop a cost benefit model • Compare DAMIS data to SAMIS data to determine safety benefit from the D&A Program • Raise the bar – provide customer service. Opportunities to use DAMIS to help agencies justify D&A expenditure apart from it just being a regulatory requirement • Show where to focus efforts/funding - areas for improvement

  3. CHARTERProve the Effectiveness of the D&A Program in Achieving FTA Strategic Goal • Promoting public safety by eliminating transit-related deaths, injuries, and property damage USE: • Maturing DAMIS data together with: • Safety Data (SAMIS/NTD) • Audits/Technical assistance experience and data • Other Industry and Government D&A measures • Creative analysis

  4. New Measures of Cost and Safety BenefitsMoney, Lives & Mayhem Cost Benefit • Show cost saving to Transit Industry due to elimination or mitigation of D&A using employees • Second chance programs have significant cost benefit to industry • Audits are having a positive effect in terms of safety benefits and cost savings • Use baseline rate (1995 or 1996) and subsequent improvement to prove reduction in accidents, fatalities and injuries Safety Benefit

  5. Outline • Concept and Measures • FTA and Testing Costs • Benefits • Mitigation of Drug & Alcohol positives • Pre-employment • Random • Reasonable Suspicion • Refusals • Post-Accident • Deterrent Effect • Safety • Audits • Second Chance Programs

  6. D&A Evaluation Concept I. COST BENEFIT II. SAFETY BENEFIT Baseline Baseline NTD S&S Data DAMIS Data NTD S&S Data Other Industry and Government D&A Cost Measures DAMIS Data Analysis Analysis Merge these baselines into cost benefit spreadsheet Of D&A Program NTD S&S Data NTD S&S Data Merge these baselines to show D&A contributing to accident avoidance DAMIS Data DAMIS Data Other Industry and Government D&A Cost Measures

  7. Industry and Government D&A Cost Measures

  8. DAMIS Baseline • Random Positives are on the decline • CDL positive rate is higher than other employee categories

  9. NTD S&S Baseline • Transit Industry is getting safer. Incidents, injuries and fatalities are trending down

  10. I. Cost Methodology - Cost Benefit Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . .

  11. Cost Methodology – Unit of Measurement • Each D&A using employee costs the Transit Industry and the overall society $15-20K per year: • Health Care Expenditures • D&A abuse services • Medical consequences • Productivity Effects • Premature Death • Impaired productivity • Institutionalization, Incarceration, Crime careers and victims • Other Effects • Crime effects • Vehicle crashes and fire • D&A Program eliminates or mitigates users at $15-20K per user per year

  12. 2005 $2,200,000 FTA Total Cost per Year - FY2001 309,190 Total Tests 140,179 Total Random and Reasonable Suspicion Drug Tests $66.56 Cost per Test - from 1999 Rural $20,579,686 Actual Cost of Tests $6.08 Safety Sensitive Employee Productivity Cost (per test) $853,410 Total National Productivity Cost to Agencies Cost of Drug & Alcohol Program Personnel at Transit Agencies (per 40.97 Test) $12,667,514 Total National Administrative Cost to Agencies $36,300,611 Total Cost Costs • Costs have ranged from $22M-$36M per year since 1995

  13. Savings Methodology • Transit is 0.14% of the US Gross National Product (approximately $17.4 Billion/year in 2005) • Cost of Drug use and Alcohol misuse to the US economy is $483 Billion per year – NIDA measure indexed • Transit portion of that cost is $677 Million per year. Safety-sensitive are 80% of transit employees. Thus incur $542 Million of that cost. • 10.6% of Transportation Workers with drug use and/or alcohol misuse - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Survey • Approximately 260,000 safety-sensitive transit employees • Thus, ~27,500 incur the $542 Million in annual cost • $542,000,000/27,500 employees = $19,700 per year per employee in 2005 • Deterring or mitigating those 27,500 employees is the basic savings opportunity

  14. Savings Methodology

  15. Cost MethodologyPre-employment Savings • Pre-employment testing - eliminated 18,125 users over the course of the Program. These users would have cost the Transit Industry $358 Million in 2005 (18,125*$19,753 = ~$358,000,000).

  16. Cost MethodologyRandom Savings • Random testing - eliminated or mitigated 5701 users over the previous 5 years of the program in 2005. These users would have cost the Transit Industry $112 Million in 2005 (5701*$19,753 = ~$112,000,000).

  17. Cost MethodologyPost-Accident, Reasonable Suspicion, and Refusals • Post Accident positives - eliminated or mitigated 1041 users over previous 5 years in 2005. These users would have cost the Transit Industry $21 Million in 2005. • Reasonable Suspicion - eliminated or mitigated 601 over previous 5 years in 2005. These users would have cost the Transit Industry $12 Million in 2005. • Refusals - eliminated 1506 users over previous 5 years in 2005. These users would have cost the Transit Industry $30 Million in 2005.

  18. Deterrent Effect of Random Testing Year to Year calculation – no cumulative effect If the positive rate remained the same as at the beginning of the program, each year there would be ~2000 more positives per year Random Positive Rate

  19. Deterrence – Random Program • Has saved a total of $347 Million 1995-2005 • From $9M to up to $56M per year

  20. Cost Methodology • Drug and Alcohol Rules Cost Benefit (Regulatory Impact Analysis) called for a $1.39 Billion benefit over 10 years. An average of $139 million/year. • Real data from the first 11 years blows this figure away • $3.683 Billion (or $335 million per year average) Redskins 27 Cowboys 14 It’s Up and…. It’s Good!

  21. Safety Methodology - D&A Accidents are Comparable with Regular Accidents in Lethality • SAMIS shows and .0071 fatalities per Accident (Collision) 1995 – 1998. • DAMIS shows .0077 fatalities per D&A Accident. • Thus, D&A has comparable lethality to Overall Safety figures in fatal accidents (8% higher than non-D&A accidents). • Fatalities are a function of accidents – bad luck when they occur

  22. Safety Methodology - Show that D&A Program Saves Lives and Reduces Injuries • D&A Program Reduces Accidents and thus, exposure to Injuries and Fatalities • No way of measuring the D&A related accident rate before the program, so… • Use 1995 as a baseline

  23. Saving Lives: It’s What’s above the Curve Post-Accident Positive Rate (Drug and Alcohol) Per Incident • Using 1995 as a baseline, • the dark wedge represents: • 1690 Accidents • 13 Fatalities • 1486 Injuries Post Accident Positive Rate

  24. Safety Methodology -Less Accidents = Less Mayhem • DAMIS showed that 3.1% accidents were D&A related in 1995 (Baseline) • DAMIS showed that 1.5% accidents were D&A related in 2005 (Improvement) • If the rate had remained at 3.1%, 1690 more accidents would have resulted from 1996-2005. • National Transit Database (NTD) Safety & Security module reveals that .0071 fatalities result per accident (collisions, vehicle going off road, and derailments) • At an overall DAMIS rate of .0077 fatalities per accident, these 817 accidents would be expected to cause 13.02 fatalities.

  25. The FTA Drug & Alcohol Testing Program The decrease in illicit drug use in the transit industry has resulted in the positive rate dropping from 1.76% to 0.81% resulting in: • An avoidance of 1,690 accidents that would have produced approximately 13 fatalities and 1486 injuries. • The elimination or mitigation through rehabilitation of 29,841 illicit drug users in the transit industry through both testing and deterrence 3.       Productivity benefits and total societal economic cost avoidance of $3.68 billion dollars

  26. Training Cost for New Employees • Transit employee salary – weighted average from 2000 Bureau of Labor Statistics

  27. Cost Measures - Is Return-to-duty and Follow-up a Benefit or a Burden? • It is estimated that to train new employee, it costs 1/3rd of an employee’s annual salary • $1650 per month – D&A Using employee D&A Abusing Employee Costs Training Costs for New Employees

  28. Second Chance Programs Return to Duty and Follow-up totals 25,624 Return-to-Duty Tests (Both Drugs & Alcohol) 175,247 Follow-up Tests (Both Drugs & Alcohol) 475 Positives - Failed Return-to-Duty Tests (Both Drugs & Alcohol) 2300 Positives - Failed Follow-up Tests (Both Drugs & Alcohol) 10.06% Percent Positives per Return-to-Duty Employee 1995-2005 6.53 Follow-up tests per RTD employee 1995-2005 Average Transit Salary - 2000 $223,254,981 Savings through the Avoidance of Training Costs Societal Economic Cost of Employing a Drug User or Alcohol Misuser (2 months or 1/6 of Average Annual Economic Impact of Each Drug & Alcohol Using Transit Employee) $7,571,542 Cost of Additional Testing - Return-to-Duty and Follow-up (assume $70/test because of Urban focus) $14,060,970 $24,599,040 Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) Cost (assume $960/ RTD Emp.) $177,023,429 Net (Savings minus Costs) - Second Chance Programs Is Second Chance Policy Beneficial to Industry? YES $28,970.32 • Benefit is almost 5 times more than the cost ($223M saved in training vs. $46M in costs), or for every dollar spent on Second Chance, industry got almost $5 dollars back.

  29. Cost Measures - Audits • Expect a hump in Random positive rate after audit as testing gets better – random becomes more random. • And systems are generally brought into compliance • Good examples: Los Angeles, San Jose, Santa Fe OR • Random rate decreases as agency relaxes after audit OR • They go up the year of as agency readies for the audit

  30. Audits • Expected result of Audits - Timeline Goes up as result of better testing (catch more users) Audit Lower as result of eliminating abusers and causing abstinence

  31. Actual Audit Effect • Drop in the right of the chart shows that audits are effective in discouraging and eliminating substance abusers • Audit cost is ~$25K. One user mitigated over one year saves ~$20K

  32. Trends: Drug Metabolization Time and Positive Rates shows Actual Drug Choices • Program would seem to be pushing users away from THC (45 days to leave the system) and towards Cocaine (3 days to leave the system) • Expect that tests catch actual THC users at a rate 15 times higher than that of actual Cocaine users • Multiplying Cocaine rate by 15 gives equivalent actual comparable usage rate • Data shows that Cocaine use is 10 to 12 times higher than THC use

  33. Actual Usage Comparison If Cocaine was testable out to 45 days – the chart would look like This.

  34. Questions & Answers Jerry Powers will be available for questions immediately following this presentation Room 209-210

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