Cholesterol at Work: How Missed Medications Drive Costs, Claims, and Lost Productivity

Key Takeaways:

• Cholesterol is a silent workforce risk: Studies suggest that more than half of individuals prescribed cholesterol medication stop within a year, driving avoidable heart attacks, strokes, and higher healthcare costs.
  
  
• Work changes fuel heart risk: Remote work, stress, and unhealthy defaults contribute to rising cholesterol and blood pressure, costing organizations in absenteeism and productivity.
  
  
• Prevention saves money: Supporting consistent medication use, healthier workplace choices, and high-risk groups like midlife women reduces hospitalizations and protects budgets.

The Hidden Cost Driver Employers Can’t Afford to Ignore

High cholesterol is one of the biggest silent risks facing organizations today—rarely noticed until it drives a surge in claims, lost productivity, or a costly health crisis. 

What’s easy to miss is why it matters now. The real risk isn’t just unhealthy cholesterol levels on a lab result, but the fact that more than half of individuals prescribed cholesterol medications stop taking them within a year. 

Because cholesterol shows few symptoms until it’s too late, this adherence gap is quietly raising risks for your people—and your budget. 

As a cardiologist, I think of cholesterol and high blood pressure as bedfellows. When one shows up, the other often isn’t far behind. And in the conditions that invite them in—sedentary days, easy calories, chronic stress—are accelerating inside our modern work lives.

The New Math Of Work (And Why It Raises Risk)

You may be surprised to hear how much remote work is impacting employee health. The shift isn’t just about location. It’s a change in how much we move.

The old routine required movement we never counted as exercise: getting dressed, walking to the car, crossing a campus, stairwells between meetings, a quick walk to lunch. Those “micro-bursts” of activity were energy we burned without thinking.

Now? Many of us sit all day, clicking into back-to-back video calls and refueling (often our desks) from a refrigerator that’s always five steps away.

And this hasn’t been a gradual, generational shift. It happened within a few years.

Pair that with stress that no longer ends when we leave a physical office, and you have the perfect environment for waistlines to creep, cholesterol to climb, and blood pressure to rise.

Statins Work. The Problem Is Taking Them—Consistently.

Here’s the paradox: we have effective, inexpensive medications (statins) that reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Yet staying on these medications is one of the biggest challenges. Skipping doses doesn’t just put an individual’s health at risk—it leads to more costly hospital visits, higher claims, and lost productivity for organizations.

So why do so many people stop taking their cholesterol medications?

• Cholesterol is “silent.” People don’t feel high cholesterol. Without symptoms, the motivation to take a daily pill often fades.
  
  
• Confusion and stigma. Employees read conflicting headlines, worry about side effects, or treat “not needing medication” as a badge of health. I hear it all the time: “I’m healthy—I don’t take anything.” Maybe. Maybe not.
  
  
• Women’s health gaps. Women are prescribed statins at lower rates, especially in midlife when risk climbs. For too long, women’s health has been reduced to reproductive care. Mammograms and pap smears matter, but so do cholesterol and blood pressure conversations.
  
  
• Mixed messages. Confusing or inconsistent guidance about dosing has made some employees wary. And once doubt takes root, consistency slips.

For organizations, this isn’t a side issue. It’s a workforce and financial issue. When people stop taking their cholesterol medications, today’s choice often turns into tomorrow’s fatigue, chest pain, ER visits, or even a heart attack or stroke.

And once that happens, individuals don’t end up on fewer medications. They end up on more. Treating problems late is always more disruptive—and more expensive—than preventing them early.

What Leaders Can Do: Reframe Cholesterol As A Business Priority

So why should benefits leaders care? Because prevention isn’t just a health issue—it’s a productivity and cost issue.

Here are four practical steps organizations can take to turn cholesterol from a hidden health risk into a managed business priority:

• Treat prevention like productivity. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) costs U.S. employers about $9,300 per employee annually. Missed days, presenteeism, and avoidable hospitalizations are downstream from “silent” risk. Your medical chart is a ledger—and so is your budget.
  
  
• Make the healthy default easy. Encourage movement during the workday. Walking meetings, stair prompts, healthier food options—simple design beats complex willpower.
  
  
• Normalize the medication conversation. “Take the pill so you can watch your kids grow up” isn’t a scare tactic; it’s a north star. Medications plus lifestyle changes are the winning combination.
  
  
• Close the gender gap. Put cholesterol and blood pressure on the table in women’s health communications—especially during perimenopause and menopause. We can’t fix what we never talk about.

Why Adherence Is Hard (And How To Make It Easier)

Sticking with medications fails for human reasons. We forget. We’re busy. We feel fine. We read something scary about potential side effects. We don’t always have a trusted place to ask questions when worry hits. 

That’s where thoughtful program design matters more than lectures.

At Hello Heart, we’ve learned the best way to help people stay consistent is to make healthy choices simple and rewarding:

• Smart reminders. Gentle nudges and in-app notifications make it easier to remember daily medications.
  
  
• Progress tracking. When employees see their habits add up over time, it reinforces motivation.
  
  
• Positive reinforcement. Celebrating small wins builds confidence and helps people feel supported, not judged.

None of this replaces clinicians or tells people what to take. It does something just as important: it reduces friction—the enemy of every daily medication.

What Leaders Can Put In Place Now

You don’t need a massive program to make progress. Start here:

• Make cholesterol visible. Pair cholesterol education with blood pressure awareness in your prevention campaigns.
  
  
• Invest in habit-forming design. Fund programs that combine personalized nudges + credible answers + easy tracking. The trio matters. Any one piece alone is fragile.
  
  
• Target moments that matter. Midlife women, employees returning to work after a cardiac event, and members with co-existing high blood pressure or diabetes benefit disproportionately from support.
  
  
• Measure what changes. Don’t just track enrollment. Look at long-term consistency, preventable ER visits, and sustained engagement at 90 days and beyond.

A Word About Remote Work and Mental Load

Remote work should, in theory, make health easier—more flexibility! In reality, it’s often more work and less time. The boundaryless day raises stress, and stress can worsen both cholesterol and blood pressure. That’s not personal failure. It’s modern work.

Benefits should reflect that reality: quick nudges between meetings, answers when the clinic is closed, and gentle structures that don’t add another to-do.

Where AI Fits—And Why Women May Lead The Way

I believe the potential of AI in health is truly unlimited, and women’s health has the potential to drive faster adoption. Why? Because women have historically paid the price of being left out of clinical data.

For decades, most trials were conducted on men, and then the results were simply applied to women. The consequences have been devastating. 

At the European Society of Cardiology, researchers showed that beta blockers—a cornerstone therapy for heart failure—may actually triple women’s risk of dying after a second heart attack. 

Cholesterol care shows a similar gap: research indicates women are less likely to be prescribed statins, and when they are, they’re less likely to continue taking them over time.

AI technology may help address these gaps by identifying patterns in health data and providing personalized educational content. These tools are designed to support, not replace, healthcare provider guidance—and they can help historically underserved populations feel more informed and supported in their health journeys.

When people can access trusted, non-judgmental educational resources at the moment they need them—late at night, on the weekend, after their doctor’s office is closed—they’re far more likely to stay on track with their medications, including cholesterol therapies that improve health and reduce costs.

It’s important to note that individual results may vary, and these tools are intended to supplement, not replace, professional medical advice.

Prevention Comes Down to Daily Choices

Cholesterol and high blood pressure often show up together, and when they do, the consequences are significant. The good news is that prevention isn’t abstract. It’s built on daily behaviors like movement, nutrition, and sleep, reinforced by consistent use of prescribed medication.

For benefits leaders, that means supporting employees in those small, repeatable decisions that keep them out of the hospital and at their best—at home and at work.

Take care of your people. Make adherence easier than avoidance. Fund tools that remove friction, elevate trusted answers, and keep heart health top-of-mind in the workday. The dividends show up in healthier lives, and healthier ledgers.

Ready to turn prevention into productivity? See how leading employers are using Hello Heart to reduce costs, improve outcomes, and support healthier employees.

FAQs

What is cholesterol medication adherence?

The degree to which people take their cholesterol-lowering medications exactly as prescribed by their doctor. Nonadherence is common, as over 50% of people treated for high cholesterol stop taking their medication after one year.

Why does cholesterol matter in the workplace?

High cholesterol is a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke, which together cost employers over $417.9 billion annually in the U.S. Poor adherence leads to more hospitalizations, absenteeism, and lower productivity.

How can digital health tools improve adherence?

Digital tools can provide reminders, encouragement, and support that make it easier for employees to stay consistent. By reducing friction and uncertainty, these programs improve health outcomes and reduce costs for organizations.