Unlocking the real value of health benefits
How next-generation wellness programs improve both outcomes and efficiency.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, a growing interest in wellness sparked the need and opportunity for employers to support their employees’ health goals. Posting benefit information on the company website was no longer enough.
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Today, the need for value-add health support is more pressing than ever. People are overwhelmed by news about the virus, their health risk, their jobs and the economy. The physical and mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will extend well beyond the immediacy of the initial crisis—and benefits advisors and employers have a big role to play to ensure workers have access to the help and support they need. On top of this, they must balance these needs against tightening budgets, protecting both the individual employee and organizational health.
Leveraging data to maximize resources
Improving employee health outcomes offers a win-win opportunity, but it can be difficult to figure out which employees to target, and how to reach them. Data show that within an employer’s team, a small “hidden population”—approximately 5% of the workforce—may hold the key. This population is difficult to identify because they don’t share the same underlying conditions or health needs, though many manage one or more chronic conditions. Instead, they share in common a pattern of care: They’re accessing the health care system frequently, but they aren’t getting better despite investing more hours and dollars into their own health. In fact, data show that this 5% generates 20% of employers’ health care costs.
For this group, access isn’t the problem; often, they are caught in a revolving door of multiple doctor’s appointments—especially those with chronic conditions. A recent survey found that 56% of health care providers see their patients with multiple chronic conditions at least bi-monthly, yet 76% of people with multiple chronic conditions report their health hasn’t improved in the past year, compared with 12% of people with no chronic conditions.
With more than 1 in 3 Americans managing chronic conditions, helping people bridge the gap between accessing health care and achieving better health is crucial for employers—especially because managing health concerns impacts productivity:
- The same survey found that 3 in 5 people with multiple chronic conditions report their health concern(s) impact their work life.
- Among these people, 49% say the single biggest work-related benefit of resolving their health concern(s) would be having the stamina to complete their tasks—eclipsing all other outcomes, including not missing time from work (17%) or the ability to focus (11%).
High-impact tools overcome barriers
To help employees improve their health, any wellness-focused solution must address the underlying factors that prevent people from translating more health care into better results. Survey data also reveal important details about the disconnect between doctor guidance and implementing change at home:
- 53% of consumers didn’t feel additional steps they can take to improve their health (such as changing diet, exercise and sleep habits) were easy to understand after talking with their doctor; yet these were the changes consumers said they most wanted to make.
- Although a significant majority of people with chronic conditions say their doctor’s guidance is easy to understand, 38% say they have a hard time feeling motivated to make those changes.
Addressing these challenges requires a different approach. Utilizing personalized, one-to-one coaching is an important and proven strategy to help improve these outcomes. To make this idea actionable, valuable and effective for everyone involved, the key is finding a way to identify those employees who would most benefit from additional support and to connect them with the individualized support they need.
Today, sophisticated algorithms and AI make it possible to more precisely engage those employees dealing with chronic conditions, those who may be working in high-risk situations during the pandemic (for example, health care, child care and teaching), or those whose health is suffering further under the weight of anxiety or depression. These are valued team members who need additional support to address their comprehensive health needs.
Some of the nation’s largest payers have embraced this model to provide targeted, personalized support outside the doctor’s office that helps employers and employees get the most out of their health coverage while improving health outcomes. Not only are their members healthier and happier, but their improved health can generate significant cost savings and enable the organization and benefits advisor to reallocate health care spend to even better meet the needs of employees.
In this day and age, employees have high expectations for convenience and health care that fits their lifestyles. By making personalized guidance available to those who need it most (and may not even realize it), and readily accessible through the utilization of technology, we can pair employees with care guidance and a human touch that will make a lasting impact on their health outcomes. Especially in this far-from-normal year, being there for workers and making sure they know their health and well-being is top of mind will help all of us get through this together.
Eric Hamborg is co-founder and chief commercial officer of MOBE, a company that provides individual guides for health plan enrollees with chronic health problems.
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