Health care navigation is suddenly non-negotiable. Here’s why.

If there’s a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the incredible acceleration of digital innovations in our daily lives—from ordering groceries online to hosting a virtual collab session with teammates spread out all over the country. Digital health, arguably, has seen the most dramatic acceleration of all, with hundreds of new products and offerings changing the way we think about health care tools and access to needed services.

At the same time, the stress of living in a pandemic has taken a huge toll on people’s overall health and well-being. Many adults report increased anxiety, sleeplessness, and substance use because of COVID-19 stress. People have delayed necessary medical care, such as cancer screenings and management of chronic conditions. And some who suffer from COVID-19 may go on to have lingering health problems.

In the face of this crisis, the prevailing corporate health care and benefits model that supplies health coverage for nearly half the US population is just not equipped to meet our needs.

Related: 3 strategies for making benefits enrollment and health care navigation easier

Employees are still confused about the health plans they pay for, unsure what health benefits are available to them, and uncertain of when or how they should access them. Thirty-five percent all US employees (and 54% of millennials) admit they don’t fully understand their company’s benefits, and many don’t even engage with programs they qualify for—either because they aren’t aware of the program or aren’t sure they need it. And though many companies work with third-party administrators, human resource departments are still frequently weighed down by the stress of navigating so many different employee concerns and plugging other holes in coverage—all while trying to meet their mandates of cutting costs and maximizing efficiency.

The current benefits industry model sets up both employees and employers for a lose-lose scenario that doesn’t help either group and downgrades both diversity of options and quality of care. The model also fails to leverage the enormous range of digital health providers and niche servicers that have arisen over the last several years—resources that would benefit from a unifying ecosystem that enables choice and pairs patients with the best services for their needs.

Thankfully, health care navigation presents a solution to this perennial problem that incorporates the best a panoply of digital services has to offer. While it comes in many different shapes and sizes, health care navigation essentially gives employees relevant, actionable guidance when they have a health concern and helps them become truly engaged in their own health care.

Innovative employers like Walmart and Google are already incorporating various health care navigation platforms to guide employees to appropriate in-network programs and specialized care. More than 80% of employers say that getting started with a health care navigation platform is a key priority in the short term. A vast majority of U.S. employers today are actively evaluating and implementing health care navigation platforms, and how other companies choose to respond to this wave of innovation will, no doubt, determine the long-term benefits success, stability, and relevance of their benefits moving forward.

With so many advantages to employee care and flexibility, it’s no wonder the industry has begun moving in this direction. Building out health care navigation solutions to expand options and enhance care already aligns with a clear mandate from the US workforce—after all, 92% of employees say their organizations should do more to address their needs and well-being.

On top of that, employees already expect their employers to factor digital health solutions into their workplace benefits. A survey conducted by Mercer and Oliver Wyman of 16,000 workers suggests that employers’ digital health solutions are critical components of quality, convenient, and affordable health care for employees. In this survey, the online solution that most workers said they would value is a tool that “helps find the right doctor or medical care when and where needed.”

Intuitive health care navigation can also allow for more flexible solutions and personalized benefits experiences for employees. Factoring in a patient’s health history profile, in-network coverage, and current questions or concerns, these benefits dashboards can be curated across different locations, employee statuses (remote or onsite), or needs felt by BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other marginalized or underrepresented groups to provide the best care pathway for everyone at the company.

The use of a comprehensive health care navigation platform can dramatically enhance the efficiency of HR processes, too. There’s no longer the need to source and manage numerous vendors across health, wellness, and disease-specific interventions. And with AI triage services built into the platform, employees are guided to the right benefits for them, which in turn cuts down on escalation to HR personnel. At the end of the day, digital health care navigation frees up time for HR to focus on more strategic work, all while boosting engagement and utilization of existing services. Better and easier for the employee means better and easier for the company altogether.

As we slowly but surely move out from under the pandemic, companies will be faced with the pressing need to engage an increasingly health-challenged and geographically distanced workforce with the right services. There’s also the growing expectation for digital solutions, whether that’s WFH flexibility or increased access to digital health resources. When it comes to bridging this new––and very real––gap, employers are now recognizing the need for health care navigation platforms.

Companies that want to stay competitive on the forefront of care in the post-pandemic age will have to incorporate health care navigation and must do so soon. To ignore navigation’s role in your company benefits structure likely means failing—and being left behind.

Andrew Le, MD, is CEO and co-founder at Buoy Health.