An open letter to employers: ‘Address your employees’ mental health needs’
“Blindly agreeing to the status quo -- substandard benefits and increasing costs -- is handcuffing you from doing what’s right by your employees and your bottom line,” writes EmpiRx CEO Karthik Ganesh.
Karthik Ganesh, CEO of the pharmacy benefits manager EmpiRx, is challenging employers to expect more from their mental health benefits.
“Our country is in the throes of a mental health crisis that we are ill-equipped to manage,” he wrote in an open letter. “This has created a monumental and still-intensifying financial burden for employers who, in our current health-care system, assume more than 80% of the cost of care on behalf of their employees. Sadly, the mental health tsunami has yet to crest, which is why business leaders must make big changes now or suffer catastrophic consequences.”
The letter documented the cost of inaction:
- Employees with unresolved depression experience a 35% reduction in productivity and an average of 31 days of missed work per year.
- This absenteeism translates to $210.5 billion in annual lossesto the U.S. economy.
- Half of adults report a severe mental health crisis in their families, and one in five cites the inability to work or engage in other activitiesbecause of poor mental health.
“As an employer, you have a clear moral and financial obligation to address your employees’ mental health needs,” Ganesh said. “However, with a fixed pool of money available for employee health and wellness benefits, spiraling costs across all facets of health care impede your ability to do so.”
Related: What employers should prioritize in 2023: Mental health and cost-containment
Employees should require four things from their benefits partners, he said:
- Demand guaranteed, sustainable savings — not one-off incentives. “The moment demands transformational changes to your benefits spend, and that requires a contractual model that both optimizes your existing spend and delivers sustainable savings at that reduced level,” Ganesh said.
- Don’t fall into the transparency trap. “Despite what you may have read, price transparency is not the cure for what ails the benefits marketplace,” he said. “Transparent drug pricing won’t bend the cost curve without a fundamentally different paradigm for attacking the problem.”
- Expect 100% financial alignment. “So-called solutions that singlemindedly focus on drug unit pricing are deeply misaligned with your organization’s interests,” Ganesh said. “By contrast, a value-based model prioritizes both financial and health outcomes and serves as the gold standard of what financial alignment looks like.”
- Reject the cost vs. access dichotomy. ”Demand improved cost, broad access and enhanced care models, and demand value,” he said. “Do not compromise on any of these points.”
Making a positive change in the workplace requires action.
“As a business leader, it’s time for you to start using your contributions as leverage to demand more from your health-care benefits partners,” Ganesh said “You must reset the expectations placed on your health plan and your PBM. Blindly agreeing to the status quo — substandard benefits and increasing costs — is handcuffing you from doing what’s right by your employees and your bottom line.
“You are not an innocent bystander; employers have the power in numbers to influence change, and you must do so now.“