Read this article to understand some of the top challenges that companies face when it comes to offering healthcare benefits for employees.
In our previous article, we talked about how healthcare benefits can boost employee morale, relieve employees from stress and boost productivity. While healthcare employee benefits benefit the employees, they also benefit the company and clients. But it is not easy for businesses to offer the best healthcare employee benefits. Here are some challenges.
Rising healthcare costs
Prescription drugs, doctor visits, and medical procedures are getting more expensive by the day. Nowadays, it is very difficult to imagine that paradigm reversing in a few years to come. Media coverage surrounding the costs of healthcare does a great job illustrating the impact on patients, but the increased healthcare costs burden businesses and this has gone unvoiced for a long time. Every business wants to support employees and their families in times of medical and personal need, but the high costs associated with certain long-term treatment courses is causing some businesses to get nervous about the financial impact involved in offering comprehensive coverage
Such tensions reinforce why it is crucial to partner with the right broker who you know is working in your best interest and in the best interest of your employees as well.
Understanding the healthcare needs of employees
Lack of alignment between the benefits packages offered and employee healthcare needs in another challenge. If benefits plans are too satisfactory to employees, it can cause a waste of business resources. However, shortfalls in coverage can be devastating to employees. This means that companies need to find a balance when offering healthcare benefits for employees to ensure both the employer and employees are happy. Analyzing the healthcare usage data of your employees can help plan how to meet employees’ needs at affordable costs. When you know what your employees need, you can optimize your offerings.
Rising relevance of mental health
In recent years, our cultural understanding of well-being and health has shifted a great deal. Simply taking care of the bodies of employees is not enough. Businesses have to go a step further and take a look at the mental wellness. Mental wellness is very important to success at work. It must therefore assume its proper place as a foundation of your employee benefits strategy.
A lot of businesses out there are failing to provide their workers with an accessible and affordable framework to get the medication and therapy they need and companies are often unaware of this gap. Support for mental health should catch up to awareness across the industry. Due to years of denial and stigma, even talking about mental health can be challenging at first but we are living in times when businesses with the strongest approach to employee mental health will be the ones that will stand out.
Over-relying on narrow networks
A few years ago, healthcare benefits were trending headed towards narrow networks with the thought being that employers and employees could save money by staying local and working with a tight healthcare team. In a real sense, narrow networks provide a lot of benefits to professionals who do the billing by ensuring a steady patient flow.
