Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits Support Integrated Care

There are an unprecedented number of condition-specific healthcare solutions in the marketplace—seemingly one for every body part, health condition, and demographic. While this wide array of point solutions provides options for creating employee benefits packages, comprehensive solutions support integrated care, improve health outcomes, and simplify benefits administration. 

The current economic climate, combined with rising healthcare costs, requires HR managers to think deeply about benefits consolidation. Benefits need to support high quality care across all health concerns for employees, while reducing administrative workload for HR. 

Benefits selection considerations

Many employers manage close to fifty condition-specific solutions in their healthcare benefits portfolio. Identifying and negotiating plans with so many vendors is challenging enough, but this overabundance of options makes it difficult to understand, track, and communicate which solutions do what—which prevents employees from using their benefits fully or efficiently. 

When HR leaders assess low utilization in their benefits offering, it can be a struggle to know whether low utilization is due to lack of solution fit or whether the benefits portfolio is simply too hard to use. Even if an array of point solutions is highly utilized, ROI can be complex to determine since employees’ health care often spans multiple solutions.  

As a result, HR managers are realizing that condition-specific benefits portfolios are difficult to use, manage, and measure. To overcome these challenges, nearly 75% of leaders are seeking to consolidate current benefits. These efforts can reduce costs while maintaining or improving employee satisfaction. 

In contrast to point solutions, comprehensive solutions can provide integrated care, anywhere along the health journey, over long periods of time improving health outcomes for virtually any health condition. When reviewing a comprehensive benefit solution, HR leaders should consider the following advantages:

• Frictionless access and use. Comprehensive solutions can address the broad range of health conditions, concerns, and questions on an ongoing basis—but only if they are user friendly and easy to access for employees. Seek solutions staffed with real humans to provide support and guidance.

• Seamless to implement. Comprehensive solutions help combine existing benefits, systems, and applications, which alleviates costly administration and improves employee access. Focus on solutions that are as easy to implement as they are to maintain.

• Turnkey communications. Crafting communications that succinctly cover a wide variety of point solutions can be an exercise in futility. High quality, turnkey communications from a single source can drive employee engagement and lessen HR workloads. Look for benefits that prioritize providing clear, instructive, and frequent communication with members—and who will perform this work with minimal support from HR.

• Equitable benefits for all employees. Rather than treating a specific condition or category of employee, comprehensive solutions help all employees regardless of identity, circumstance, or health condition, fostering equity and eliminating questions of eligibility. The depth and breadth should not be garnered by sacrificing quality.
  
• Demonstrable return on investment. The most successful solutions can provide evidence of both cost savings and positive health impact. Look for benefits that communicate their value in terms of both dollars and patient outcomes. The best solutions will help employees avoid unnecessary treatment, and will guide r employees toward a greater feeling of empowerment toward their healthcare decisions.

Virtual care is a comprehensive benefit that ensures a friendly, efficient, responsive, and integrated view of employee health.

Virtual care supports every benefits ecosystem

By providing access to comprehensive solutions that offer broad medical guidance and personalized support, HR managers can deliver greater value and coherence compared to point solutions. The result? Employees can use their healthcare benefits more effectively—and HR can administer the program more efficiently—contributing to a healthier and more productive workforce.

In an effort to offer their employees coverage for all health issues, many companies have multiple healthcare point solutions as part of their benefits package. This article focuses on the value comprehensive care solutions can offer employers, employees, and HR leaders as an alternative to point solutions. Additionally, it covers what HR benefits leaders should look for when reviewing comprehensive benefit solutions offerings and what to consider when reviewing their current health benefit offerings. 

1) Summus (2023). HR Benefits Manager Survey