While healthcare for most individuals isn’t usually straightforward, health benefits for employees are notoriously complex, often leaving the recipient unable to understand the level of care they’re entitled to, what the coverage includes and where to find the appropriate provider, let alone able to navigate the insurance claims process.
In studies conducted in recent years, an overwhelming majority of employees polled stated that they faced numerous challenges when receiving healthcare, and that the challenges were made even more of an issue due to complex benefits. Such confusion doesn’t just mean that employees in need of healthcare aren’t able to access the services they need, meaning their conditions could worsen – which is bad enough in its own right – but that they may even go on to develop other mental or physical conditions as a result of the stress that their healthcare benefits are causing them.
The problem may be worse for those employees with chronic conditions
For individuals suffering from chronic conditions that require ongoing treatment and support, the issues mentioned above are often compounded, with many employees unable to make sense of diagnoses or test results.
A couple of other challenges complex healthcare benefits may pose for employees are detailed below, and note that both of them have the potential to have a negative impact on their employers, too, albeit through no fault of the employees own:
- A decline in mental and physical wellbeing
An employee facing challenges with healthcare, faces the possibility of a decline in either their mental or physical wellbeing, or in some cases, both. Add this to the illness, injury or condition that they’re originally seeking healthcare for, and there’s little wonder so many employees take sick leave, leaving both them and their employers, in a difficult position.
- Work time spent dealing with healthcare challenges
Many employees report having to spend work time on the phone dealing with healthcare providers or insurers, and when you add this up over many months and many employees, there is bound to be a decrease in productivity.
It’s clear that there’s a very real need for greater healthcare literacy and education relating to the system as a whole, and that employers must take a certain degree of responsibility for this.
So, what can employers do to help reduce the confusion?
While many employers do take the time to try and tailor their health benefits to meet the needs of their employees, their efforts may be wasted if the benefits those employees are entitled to simply aren’t being taken advantage of due to a lack of understanding or general confusion surrounding the system.
One effective way of reducing the confusion surrounding employee healthcare benefits, is to have HR meet with individuals to discuss their packages in detail; giving them the opportunity to ask any questions they might have. Benefits guides written in plain English and without baffling jargon, can also be helpful, along with digestible videos, posters and group presentations.
Working with an outsourced healthcare benefits provider is another way to ensure that your employees get access to the very best care for their needs, and once you’ve found the right package, you may even be able to use that very same provider to help educate your employees as to exactly what their healthcare benefits are, and how they can access them.