In offering benefits such as a health insurance plan, an employer is looking to build trust and differentiate itself in the market for labor.

Quality health coverage is important to employees since it impacts the health of themselves and their families. And strong benefits differentiate your job offer in the marketplace so prospective employees see you as a great place to work and make them excited to stay with you long-term.

How do you assess whether your benefits program is successful? One perspective is to view it through the lenses of Quality, Cost Management, and Risk, and Adoption.

From this perspective, it’s fair to say that mental health benefits are failing employees.

Failure of Traditional Health Plans in Mental and Behavioral Health

A recent study by One Medical revealed that 64 percent of employees struggled with mental or behavioral health issues in 2022 and 91 percent said they’re less productive as a result. Overall, 3 out of 4 employees felt their health worsened or stayed the same in 2022.

One key issue here is the fragmented nature of our healthcare system. 55 percent of employees said they felt overwhelmed when navigating the healthcare system. Just 19 percent used their company’s mental health care benefits and only 37 percent received preventative care in 2022.

In light of these issues around mental and behavioral health, employers can continue to build trust and differentiate themselves by offering a Virtual Mental and Behavioral Health solution.

Virtual Mental and Behavioral Health

Virtual mental healthcare is a win-win for employers and employees. Employers enhance their employees’ utilization of critical health resources to improve their health and productivity, while employees receive a low or no-cost option for mental health care and care navigation support to get the care they need when they need it.

Advantages of a Virtual Mental and Behavioral Health solution include:

• Immediate or near-immediate access to short-term, solution-focused counseling via phone or video, often within 1-2 days
• Low or no-cost access for members and family, which no limitation on visits
• Best-in-class solutions provide only Masters-level or higher counselors licensed in the patient’s state – no “coaches”, which is not a regulated term and does not tell you the background or training of a provider
• Provider selection for preferred gender, demographic, language, and specialty
• Reduction in out-of-pocket costs for employees, which often starts at $100 or more per visit. These costs can be prohibitive when it can take 3-5 visits just to see if there is a good fit between a member and a provider. Your employees and their dependents don’t have time or money to waste in the traditional model.

Acrisure believes in affordable and accessible mental and behavioral health so much that we’ve negotiated what I believe is a market-leading price point for a best-in-class solution. At this rate, many groups can offer unlimited virtual mental and behavioral health services at net-no cost, before even considering the impact to claims.

If you’d like to discuss a Virtual Mental and Behavioral Health solution for your team, click here to schedule a complimentary call with one of our advisors.

Posted by John Hansbrough in Acrisure, Behavioral Health, Employee Assistance Program, Employee Benefits, Health Equity, Health Insurance, Healthcare, Healthcare Innovation, Healthcare Spending, Human Resources, Mental Health, Navigation, Primary Care, Research, Telehealth