Employers are redesigning health care delivery to focus first on the employee's experience as a patient. Consider these three principles:

Quickly get employees the care they need. Benefits programs must offer timely care that quickly alleviates an employee's symptoms. If they prolong care, not only is their wellness and satisfaction impacted, but they're also more likely to get sicker or slower to heal and return to the office as unproductive employees. Find ways to connect patients and providers quickly. Implement health plans and offer digital health tools that address this head on.
Help employees build lasting relationships with their providers. While some digital health tools can provide immediate cost benefits, consider the usage and trust that employees have with these solutions. For example, telehealth adoption grew significantly during the pandemic, but a recent survey shows that 42% of employees were not confident in the ability of telemedicine to effectively diagnose or treat conditions, and 23% felt uncomfortable speaking with an unfamiliar provider. Instead, smart employers are implementing remote health programs that offer trusted connections between patients and providers. Employers can offer programs that assign specific primary care and mental health providers to patients, leading to better established trust, consistency and longevity of patient-provider relationships.
Treat the person, not the symptom. Today's health care system often fails by focusing on treating symptoms, not people. Employees who seek medical attention for a flu or allergies may be too quickly prescribed drugs to treat their symptoms without exploring other critical factors impacting their health such as poor mental health or nutrition. Employers are beginning to combat this today by implementing unified benefit programs that look at employee health holistically, rather than multiple siloed programs that each address just one facet of employee health.

Instant Insights /

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