Over the past several years, there has been a big uptick in companies offering “Wellness Programs” as one of many employee benefits. Perks like weekly yoga classes, onsite massages, free pedometers, and even more tactical programs like employee flu shots and 24/7 nurse hotlines, are seemingly a good way for employers to complement financial compensation and ensure they remain competitive in the benefits area. And while employees can benefit from this breadth of services, a big question begs if and exactly how, employers are benefitting from wellness programs.
A recent study from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that employers are taking a closer look at overall ROI of these wellness benefits. The study found that in many cases, employers have been cutting back on perks deemed less valuable. For example, nap rooms and standing desksare popular perks, but the SHRM study revealed that other perks, like health and lifestyle coaching are steadily declining in value. It’s time for employers to explore wellness benefits that will have measurable impact on the overall health of the individual and the company.
One contributor to wellness programs that currently goes unaddressed is employee financial health. With alarming statistics like out-of-pocket healthcare costs accounting for 9.6% of median income, healthcare expenses are playing an increasingly large role in the financial picture for Americans. This trend suggests we should take a broader perspective around what contributes to financial health and consider the impact it has on an individual when designing wellness benefits. Providing employees with the education, resources and tools to support their financial health, inclusive of medical expenses, is a new kind of “wellness benefit” that offers great value.
By taking the onus off the employee to dispute and resolve any billing issues and giving the gift of time, money and peace of mind back to employees, there is no doubt employers will see an increase in overall health improvement and a much more productive workforce. Studies show a whopping 90 percent of patient medical bills contain errors or overcharges – clearly showing billing issues are extremely common.
Being able to measure the impact a wellness program has is a major benefit to employers. Unlike other programs that are much more “difficult” to assess, Copatient provides a verifiable and quantifiable return on investment by using a proprietary technology platform and dedicated health advocates (real people!) who know the ins and outs of billing negotiation. We understand the investment companies make to offer employees wellness benefits, and we provide one that mutually benefits all parties. We want you to have happier and healthier employees while also being able to prove a quantitative ROI for your investment.
In an age of increasingly inconsistent healthcare pricing and complex billing processes, wellness benefits like these are more in line with employees’ needs of today. Not only does this data-driven approach provide concrete dividends for companies, but more importantly, provides employees with tangible options for improving overall health.
Financial health is a big topic that we’ll continue to explore on this blog…Keep coming back or please subscribe to our feed to get our posts delivered to your inbox!
– Rebecca Palm, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer
