Health Care
How to Provide the Right Care to Meet the Needs of Diverse Workforces
Most employers face a difficult challenge of providing access to timely, affordable clinically-appropriate health care, particularly since a diverse workforce will have many needs and preferences when it comes to their health care. -BY MALIBU KOTHARI
How are new technologies and strategies enabling employers to provide access to employees so they can get the right care they need and experience high-quality service while receiving it?
Employers need to ensure their employees are motivated to perform their roles as well as they can in order for their businesses to flourish. Employees need to remain healthy as well, a point that was especially driven home during the COVID-19 pandemic when many people became gravely ill, leading to virtually every business having to transition to a work-at-home environment or be totally shut down.
In the wake of the pandemic, the need for quality health care for employees was highlighted as being absolutely necessary. One obvious reason is because of the severe illness, hospitalization, and death caused by COVID-19. Another reason is that the lockdowns from the pandemic made people reevaluate what they want from their work careers; many have chosen to resign from the traditional office job and career path and go into business for themselves, work remotely from home, or choose another alternative career path.
To retain workers in the traditional workspace and office environment, employers have had to improve the work and health benefits they offer to their employees to keep them in their pre-pandemic work positions. This is particularly challenging for employers today because there are many different employees with different backgrounds, different health conditions, even different locations in where they work – on-site in a local office, in an office in another city, state, or country or even working remotely from home in another city, state, or country.
Current Health Care Issues In The
Workforce Today
The bottom line is that most companies in most industries have diverse workforces that need to be taken care of in order to ensure they can work to their maximum potential for the good of their own livelihoods and for the overall good of a business. Being that these diverse workforces are made up of people of various cultures, ages, experiences, and family histories, it makes sense that the health care they are provided with is as diverse as they are. Each person will be more susceptible to different types of diseases and conditions, as well as varying degrees of specific health risks based on their genetics, family histories, lifestyles, and diets. Thus, one type of medical care program or system is not going to be suitable for all of them.
The World Health Organization has noted that there are common mental disorders that affect women and LGBT+ people much more often than men because of gender-specific risk factors. Diabetes has been shown to affect specific ethnicities more often than others.
Additionally, negative remarks and discrimination from health care staff continue to be barriers for female employees and LGBT+ people, causing them to have restricted or no access to prenatal care, screenings for cervical or breast cancer, menopause treatment, and other female-specific health care needs. Restricted access can include limited availability, out-of-pocket costs, waiting periods, and even blanket exclusions in some countries around the world.
Groups that make up more of the workforce today than in prior decades, including women, minorities, LGBT+, those with disabilities, and more require and desire more than just the broadly defined, traditional benefits programs that corporations and companies have utilized for decades. These benefits programs largely serve one main segment of the population – men of dominant ethnicities within a specific age group, usually between their 20s and their early- to mid-60s.
Additionally, these outdated benefits programs are based on the assumption that men are the “bread winners” of the households, while women stay home to take care of the household, the children, and the elderly. That is no longer the case in most households, and in some households, there is no male figure, making these benefits programs outdated and even obsolete in many cases.
Technologies Employers Are Using To Combat Outdated Benefits Programs
Like many people since the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are embracing remote health care for their employees. No longer do they need to leave the premises of the business or their home to see a doctor, thereby enabling them to have access to the health care they need for whatever condition they may be dealing with. Remote health care has been especially beneficial for those living in underserved areas of our communities, being that they can have access to a doctor almost 24/7.
Via Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2021 Employer Health Benefits Survey, 24 of 25 employees (96%) offer telehealth as a benefit to their employees. While 74% of employers believe that virtual care’s ability to transform care delivery is important, they believe it also has much value in long-term health care as well. This is why 84% of employers want telehealth to have a greater connection with in-person care and 69% of employers want virtual primary care to be an integral part of health care benefits packages by 2025. It should be noted that there is also data that shows that employees also want more from virtual care than just one-time video visits from doctors for immediate or emergency needs.
Employers have the opportunity to expand the capabilities of virtual care even further to provide continuous and better health care for a lower cost. One way is by having virtual care give employees the ability to better manage their health through powerful apps or patient portals where employees can do virtually everything they need to ensure they remain in good health: find the type of physician they need, book appointments, renew their vital prescriptions, check and evaluate test results, get advice on managing any chronic conditions they have, and more.
Another way for employers to expand virtual care for employees is to encourage remote patient monitoring to help ensure their employees remain in good health. Health care providers advocate the use of smartphone and tablet apps, as well as smartwatches and other wearables, to keep track of people’s heart rates and rhythms, glucose levels, blood pressure, and other vital statistics. This can help to improve disease outcomes and cut the health care costs of treating these diseases and conditions for all involved - employees, employers, and services payers.
Employers can also provide more access to virtual second opinions to help cut down on the cost impacts of misdiagnoses that occur from time to time. It is reported that 1 out of 10 patients with a serious medical condition (heart attack, stroke, infection, cancer, or major vascular event) are misdiagnosed. Not only does virtual second opinions enable to cut down on misdiagnoses, it also enables employees to receive second opinions from qualified specialists who may not be near them, no matter if these employees are located in a large urban city or in a small rural town.
Strategies Employers Are Using To Combat Outdated Benefits Programs
Employers have to be aware of the aforementioned health care issues in order to know that they exist and how to combat them effectively so that they can offer equal health care opportunities to every employee within their organizations and ensure they get the best health care possible for their own unique situations and needs. They have to know the gaps and flaws in their current benefits programs, including both within the insurance programs they utilize and the government programs in the relevant countries. Assessing this will show both the gaps that need to be covered, as well as determining alternative ways to provide the necessary coverage at the lowest cost in terms of both money and resources.
Employers should set a minimum floor of quality health care benefits that will apply to every employee, no matter their sexual identity, sexual preference, age, life experience, income, ethnicity, political views, and other factors. This floor needs to be based on the needs of their employees, what is allowed by law in each respective country, and best clinical practices.
Employers need to develop global strategies to implement this minimum health care standard, as this health care standard needs to be employed in many countries, based on where the organization or corporation has offices and workers. Employers should create a plan that projects out over the course of three to five years and enlist the support of senior stakeholders to ensure this standard is consistently implemented. Reminding them that solid business reasons and benefits can be gained from implementing such broad health care program changes should be used to help garner their support.
Employers must not be afraid to challenge the status quo of the blanket, traditional health care benefits programs that have been prevalent in the work industry for decades. They must get internal decision-makers, insurance carriers and vendors, and consultants to work with them to create alternative health care benefits programs that will successfully address the gaps present in the traditional health care benefits programs. Reminding them that all employees can benefit from these changes can garner support for such broad health care program changes.