Sponsored Content - UnitedHealthcare

By Dr. Donna O’Shea, Chief Medical Officer of Population Health, UnitedHealthcare

While encouraging a healthier workforce has long been a priority for many employers, several recent trends have sparked a renewed emphasis for some organizations.

A competitive labor market, high inflation, and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have many employers focusing on offering more innovative benefits packages to help attract and retain team members, spur productivity, and reduce the incidence of preventable medical events and costly chronic conditions.

While many employees are now making benefits decisions for 2023 during open enrollment, employers in Wisconsin are already making health benefit decisions for 2024 and beyond. Here are three emerging health benefit strategies employers can consider:

Reward Employees for Wellness Activities. Most U.S. employers offer well-being programs1, and some include financial incentives for meeting certain health targets, such as reaching a daily steps goal or maintaining a healthy body mass index. To make these initiatives more appealing and engaging, some employers are incentivizing a growing number of healthy activities, including filling out a health survey, selecting a primary care physician, getting a biometric screening, meeting certain movement goals, or tracking sleeping.

Expand Access to New Types of Virtual Care. Nearly 90% of Americans surveyed2 said they want to continue using virtual care for non-urgent health needs, while 76% of employers3 grew their virtual care offerings in response to the pandemic. Virtual care, also called telehealth, has expanded from treating urgent care issues, such as allergies, rashes, or seasonal flu, to now providing access to other types of care, including primary, specialty, and behavioral. Leaders can also look to add emerging virtual care resources such as those for physical therapy4, dermatology, and women’s health.

Employers are in a unique position to help improve the health of employees. By considering these emerging health benefit trends, employers may help support the well-being of employees now and in the future.

1 https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/benefits/D

2 https://www.sykes.com/resources/reports/how-americans-feel-about-telehealth-now/

3 https://ww2.businessgrouphealth.org/acton/attachment/32043/f-0aa13496-1d38-4d0f-b606-cb57d8aa922b/1/-/-/-/-/2022%20Exec%20summary.pdf

4 https://newsroom.uhc.com/experience/virtual-physical-therapy.html