{"id":113099,"date":"2022-07-27T21:17:13","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T01:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=113099"},"modified":"2022-07-27T21:17:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T01:17:13","slug":"benefits-plans-for-the-post-pandemic-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=113099","title":{"rendered":"Benefits Plans for the Post-Pandemic World"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0THINK<\/a>\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the latest health and insurance issues.<\/b><\/p>\n

The pandemic led businesses to adapt benefits packages to meet shifting employee needs and realities. Many of those changes, it turns out, were things workers wanted, leading some employers to revisit their benefits plans for the long term.<\/p>\n

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The COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to change not only how they work, but how they think about work.<\/p>\n

New efficiencies, platforms, and processes sprang from necessity, and many employers \u2013 and their employees \u2013 permanently reshaped some roles.<\/p>\n

One example: According to the\u00a0Pew Research Center,<\/a>\u00a0about 6 in 10 U.S. workers who say they can mostly do their jobs from home were choosing to do so as of February 2022. That\u2019s more than a 150% leap from the 23% who say they frequently worked remotely before COVID.<\/p>\n

Those shifting mindsets and workflows are spurring a reevaluation of employer benefits plans and packages. Even before the pandemic, according to a Willis Towers Watson survey, 37% of employees were willing to take better benefits in exchange for lower pay, and only 40% said their health and well-being needs were met by their company\u2019s benefits plans.<\/p>\n

So if rethinking benefits plans was warranted pre-COVID, it\u2019s even more justified now.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmployees want to see cost effectiveness and value in their benefits,\u201d said Jodi Woleslagle, Capital Blue Cross senior vice president of Human Resources. \u201cThis is something employers are weighing heavily as they consider their benefits plans moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Three considerations<\/b><\/p>\n

1. Preventive care:<\/b>\u00a0Emphasizing to employees the vital role of preventive care, which many may have postponed or skipped during the pandemic, can help achieve better health that helps lower employers\u2019 long-term healthcare costs. Routine exams and screenings, which dipped dramatically in the pandemic, are primary parts of preventive care.<\/p>\n

Quality healthcare coverage that emphasizes preventive care is critical. Capital Blue Cross covers a variety of preventive services \u2013 from annual checkups to necessary vaccinations and screenings \u2013 for many of its employer group customers.<\/p>\n

2. Behavioral health:<\/b>\u00a0Behavioral health issues soared during the pandemic, so it makes sense that concern for employees\u2019 mental health has soared alongside it.<\/p>\n

According to a recent Blue Cross Blue Shield Health of America Report, 6 of millennials\u2019 top 10 health conditions are connected to behavioral health. Given Gallup\u2019s finding that millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) comprised roughly half the work force in 2020 and are expected to account for 75% of it by 2025, that\u2019s a big deal for employers.<\/p>\n

So is the fact that about a fifth of the workforce has a diagnosable behavioral health condition, according to the\u00a0National Institute of Mental Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It all takes a toll on the bottom line: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that depression leads to 200 million lost workdays a year, costing U.S. employers a whopping $17 billion to $44 billion.<\/p>\n

But businesses have a unique ability to help, both by openly encouraging employees to discuss and treat mental health issues and by offering benefits that help them do that. Capital Blue Cross is among such employers. Capital unveiled a\u00a0behavioral health toolkit<\/a>\u00a0for employer group customers in the past year, and also offers Neuroflow, a mobile app that helps users improve their mental wellness, to many members.<\/p>\n

3. Telehealth:<\/b>\u00a0Most employer-provided health plans now include some sort of telehealth coverage. If your employees didn\u2019t use or want telehealth options before, they probably do now.<\/p>\n

Available telehealth benefits help both the employer and employee, making certain sorts of visits more convenient, reducing absenteeism, and improving long-term health while reducing costs.<\/p>\n

Capital Blue Cross\u2019 VirtualCare app<\/a>, included with most of its coverage plans, offers everything from well visits to prescriptions to child sick visits at the member\u2019s convenience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pandemic and the economy has redefined many households,\u201d Woleslagle said. \u201cTo move with those shifts, employers are reviewing their benefits offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You can find more useful articles at\u00a0https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

THINK\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the latest health and insurance issues.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nJERRY REIMENSCHNEIDER<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0THINK\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the … Continue reading Benefits Plans for the Post-Pandemic World<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482,5742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2","category-think"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/think.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}