Benefits – Page 24

October 27, 2016June 29, 2023

Employers’ Greatest Concerns This Election Cycle

With the presidential election quickly approaching, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans surveyed 486 human resource and benefits professionals on the campaign issues impacting benefits — that is, issues that have been mentioned on either of the presidential platforms.

I spoke with Julie Stich, associate vice president of content at the organization, about the noteworthy findings in the survey, which spanned from large and small companies, both public and private, across industries.

[Workplace Issues in the Presidential Debate: Did I Miss It?]

Stich also noted that there’s so much uncertainty around this election, it’s difficult to make a good prediction about which benefits could go forward. Also, we don’t know what the majority of Congress will be, and employee benefits haven’t been at the forefront of any of the debates. That being said, certain benefits or benefit reforms are popular on the bipartisan level.

96 percent of participants support increased health care provider price transparency.
84 percent support increased access to mental health care.
76 percent oppose the Cadillac tax.
75 percent support tax-exclusions for child-care expenses.
68 percent support legalized prescription drug importation from other countries.

“So many employers as well as workers are frustrated that they just don’t know what a particular procedure is going to cost, or how much they’ll get billed after the fact,” said Stich. “It’s not surprising that we saw such strong support.”

Issues like mandated paid family leave and increased minimum wage were less agreed on. The minimum wage argument wasn’t shocking, but that only 53.3 percent of these survey participants supported paid family leave surprised me. As much as I’ve noticed the big presence of paid family leave throughout research and interviews in the past few months, and even though both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have proposed (albeit, very different) paid leave plans, support was still pretty much split in this survey.

[Clinton Vs. Trump: The Workplace Winner Is…]

Something else I found interesting. Of course, health care issues are big, and employers continue to support things like continuing to have the elimination of pre-existing conditions exclusion, or getting rid of the Cadillac tax, or even covering adult dependents up to the age of 26.

WF_1028_WorkingWell_ElectionBenefits_JulieStich — Julie Stich, associate VP of content, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

“When that provision first came out in the law, there was a lot of grumbling in the employer community about it, but it’s turned out to be a provision that employers as well as workers have embraced,” said Stich.

So, I wonder: What current controversial health care related benefits will be embraced in the future? Is it something stirring up controversy in this election cycle? Just a thought.

Finally, I want to briefly mention the high support of increased mental health care.

“We’re hearing more and more about the struggles that individuals with mental health distress are facing, and being able to have access to care that is affordable is critical to their wellbeing,” said Stich. “And not just their own, but family members and those who support them. And even in the workplace, if you have a co-worker suffering from mental distress, that can be challenging in how people get along, how they work together, productivity.”

It’s encouraging that employers are seeing the importance of providing mental health benefits at the same level as they provide other types of health benefits, she added and I agree wholeheartedly.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

October 14, 2016June 29, 2023

Hilton Adopts More Family-Friendly Employee Benefits

WF_1014_ONLINE_HiltonAdoption_AdobeStock_58581924_articlecopy — Adoption assistance is Hilton Corp.’s latest employee benefit offering.

International hotel chain Hilton Corp. is aiming to provide a hospitable environment for its employees as well as its guests. One way of accomplishing this is through a wide range of benefits, the most recent of which is an adoption assistance program.

“We frequently ask team members for their feedback and suggestions,” said Laura Fuentes, senior vice president of talent, rewards and people analytics at Hilton, in an email interview. “Last year, we identified that parental leave was one area where we could add to our industry-leading programs and provide even more support and flexibility to team members and their families.”

They pinpointed adoption as one of the many ways an employee might choose to start a family.

Hilton’s adoption assistance benefit, which begins Jan. 1, includes reimbursement on expenses up to $10,000 and two weeks of paid parental leave. There isn’t a limit on the number of adoptions this applies to, and it covers hourly and salaried U.S. team members who have been at Hilton for at least a year, averaging at least 30 hours a week.

Although not common, the offering of this type of benefit is on the rise.

Employers that offer paid leave for adoption has increased from 17 percent to 20 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to the Society for Human Resource Management 2016 Employee Benefits Survey. Nine percent of employers provide additional assistance for adoption, for example, through a stipend.

Stipends or reimbursements for adoption range from $5,000 to $25,000, according to Jackie Reinberg, national practice leader of absence, disability management and life at consultancy Willis Towers Watson. The average is about $10,000, which is what Hilton is offering, Reinberg said.

Adoption assistance benefits fit into Hilton’s overall strategy to make it a great place to work for employees and to foster both professional and personal growth, said Fuentes. It offers other family-friendly benefits like paid time off, a GED assistance program and remote workforce opportunities.

Family-friendly benefits also help Hilton attract and retain the best talent, she added, which is good for employees and good for business as well.

“Parental leave and adoption assistance are important to our team members, therefore they are important to us,” said Fuentes. “We are proud to offer the best and most comprehensive family benefits in the industry and are continually looking for ways to support our team members’ personal and professional growth.”

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

October 3, 2016June 29, 2023

Technology Making an Impact on Mental Health

The costs associated with mental health treatment have skyrocketed.

Some 7.6 percent of America’s full-time workforce is estimated to have major depressive disorder, and its economic costs nationally were about $210 billion annually in 2015, up from $173.3 billion annually in 2005, according to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Such staggering numbers remain a primary reason why prevention is an appealing concept to employers. For example, resiliency training aims to give employees the skills to face change more positively and manage crises effectively. Its goal is to reduce the impact of stress, and potentially, anxiety or depression.

In fact, 42 percent of large employers (companies with more than 500 employees) offer resiliency or stress management programs, according to the Mercer 2015 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.

“What we’ve talked about to our clients is the idea of prevention,” said Sandra Kuhn, a principal at Mercer and a senior consultant whose focus is health management strategies. “It’s taking a person’s ability to manage through a crisis and have it be more positive.”

There’s been an increase of vendors focused on those sets of skills, she added. Traditionally, companies have relied on in-house training for areas like resiliency or mindfulness, but vendors are offering technology-based solutions as well.

There isn’t much research yet about the effectiveness of these technology-based solutions, but most of the vendors rely on a proven framework like positive psychology or cognitive therapy, said Kuhn.

MoodKit is one app that uses the principles and techniques of cognitive behavior therapy, a popular, evidence-based practice for treating mental disorders. Based on cognitive behavior therapy, the app is designed to identify cycles of unhealthy thinking or behaviors, bolster people’s coping capabilities and improve their mood.

Dr. Edrick Dorian, a board certified clinical and police psychologist, and Dr. Drew Erhardt, clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, released the app in 2011. Technology-based solutions provide the opportunity to cast a wide net, they said.

“Apps have remarkable potential to democratize many of the tools and principles [of psychology],” said Dorian. “Particularly in the workplace, because they’re relatively affordable and because employers could potentially make them available to employees on a wide scale and at a low cost.”

Similarly, the online platform Happify was developed in 2011 based off scientific literature accumulated across the past 30 years, said co-founder and president Ofer Leidner. About 18 months ago, Happify Health was released for the use of employers, health plans and enterprise organizations.

With Happify and its enterprise equivalent, people are encouraged to improve emotional well-being by working on areas like self-awareness, kindness and gratitude. Then they report the results on the platform. In another exercise, they may be encouraged to be in nature and take a walk outside and share an image online later.

Preventative care works, Leidner noted, because it caters to mental health, an area that has traditionally been neglected or only addressed in times of crisis.

“In the past couple of years, companies have been tackling this solution for employers and employees [and] providing preventative solutions for people before they slide into a level of stress and anxiety that drives up health care costs,” he said.

Denise Heybrock, senior health and well-being consultant at Aon Hewitt, commented on the surge of mental health apps and their effectiveness from an outsider’s point of view. These preventative online platforms don’t work for everyone, and not everyone will be interested in them, she said. But they’re a good way to increase accessibility for people.

“Whenever you give more options,” Heybrock said. “You open up the ability to touch more people and get more people the help they need.”

The MoodKit founders also mentioned that these solutions aren’t for everyone. People with serious mental health problems should get medical help.

“It’s not the equal of therapy, but [it works] for many with earlier stage symptoms,” said Dorian. “Apps, websites and digital tools that thoughtfully and appropriately package these principles and tools [of psychology] really do have great potential for improving the health and well-being of individuals and [improving] productivity in the workplace.”

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

September 29, 2016July 24, 2024

Paternalistic View of Benefits Shifting

There’s a lot of fuss nowadays about creating a benefits plan that works across multiple generations. What may be even more complicated, though, is creating a benefits strategy across multiple nations.

Eighty percent of business executives believe the U.S. companies should expand globally, according to Rutgers’ “Globalization: Challenges of Corporations During Expansion” infographic from May, 2016. And an estimated 39 percent of American CEOs plan to complete a merger and acquisition in a different country.

In an increasingly global workforce, managing the diverse needs of multinational employees may be a challenge. The way benefits work in each country is driven by local culture, legislation and providers, said Chris Bruce, managing director at Thomsons Online Benefits, a global benefits management company.

Thomsons Online Benefits staff portraits — Chris Bruce

In the United States, employees generally place more value on offered medical and retirement plans than in European countries where the state typically provides health care and pensions.

In Asia, employees value cash over a structured benefits plan, he added. Employees can spend it on what applies directly to their life. This flexible “cash is king” approach is spreading to Europe.

Perks and flex accounts — including company car allowances, bicycle allowances or discounts on buying items — are valuable benefits to employees beyond the U.S. border, said Ken Poletti, senior vice president, ecosystem partner solutions at Benefitfocus, a cloud-based benefits management platform.

“The biggest issue companies have when they’re looking at a global benefits plan is, typically, the benefit function is quite operational and more of a governance function,” said Bruce. “So it’s difficult for them to be strategic about benefits because they don’t have the infrastructure to understand what the plans are and how successful they are.”

Organizations need to plan to get the most possible value from the benefits budget. This can only be accomplished, noted Bruce, if the organization has insights into the cost, benefits and effectiveness of its benefits plans.

wf_1016_FYB_GlobalBenefits_ken-poletti — Ken Poletti

Employers are faced with the challenge to stay relevant to a diverse global workforce. But there are certain elements that are trending to employees around the globe, said Bruce: for example, the “cash is king” approach in Asia.

Traditionally, in the United States and Europe, most benefits plans have been designed for middle-class white males with families, he added. This thinking has been around for decades. In reality, there’s no reason a company should be providing high levels of certain traditional benefits like life insurance to a young, single college graduate with no family.

“The old, paternalistic view of benefits is going away, and now it’s much more, ‘How can we appeal to people? How can we use the money we have to the best effect and be relevant?’ ” said Bruce.

One example of this “reimbursement benefit,” said Bruce, is a Thomson employee who, having recently married a Brazilian man, took the money she would have spent on life insurance coverage and used it for Portuguese lessons instead. Bruce has found this flexible type of benefit as a modern way to show employees

Chris Mumford. Aethos Group. — Chris Mumford

that his company cares.

Poletti also noted that more often employers are offering employees more choice in how they use their flex accounts, allowing them to choose what works best for their family or life situation.

Another rising trend is shifting the economic responsibility of paying for benefits from the company to the employee, according to Chris Mumford, managing director of AETHOS Consulting Group in London. For example, one of the world’s largest global hotel groups has reduced the company pension contribution to 1% of the salary.

“[This puts] the onus on the employee to fund the rest,” wrote Mumford in an email interview. “We expect this trend to continue to spread.”

Bruce saw a similar trend internationally, noting that this shifting responsibility from the employer to the employee is happening across several different benefits, like in U.S. medical plans. As health care costs rise in the United States, employees are required to pay more.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

September 27, 2016June 29, 2023

Can You Require Flu Shots for Your Employees?

As the calendar winds its way into autumn, and as the temperature starts to trend downward, we move into flu season. Which is why should pay special attention to this story from Employment Law 360:

A … hospital was sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Pennsylvania federal court Friday, over allegedly firing six employees after it denied their request for a religious exemption from the flu vaccine.

According to the complaint, Saint Vincent Health Center maintained a policy that provided exemptions for medical or religious reasons, which allowed employees to wear face masks instead of receiving the violation. But it denied the exemptions in the case of the six employees, who were fired in January 2014.

So, can you require your employees to receive a flu shot as a condition of employment?

According to same EEOC that is suing the Pennsylvania hospital over this very issue, the answer is a qualified yes.

An employee may be entitled to an exemption from a mandatory vaccination requirement based on an ADA disability that prevents him from taking the influenza vaccine. This would be a reasonable accommodation barring undue hardship (significant difficulty or expense). Similarly, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, once an employer receives notice that an employee’s sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance prevents him from taking the influenza vaccine, the employer must provide a reasonable accommodation unless it would pose an undue hardship as defined by Title VII (“more than de minimis cost” to the operation of the employer’s business, which is a lower standard than under the ADA).

Thus, at least as far as the EEO laws are concerned, a private employer can require flu shots as long as you are willing to accommodate employees’ disabilities and religions.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

September 27, 2016June 29, 2023

4 Steps to Maintain a Healthy Self-Insurance Plan

More employers are self-insuring their medical plans than ever before. Whether your organization is new to self-insuring or an experienced expert, an annual self-insurance check-up is crucial to your workforce’s health and well-being.

Here are some important questions as organizations head into the annual benefits renewal season: Have there been unexpected high-dollar claims this year? Is the organization’s data pointing us in the right direction? Are we tapping into all of the cost-containment resources that are available?

Taking the time to evaluate a self-funded plan can help an organization get the most out of it. Here are four steps for a healthy self-insured plan.

Review and update your medical plan. Start with a thorough assessment of the plan document so you know exactly what is covered, what cost-containment programs are in place, whether the plan complies with federal laws, and whether the plan has clear discretionary authority language and appropriate definitions and exclusions. A variety of factors, from federal and state regulations to changes in your business and new benefits, can create a need for a plan review each year.

Do your medical plans have an active utilization management program that steers your members toward the right in-network providers to maximize discount opportunities? Often patients who have (or know they will) hit their out-of-pocket maximum can wind up visiting physicians or specialists that are out of network without realizing the impact, particularly when it comes to tests like MRIs. Make sure your plan addresses authorization for certain out-of-network procedures or testing, and request reporting to show your plan utilization trends.

Also, review your plan for provisions that encourage and reward wellness programs and maximize those benefits wherever you can.

Analyze your high-cost claims and take action. Have you tracked your high-cost claims for specific trends and are you using your data to its full potential? Consider who your employees are, where they are based, the type of work they do, and other employee and dependent demographics to anticipate future risks.

Ask your claims administrator to monitor the costliest claims codes according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, also known as ICD-10, trigger diagnoses codes. Take a look at which conditions on the list you see in your workforce so you can monitor and develop a systematic cost-containment approach toward high-dollar claims.

It’s helpful to have this information as high-cost claims begin to emerge, but before you reach the 50 percent deductible mark on your specific stop-loss coverage. The high-cost trend could be indicated by a diagnosis, or actual dollar amount. From case management to dialysis vendors and specialty prescription vendors, your administrators and stop-loss provider can provide resources for added cost-containment opportunities. For example, intravenous medications, which are used to treat a range of diseases from cancer to hemophilia, can result in millions in claims necessitating stop-loss reimbursements. According to Sun Life’s 2016 Catastrophic Claims Report (Editor’s note: the author is employed by Sun Life), intravenous medications represented $54.5 million, or 7.6 percent, of the total reimbursements for 2012-15. And if diabetes is a prevalent condition in your workforce, as it is in the greater U.S. population, where nearly 30 million people have the disease, access to dialysis vendors and Centers of Excellence facilities for kidney transplants can help curtail costs and support improved patient outcomes.

If you examine and implement case management and cost-containment programs at the case level early, you could not only positively impact that individual’s path of treatment and clinical outcome but also reduce subsequent claims costs, and you may potentially see this reflected in your premiums upon renewal.

Be proactive with your partners. Develop proactive plans with your various health partners — broker, claims administrator, stop-loss provider, and independent vendors — to address all aspects of cost containment. To get the conversations started, ask if you’re utilizing all the resources available, if there are network gaps, if better discounts are available, and if your health plan costs are competitive in your geographic area.

Remember that you can utilize one of your health partners to take negotiation actions on your behalf. These actions include:

Performing a medical bill review (paying attention to billing and coding accuracy).
Performing a diagnosis-related review (if the diagnosis is in question).
Determining if Usual, Customary, Reasonable (UCR) language about treatment costs applies.
Comparing price to both the average wholesale price (which usually applies only to medications and durable medical equipment) and to Medicare Plus pricing.
Ensuring that out-of-network providers that accept a negotiated charge don’t “balance bill” the claimant with the difference.

Review your stop-loss plan. Analyze the group demographics along with your risk tolerance, claims experience, and industry benchmarks and trends to decide if you want to change your stop-loss deductible, modify your policy, or add/remove certain features. Look into options for buy downs in deductibles or coverage of access fees, which could be added benefits provided by your stop-loss partner.

Your stop-loss carrier can be a dedicated partner in helping you verify that your medical and stop-loss plans complement each other and provide high-quality and cost-effective care to plan members.

Employers turn to self-funding for cost savings, to take control of their benefits plan design, and for opportunities to tailor their health management programs. It’s worth giving your self-funded strategy an annual check-up to see how you can work with your health partners to make an even greater impact on your company’s bottom line and the health and productivity of your employees.

Lisa M. Hundertmark is senior manager of claims services and clinical resources at Sun Life. She oversees the daily operations of the clinical nursing staff and is responsible for monitoring the medical landscape to ensure that Sun Life and its groups are prepared with information, knowledge and new resources when changes occur.

September 14, 2016June 19, 2018

Salary Compression and Pay for Performance

One of the biggest compensation challenges during times of suppressed budgets around compensation increases (i.e. the standard 3 percent) centers around salary compression. This occurs when new employees or recently promoted workers receive a salary similar to or higher than their more experienced colleagues in the same position. With some market rates moving faster than others, this can inevitably happen if you are looking to hire an individual from the market into a role with other incumbents. Though it may be perceived as unfair, paying new employees the current market rate for their positions is key to attracting new talent, even if the salary of those already employed doesn’t increase simultaneously.

So, how can companies address this issue and maintain a fair and merit-based compensation strategy? The key is to base salary on competitive market rates and individual performance. Looking at our CompAnalyst Market Data, we find that the market rate for software engineer 4 has increased from July of 2015 to July 2016 by 4.5 percent. With a 3 percent increase allocated uniformly across an organization, you can see that longer service employees will be paid less than your new hires.

Read: Tie Comp and Performance Management to Attract and Keep Employees

If a current employee is performing at or above expectations, then their salary should increase to more than what their new colleague is making. Meanwhile, if the more experienced engineer is underperforming, then their performance may merit a 0 percent merit increase; management can work with the individual to help them increase their performance and earn a higher salary.

It’s important to note that salary compression isn’t limited to within a single department, it can be perceived across the organization if a department collectively receives a higher raise than others. As with individual performers, certain job families bring more value, or certain roles are in higher demand. This means the company will have to raise the salaries for some positions faster than others to attract and retain top talent.

Key to success is having the insight into the market and movement of the respective jobs in the organization, as well as tracking individual’s performance levels. Equipped with accurate data into positions, pay levels and an individual’s performance, the company can invest in its people wisely and have the data to back up why people may be paid differently.

— Mark A. Szypko

August 31, 2016June 29, 2023

Back to Basics: Appealing to a Multigenerational Workforce

I recently had an eye-opening generational experience while at a Slovenian picnic a few weeks ago. The crowd was varied (made up of the Slovenians who had immigrated to Chicago in the early 20^th century and their descendants): 80-something-year-old immigrants who sit on picnic benches the whole time and have long conversations in their Eastern European tongue, 50-somethings playing bocce ball with a beer in hand and the 20-somethings like me.

The people in my parents’ generation undoubtedly talk about work or when they can finally retire. Where should they invest? Will retirement be in 10 or 15 years? Will they retire in Arizona or Texas or Asia? They speak like they’re one of those persnickety couples on House Hunters International, saying things like, “I really don’t care where we live as long as we’re five minutes from the beach,” and “But we could get a much better deal if we’re willing to move further from the beach!”

The people in my grandparents’ generation also bring up work and retirement, like when my grandfather shows off his construction union retirement gift (a gold watch that’s probably fake, he points out) and tells stories about his job.

Meanwhile, my similarly aged cousins and I have different thoughts on the same topic. Like on the evening news, my cousin and I both had a minor panic attacks when the anchor said something along the lines of, “College graduates today may not be able to retire until age 75.” That’s a big jump from 65. I’m hoping that’s a case of exaggeration for the sake of ratings.

In any case, it hit me that despite this huge generational divide between my parents and grandparents, we care about the same thing: security. The only difference is, we’re in very, very different places.

Much like my large, extended family, the workforce is multigenerational. That can seem daunting to a company managing employees in five different generations, but it’s less daunting when you consider that ultimately most people want the same thing. They’re just in different places in their lives in terms of attaining it.

WF_0831_WorkingWell_MillenielBenefits_Hernandez — Acclaris’ Carlos Hernandez

“Millennials don’t necessarily look at benefits in a wildly different way than the other generations. They’re worried about base pay, bonuses, retirement,” said Carlos Hernandez, vice president of strategic alliances at Acclaris, an information technology and services provider that manages health care plans. As an employer, “you have to offer the basics.”

Where there may be a difference, though, is the messaging itself, added Hernandez, who has more than 25 years of experience in the health care industry advising employers on how to best meet their benefits goals. Companies, when considering benefits offerings, have to use different messaging to different groups — like age groups — to show the value points they have. But it’s still the same program underneath that skin.

One way to facilitate the access to information, for example, is bring a financial firm to a lunch and learn every month and let employees sign up to speak to an adviser, Hernandez noted. This could be appealing to a baby boomer who’s retiring in 15 years, or someone just starting out their career who wants to get on the right path.

Also useful to facilitate access is a creating a touchpoint, like a mobile app or portal or private conference room, he added. Companies could use something like this to deliver services and guidance in private.

Finally, in terms of managing a multigenerational workforce, he suggested creating a committee or a strategic forum made up of employees of every generation. These representatives of the company could talk about issues, like financial or health benefits, from their own points of view.

“That sense of involvement cannot be understated,” he said.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

August 25, 2016June 19, 2018

Working Parents Finding Support for Their Special Needs Children

The number of children with disabilities has been climbing for more than a decade and that means that a growing number of employees are struggling to care for a child with special health care needs.

About 6 million children in the United States are considered disabled, according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Pediatrics — a 16 percent jump from a decade earlier. And about 1 in 20 employees are caring for a child with a disability or chronic illness, according to Family Voices, a national nonprofit advocacy group for special needs children.

In an effort to alleviate some of their burden, consulting firm Mercer and Rethink, a health technology firm, teamed up earlier this year to offer companies an online resource that features video-based treatment programs, tools to help parents manage behavioral problems, communicate better with school districts, and provides access to remote clinical consultations in addition to other supports.

“The motivation behind this was seeing the explosion in the prevalence of autism and other developmental disabilities,” said Mike Civello, vice president of employee benefits at New York-based Rethink. “One hears from the families and from the clients of Mercer how hard it is to support this population, whether it revolves around finding services or other support for the family. Looking at this increase in prevalence and the dearth of trained professionals to address these needs, whether in school, home or the health care arena, made it clear that something more was needed.”

While Rethink was launched in 2007 to help public school districts provide better support to students with developmental disabilities, awareness is growing among employers, in part because of recent state laws requiring insurers to cover certain autism therapies, he said.

“Employers are going to their benefits departments asking about this, so it’s really only in the last couple of years that we are seeing a desire on the part of employers to do something for employees with children that have special needs.”

The program focuses on developmental disabilities, such as autism and Down syndrome, but Dr. David Kaplan, senior partner and leader of Mercer’s Health Innovation LABS, said that parents of children with any kind of physical or mental disabilities face similar challenges.

“Play dates become more complicated, there are issues with schools around accommodations, and there’s the need to take time off for treatments,” he said. “The general stress level for parents — whether a child has autism or another kind of disability — is the same.”

Kaplan said that these kinds of pressures often result in greater levels of anxiety and depression for parents, in addition to increased absenteeism and higher health care costs. Typically, employers rely on employee assistance providers to help parents, but according to Kaplan EAPs are not specifically trained to deal with issues surrounding disabled children.

According to the National Business Group on Health, nearly half of caregivers of children with special needs require more help managing stress and 40 percent of parents need help balancing work and family responsibilities. The NBGH found that parents of children with a disability lose around five hours of work weekly, totaling about 250 hours per year, which translates to an average of $3,000 to $5,000 per person in lost productivity for businesses.

In addition to making sure that benefit plans cover treatment for various disabilities, Kaplan said that employers could help alleviate some of the stress for parents of special needs children by creating a supportive workplace.

“It’s important to create an open and accepting atmosphere by talking about these issues so parents aren’t suffering in silence,” he said. “If you can create a situation where a parent can go to a doctor’s appointment without feeling condemned, that will make a huge difference for the family.”

Rita Pyrillis is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or emaileditors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

July 29, 2016July 25, 2018

Minorities and Wellness

In 2002 Prudential Financial’s employee wellness program had a participation rate that many employers would envy, but when executives examined who was signing up, they discovered that African-Americans were greatly underrepresented.

They developed a new communications strategy to get more African-American workers on board, but another problem emerged. As they looked more closely at the company’s health care data, they found that African-American employees had much higher rates of diabetes and hypertension than those from other racial and ethnic groups, according to Dr. K. Andrew Crighton, chief medical officer at Prudential Financial.

In order to address those disparities, the company created a data warehouse to collect and analyze employee health information by race, ethnicity, gender, age and job levels and to track chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiac disease and asthma. Armed with that information, Prudential launched the Healthy Diabetic program in 2011 to address the disproportionate incidences of the disease among various employee groups.

Prudential is part of a small but growing number of employers that are addressing inequities in the health status of their workforces. Racial and ethnic disparities in health care — whether in access, insurance coverage or quality of care — is typically thought of as a public health concern, but awareness among employers is growing, according to LuAnn Heinen, a vice president at the National Business Group on Health.

“As the U.S. workforce becomes increasingly diverse and company operations globalize, health disparities in the workplace are also becoming more common,” she said in an email. “By addressing health care disparities and health equity, employers are improving the value, quality and effectiveness of the services their employees receive through health care benefits and productivity programs.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African-Americans are 60 percent more likely to develop diabetes and 30 percent more likely to die of heart disease than non-Hispanic white people. While insurance coverage and access to care affect health outcomes, disparities exist even among those with insurance. For example, when it comes to cardiac care, insured African-Americans are significantly less likely than white people with health insurance to undergo angiography, which identifies blockages in the heart’s arteries, according to an NBGH report on health care disparities. As a result, African-Americans are less likely to undergo heart bypass surgery and other potentially life-saving procedures.

“Employers are coming to see that this is really critical,” said Ron Goetzel, vice president at Truven Health Analytics, which helped Prudential develop its data warehouse. “Even companies that offer very good health benefits, even those in the Fortune 500, when you begin to analyze the data and look at different racial and ethnic groups, you will see differences in prevalence.

“It doesn’t start when you enter the workforce, it starts way before that. Your childhood, your education, the environment you grew up in, all of those factors come with you into the workplace. To the extent that employers can address those factors, it’s going to benefit the employee and the organization.”

In 2015, Goetzel co-authored a study of racial and ethnic health disparities at 46 large companies and found that even among employees with good health benefits, higher incomes and a safe work environment, disparities existed. The study points out that some differences may be attributed to social, environmental and economic differences that were not measured in the analysis.

At Prudential, on-site nurses provide personalized coaching to help diabetic employees manage their blood glucose levels. First-year results showed declines for all groups with 61 percent of diagnosed employees joining the program. The company also provides cultural competency training for all health and wellness professionals.

Unlike many employers, Prudential eschews outcomes-based wellness incentives like financial rewards for employees who complete weight-loss or fitness challenges because such practices could unfairly discriminate against those with conditions associated with race and ethnicity, according to Crighton, who also co-authored the 2015 study, which was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Employers who are concerned about health care disparities in their workforce must look beyond the physical and take into account factors such as an employee’s social and cultural environment when designing a wellness program, he said.

“It’s about focusing on those nonmedical barriers to health and really sitting down and meeting the person where they are to find the best approach for them,” he said. “It’s not the old medical model of, ‘Here’s what you need to do.’ Even among minority groups there are differences. Not everyone is the same.”