CVS Health added five health and wellness programs to its benefits platform to provide employers with an all-in-one solution for voluntary perks.
CVS Health’s line of voluntary benefits is called Point Solutions Management. Sleep i.o. was the first wellness program added to the platform after its inception last year. The platform’s new offerings address issues like heart health, diabetes, chronic pain, caregiving and mindfulness strategies.
“We have analyzed pharmacy and medical claims to identify where these benefits can make a difference and employ a rigorous and transparent evaluation process to assure that any vendor included in Point Solutions Management meets high standards for safety, quality and user experience at the vendor’s lowest price in the marketplace,” says Sree Chaguturu, M.D., chief medical officer of CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit management sector of CVS Health.
Point Solutions Management vendors include Hello Heart, for managing blood pressure and other cardiac conditions; Hinge Health, a digital exercise therapy platform for addressing chronic pain; Livongo, a diabetes and weight management tool; the caregiver support center Torchlight; and Whil, a mental health app that uses videos and exercises to build resilience.
Although wellness programs can help decrease costs on employer health plans, these voluntary benefits have been declining over the past five years. Last year, just 24% of employers offered preventative programs for chronic conditions, down from 40% in 2015. CVS executives believe part of the reason for the decline is that these programs are offered separately, creating a lot of work for HR professionals looking to build a suite of voluntary offerings.
“Plan sponsors increasingly see the value in healthcare point solutions for improving workforce productivity, satisfaction and overall well-being; however, with so many options on the market, it can be challenging to identify trusted solutions that best meet the needs of their members,” Chaguturu says.
Voluntary benefits are in high demand among employees. Sixty percent say they would choose an employer based on their benefits offerings. The most in-demand benefit for employers outside of health insurance and PTO is student loan repayment and family friendly perks like caregiving services, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
Airline company JetBlue currently uses CVS’s host of voluntary benefits; their executives say the program is especially helpful for large employers because they need to offer a variety of programs in order to compete for talent. The airline company adopted Point Solutions Management last year.
“As a large employer with a diverse workforce, healthcare point solutions are an essential component of our overall benefits package, but it can be time-consuming and costly to identify, evaluate and contract individually with each vendor,” said Kristen Brown, director of benefits at JetBlue.
CVS has been continually expanding their benefits offerings to their employer clients. Most recently, the health retail giant revealed it was creating an insurance product that will make it possible for employers to cover
