U.S.
According to research from EBN's parent company Arizent, the majority of employees are struggling with
Yet
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"I equate it to financial literacy," says Ed Ligonde, partner and market director at brokerage Nava Benefits. "It encompasses your level of understanding of employee benefits, from the insurance plan, to how to access care and then how to navigate it. If you as the employer aren't focusing enough energy and resources into literacy, how are you getting the best ROI?"
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If employers want a healthy workforce that puts less pressure on their benefits budget, they need a population that knows how to take advantage of their health plans. This means employees' know-how stretches from assessing the cost of their health plan beyond the monthly premiums, to pinpointing in-network doctors and price-comparing providers and treatments in their area.
But employers cannot educate their workforce unless they know how to communicate with them. Jamie Meyer, director of client engagement at Nava Benefits, advises employers to provide quick surveys or else risk sending information blasts no one reads.
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"It can be a less-than-a-minute survey that allows you to take the temperature of the room," says Meyer. "Find out how your team wants to be communicated with, what hurdles they faced since open enrollment and how they're feeling about their benefits package overall."
Meyer suggests employers focus on healthcare literacy year-round, offering materials like webinars, articles and guides via employees' preferred communication channels. Employers could pick monthly wellness themes and send out information regarding a specific topic each week, explains Meyer. For example, if it's Mental Health Awareness Month, the company's benefit leaders can share guidelines on how to find a therapist using their health plans one week, and then feature a webinar that discusses the dangers of mental health stigma the next.
Education can't stop there. Ligonde stresses the importance of having a one-stop platform where employees can not only access basic plan information but also their digital insurance cards, codes for telehealth apps and insurance portals. Ligonde reminds employers that when employees need to use their healthcare benefits, it's usually because they're already unwell or someone in their family is — the easier their benefits are to access, the more motivated workers will be to use them before their condition worsens. Nava's app even allows users to message their staff questions regarding coverage and medical bills.
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"We're pretty passionate about providing people with quick and easy access to information," says Ligonde. "We're everyone's benefits bestie in their pocket."
Ligonde and Meyers agree that employers who choose not to invest in healthcare literacy are setting themselves and their employees up for failure. And in a healthcare system destined for continued year-over-year price hikes, employers will need to learn how to optimize what they have.
"You could have the richest benefits package out there, but if your employees don't understand it, they may be sitting there feeling like these benefits aren't that great," says Meyer. "You can have a mediocre benefits package, but if you communicate it positively and continue to educate your team, they will feel like they have really good benefits."
