2026 healthcare trends: How access to better data can redefine benefits

• Key Insight: Discover how data-driven wellness tailors benefits to reduce high-cost care reliance.
• What's at Stake: Rising healthcare utilization could increase premiums, absenteeism, and turnover costs.
• Supporting Data: Only 12% of employees report being satisfied with their benefit packages.
• Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Using real data and insights to guide benefit decisions can help employees get the right care sooner — while improving health outcomes and controlling costs, too.

Recent data indicates a significant gap between the benefits employers offer and what employees actually need. In fact, only 12% of employees reported feeling truly satisfied with their benefit packages, according to a recent survey from employee benefits and financial services firm Drewberry. Investing in data-driven benefit tools could help organizations keep their workforce engaged, especially when it comes to employee health and wellness. 

"Truly understanding your current workforce will be critically important," says Amanda Martell, the director of human resources at wellness benefit solution LifeSpeak. "Everyone's personal needs are different, and it's valuable to have benefits [that meet those needs.]"

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Data-driven well-being programs use employee data to personalize benefits that best fit their needs. By partnering with these vendors, leaders gain insights into stress levels, workload patterns or financial strain and match employees with the right resources at the right moment, according to Martell. For example, a platform might flag rising burnout risk and automatically recommend mental health coaching, suggest adjustments to workloads, or prompt managers to step in. Other data-driven tools can even guide employees to the most effective medical providers.

Organizations receive comprehensive reporting that shows which areas of well-being support are being most utilized, where engagement is increasing, as well as where gaps still exist. 

"These insights help guide planning, inform investment decisions and evolve well-being strategies based on real population needs rather than assumptions," Martell says. "These programs surface the most relevant resources and interventions earlier, helping organizations address unmet needs and reduce reliance on higher-cost care." 

Keeping costs low

Common wellness challenges like burnout often lead to anxiety or depression, which can eventually require medical care. While that care is important and necessary, higher utilization is what pushes premiums up, Martell explains. 

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Additionally, untreated chronic conditions or unaddressed healthcare challenges could also lead to more ER visits, raising  monetary costs for organizations and potentially leading to significant losses from absenteeism and turnover. Using the right data and collecting the right insights ensures that organizations have all the information they need to make the most impactful decisions. 

"If you can be on the preventive side of things and get employees what they need when they need it, you're less likely to reach the point where costs begin to increase," Martell says.    

As benefit leaders lean on data and implement programs that track utilization and outcomes, they'll see a payoff through meaningful improvements in both employee health and long-term costs.

"We need to move in the direction of tailored healthcare," Martell says. "We're not taking a proactive enough approach, and  one-size-fits-all is just no longer a good solution for any company."