Remember that lesson you learned back in school about Newton’s Laws of Motion? I’m sure you know at least one of the laws. The one that sticks out to me is that an object in motion stays in constant motion unless changed by an external force.
I promise I’m not going to give a physics lesson in this blog, but my topic has a “Newton-type” spin. What could it possibly be? Healthcare!
Yep, the nature of healthcare (and the way it’s delivered) is in constant motion. Sometimes that’s great news; other times I think we can collectively all grumble. Either way, the one thing I know for certain — it’s important your company and those within your company who help establish employee benefits plans not only are acutely aware of the needs most relevant for your workforce and but also act on them.
Your next question might be how? My response: “through the data!”
Trends in Data
Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting a webinar that highlighted a few key trends and important data-driven clinical strategies that can help businesses. I wanted to share them with you. As you evaluate your employee benefits offerings, keep these data trends in mind.
Preventive Care Has Declined
While this was expected during the pandemic, the rate of preventive visits is still not where it should be for ideal wellness.
If the average age of your employee population is 40, and preventive care rate is not at 50 percent, then you need to do something (i.e. look for solutions that get your employees to these types of visits!).
Demographics are an important factor in this as well, especially age. Recent studies have even broken-down clinical cost drivers by condition for each generation.
There are five generations in the workforce today. The consistent health impacts over the last year across all generations have been infectious disease (think COVID) and wellness (preventive care). Mental Health has risen to the top for Millennials and GenZ. We expect this trend to continue for these generations as the willingness to seek care is much more prevalent in these age groups than older generations.
Preferred Modes of Healthcare Are Changing Quickly
Where millennials are now the most populous generation in the workforce, 50 percent of them either have, or are at risk of having, a chronic condition but do not want traditional in-person care.
Data has shown that they prefer to receive healthcare differently than previous generations, especially in a convenient virtual setting.
Moving forward, virtual care will likely need to accommodate more than just urgent needs and evolve to more regularly address chronic conditions.
High-Cost Claimants Do Not Always Follow Definite Patterns.
Where small populations are driving a lot of costs, studies have found that this data does indeed change over time, where the same individuals are not necessarily high-cost claimants year after year. This further reinstates the idea that preventive care is critical.
Addressing Your Company’s Clinical Strategy
Thankfully, there are a number of strategies you can implement to address these cost drivers, and having an impact strategy uniquely suited to each organization is key.
Guess what? We have a team on hand at Holmes Murphy that specializes in this very thing. Our experts can help you look at the data, develop your employee benefits strategies, and obtain more information on healthcare cost drivers or wellness trends in 2023.
As healthcare remains in constant motion, data will be the key to delivering what your employees need! Reach out to us, and let’s chat about this and what can work for you!
