What Employees Want in Their Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits

July 29, 2021 - Employees are looking for employers to bolster preventive care services, mental healthcare, and access to employees’ providers in their employer-sponsored health benefits, a Marathon Health survey revealed.

The researchers surveyed over 1,100 employees—all of whom were working full-time—and 430 human resource leaders in June 2021.

“While Americans prize healthcare above every other benefit, our survey also indicates employees and employers see major shortcomings in their healthcare plans. This is especially true when it comes to cost, preventive care, and mental health,” Jeff Wells, co-founder and chief executive officer of Marathon Health, summarized in the press release.

“There is also a big appetite for change from traditional offerings and a desire to form closer relationships with primary care providers – all in the name of increasing wellness versus managing illness.” 

Of all of the major employer-sponsored benefits including 401K payments and financial bonuses, both employees and employers agreed that healthcare benefits were highly valuable for employees. Eight in ten employees and seven in ten employers stated that healthcare was in the top three most important employer-sponsored benefits.

READ MORE: Employer-Sponsored Health Plans Spent $814B on 2019 Benefits

Employers and employees—more than three in ten of both groups—also agreed that healthcare benefits were the benefits that required the most improvement and, in many ways, they aligned in their responses about how to take action.

Areas for improvement in health benefits

One of the key areas of improvement that causes challenges for employers and employees alike was cost of care.

Overall, half of all employees and 43 percent of employers identified out-of-pocket healthcare spending as requiring correction.

This sentiment was even stronger in smaller companies. Two-thirds of employees in small businesses—companies with 100 employees or fewer—stated that out-of-pocket healthcare spending needed to improve. Meanwhile, 44 percent of employees in companies with 5,000 employees or more held the same view.

However, according to a separate Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey, large employers are not exempt from the pressure of high healthcare spending. Over a third of large employers in the KFF survey stated that they considerably or strongly agreed that health benefit costs were excessive.

READ MORE: How Employer Health Benefits Are Changing Due to Coronavirus

In the Marathon Health survey, it was clear to many employers and employees that, while out-of-pocket healthcare spending became increasingly unmanageable, quality of care had not necessarily improved to match the cost growth.

Almost seven in ten employees and nearly eight in ten employers said that cost had increased in the last five years. But 52 percent of employees and 58 percent of employers found that quality had increased in the same time period.

Employers, employees disagree on purpose of health benefits

While the employer and employee groups were aligned in their perspective on cost and quality improvement, they expressed differing views on what the employers’ healthcare benefits were designed to address.

Over six in ten employees stated that their employers’ health plans were designed to address illness. Slightly more than four in ten employers agreed.

However, nearly six in ten employers stated that the role of their health plans was to prevent illness. Only a little over a third of employees (35 percent) answered that health plans were designed to address their health holistically, such as covering preventive services.

What employees want from their health benefits

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Employees and employers expressed interest in a healthcare center dedicated to employee and dependents’ healthcare utilization. Around eight in ten employees and employers stated that they would utilize or establish a physical care site located at or near the office workplace or available via virtual care.

Additionally, over three-quarters of employees stated that they wanted a stronger relationship with their providers.

This response agreed with a separate study that found that consumers highly prioritize their connection with their primary care provider. Consumers were more willing to pay a higher premium to keep their primary care provider than they were for other benefits such as shorter wait times or shorter travel times.

According to the Marathon Health survey, employees were flexible regarding how they wanted to establish that connection with their provider—whether in-person or through technology. Forty-one percent of employees stated that their ideal healthcare benefits included the ability to connect with their provider remotely in some capacity through telehealth or virtual care.

While employees did not see their health benefits as holistic, their responses indicated a desire for health benefits that addressed their overall health. Nearly eight in ten employees (77 percent) stated that they would like more support in chronic disease prevention care.

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic was evident throughout the survey results, particularly in employees’ responses about mental healthcare needs. Over six in ten employees stated that the coronavirus pandemic had boosted their stress levels and more than half had experienced a rise in anxiety.

Employers witnessed the blow that coronavirus dealt to employee mental health through higher levels of healthcare claims related to anxiety and depression. That being said, other studies have noted a decrease in mental healthcare claims during the pandemic, although mental health-related diagnoses increased.

Regardless of how the mental health impact of the pandemic expressed itself in medical claims data, many employees (45 percent) wanted more access to mental health services through their employer-sponsored health plans, according to the Marathon Health survey.

As employers reassess their health benefits in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, they may want to consider increasing access to care through both in-person and virtual care and making employees more aware of the preventive care benefits available in their health plans.