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Technology Employee benefits


HEALTHCARE OR FINANCIAL SECURITY? EMPOWER EMPLOYEES TO CHOOSE BOTH

By  Paola Peralta
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October 18, 2022, 3:41 p.m. EDT 3 Min Read
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In the face of economic uncertainty, employees are being forced to make
difficult choices when it comes to how they spend their money. At times, those
cost-cutting efforts can mean gambling with their health. 

In a recent survey conducted by employee benefits platform Elevate, 65% of
employee respondents are looking to cut discretionary spending to focus on
necessities. For many, healthcare has been the easiest expense to trim — 28% of
employees reported putting off a screening or wellness check to save money and
14% reported postponing a necessary medical procedure or delaying getting a
prescription filled. 

"It's hard to blame people," says Brian Cosgray, co-founder of Elevate.
"Everyone has basically had a whole month's paycheck disappear due to inflation.
The cost of everything seems to be rising much faster than wages. Are people
making trade offs that affect their healthcare? And if so, how can we help
them?"



Read more: Global healthcare benefit costs expected to jump 10% in 2023

For Cosgray, helping those workers means providing clearer communications that
can empower employees to better utilize their available benefits — because it's
clear they're craving both financial and personal health. Eighty percent of
survey respondents believe benefits support their financial security, and 78%
rank being prepared for out-of-pocket healthcare costs as important or most
important to them. And yet, only 40% of employees have an HSA or an FSA, the
survey found. 



"The menu of benefits has never been a challenge for employers — the challenge
is getting employees to take advantage of them," Cosgray says. "Employees know
what's offered but their challenge is going back, remembering and then making
use of it." 

That's where Elevate steps in. The tech-driven platform partners with companies
to make employees' benefits and healthcare easy to use. An employee can access
their personal information via an online platform or mobile app, where they also
have access to a round-the-clock chatbot to guide them through utilization
queries; resources offer to easy-to-digest language that explains what benefits
are available, how to utilize them, and what the real-world impact is. For
example, a $100 copay wouldn't be as alarming if employees knew their
well-funded HSA or FSA was available to help cover the cost. 

"I can't make more money appear, but what we can do is use modern technology to
look at all of those friction points in that journey for the employee in
accessing those benefits and try to take as many of those — if not all of them —
out of the workflow," Cosgray says. "Find a couple extra quarters in the couch
cushions, if you will." 

Read more: 7 tips to help employers and employees optimize HSAs

Elevate eliminates the need to use multiple cards to access benefit dollars,
consolidating it to a single card that is compatible with Apple and Samsung Pay.
The platform also works with HR departments to offer an instant reimbursement
process for employees who file health insurance claims but need that money back
quicker than companies can usually process it on their own. 

"Even if you don't have your [insurance] card with you, you can take a picture
of the receipt with your phone, we process it instantly and then we can get that
money back to you instantly," Cosgray says. "We're also the first ones to use
Venmo, PayPal, and push to debit. Our goal is that by the time you leave the
parking lot at the medical office building, those dollars are back in your bank
account in case you need them to buy groceries that same day." 

Putting off vital care can harm more than just the employee. An unhealthy
workforce is a financial burden on companies. Not only can workers end up
spending more in insurance claims, but productivity takes a hit when the
workforce is struggling with their health. 

"There's always been a direct correlation between how much your premiums go up,"
Cosgray says. "It's why employers traditionally have offered so many different
types of incentives like free gym memberships. But again, you've gotta make it
easy to use for people to take advantage of to reduce financial stress.
Prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Paola Peralta
Associate Editor, Employee Benefit News
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