The health challenges that accompany us keep growing. For Individuals, such as: the growing need to stay active, access to modern treatment methods, needs related to wellbeing and healthy living. Finally, for the system, such as: progressive civilization diseases, aging society, increasing life expectancy, higher retirement age and thus the need to extend professional activity… and finally finding sources of financing.
Every year we break the barriers to financing medicine, setting new peaks, allocating further funds to them, as governments, insurers, patients.
Of course, this is combined with the ubiquitous coronavirus pandemic, without which healthcare issues seemed a huge challenge anyway. Today we can say that the coronavirus pandemic is changing the image of the world we live in, reshaping almost every aspect of our lives.
Why won’t it be cheaper?
It is estimated that the pandemic will cost the world economy between $ 8.1 and $ 15.8 trillion. The costs of medical care are getting higher every year. The pandemic will accelerate the dynamics of these processes. Intensive care and additional safety procedures increase not only the burden on employees and the demand for them, but also the costs of the medical procedures themselves. In addition, the dynamic development of e-services increases the investment needs of medical operators, who are forced to adapt their systems to several times increased traffic in this area.
So what to expect? Smaller amount of cash in the system caused by the general decline in GDP, the resignation of some companies affected by the crisis from non-wage benefits. In the long term, further reduce the availability of specialist services. Especially in view of the demand for doctors in the public health care system and thus the creation of mechanisms limiting the work of staff for the benefit of the private sector. As a result, increases in private insurance with a parallel attempt to limit the scope of benefits covered by them.
What to expect from your healthcare partners
Medical packages were one of the first benefits, also those that have been at the forefront of the benefits most expected by employees for years. This was not changed by the efforts of HR departments, which in the long-lasting employee market, in order to obtain the best candidates, reached for more and more sophisticated solutions not only aimed at improving the quality, but more the comfort of life of employees.
In the new pandemic reality, medical packages strengthened their position and overtook sports cards on the list of the most desirable benefits. According to the Hays Poland 2020 payroll report, 65% of employees are interested in extended medical care, and at the same time indicate that 74% of employers offer their employees a basic care package.
The National Center for Health Promotion at Work indicates in the report entitled “Personnel health management” that 52% of Polish companies subsidize their employees permanent access to private medical services in the form of medical subscriptions.
Are packages, then, the foundation of benefits? Are they inviolable? Do they finally meet the needs of today’s employees?
A closer look for a mental health
The coronavirus pandemic, or rather remote work, which is its consequence for many months, highlighted the challenges related to the mental condition of employees.
Every third Polish employee feels burned out, at the same time 43% of them believe that remote work can be a remedy for it (according to the ARC Rynek i Opinia report). Although remote work seems to increase the employee’s sense of security, and thus the level of stress, the research results do not seem so clear-cut and the division between employees experiencing lower, greater and constant stress levels is almost equal.
Today, less than 8 million Poles suffer from various types of mental problems, and in the last 10 years the number of patients has increased by 30%.
According to the research of the Institute of Healthcare Management at the Lazarski University in Warsaw, the costs borne by the state budget due to depression are over PLN 3.5 billion each year. The costs of treatment include huge financial losses for companies and institutions. It consists of almost 5.4 million days of sickness absence due to a depressive episode or recurrent depressive disorders. In addition, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work indicates a reduced productivity of employees suffering from depression, which statistically affects over 5 hours less work per week compared to healthy employees.
Nearly 45% of employees expect their employers to support mental health prevention, according to the BUPA Group research cited by Well.hr. In addition, COVID contributes to a significant increase in the incidence of anxiety and depression disorders in employees.
Stress, tension, quarantine challenges, the need to keep social distance, uncertainty about the future are important factors shaping our mental health. As many as 78% of employees worldwide indicate that their mental condition has deteriorated due to the stress and tension caused by the pandemic. The specter of the economic crisis and rising unemployment are only exacerbated by these threats. Safety at work is an additional factor for working people.
Challenges in this area are faced not only by employers, who have to deal not only with the need to provide employees with appropriate protection, but also to maintain the motivation of teams working remotely, to support employees in caring for children or to provide appropriate psychological care. Medical care systems must create effective solutions and increase the availability of tools.
The report “The future of wellbeing and employee benefits – new tidying up” shows that over 72% of respondents believe that the company should provide employees with support in the form of mental health benefits. Before the pandemic, they were provided by 3%, and in a pandemic, by less than 7%.
In view of the above data, it seems that this area requires a lot of attention from HR teams, which, with the support of medical partners, should eventually implement coordinated programs and appropriate service packages to provide support to the most vulnerable employees.
e-Health
Remote visits and teleporters existed in the system before. Electronic medical cards of patients also, as well as remote diagnostic methods and remote rehabilitation systems. A significant number of private service providers have implemented mobile applications for better and more effective patient service. However, quarantine, the need to maintain a social distance, and the progressive shortage of medical personnel are, however, a catalyst for changes in the area of e-health. According to the Biostat Research and Development Center, as many as 72% of Poles consider remote assistance in the form of telemedicine to be the safest form of contact with a doctor.
We are observing an avalanche of teleportation and e-visits – one of the service providers indicates an increase in this type of medical consultations at the level of 214% on an annual basis. Today, over 60% of consultations in one of the leading groups in Poland take place in the form of telemedicine services. In the era of an epidemic, when employees work remotely and access to specialists is difficult or dangerous, further dynamic growth of this type of services should be expected.
The emerging new services in the field of remote care and rehabilitation will be a strong impulse for the development of telemedicine. In addition, companies are looking at complementary devices that are a natural complement to medical consultations. I mean devices and applications for remote diagnostics and health monitoring.
Employee support
HR departments in cooperation with external partners have quite a wide range of activities in the area of employee support.
Starting with a knowledge base containing useful information on how to take care of your own health and well-being at work, how to adapt to changes or implement stress reduction techniques. Through all online solutions such as workshops, webinars, trainings, for example in the field of healthy eating, mobilization of the spine or individual psychological support sessions, ending with psychiatric crisis interventions in emergencies.
In such a dynamic environment, ongoing communication seems to be extremely important, including efficient diagnosis of needs and efficient assessment of solutions introduced for employees. Employee needs surveys, assessment of tools available to medical service providers or simple surveys of satisfaction and views on the implemented solutions can often give a quick answer and set new directions of activities.
A situation of a significant change in the employers’ approach to the area of benefits, which undoubtedly include medical packages. The increased need for effective cost allocation in this area, as outlined by the finance department, is also an opportunity for service providers and partners in this area. Human resources departments faced with specific requirements by management boards will expect flexible and quick action, targeting a real solution to employee needs, as well as identifying and supporting the implementation of specific solutions. The solutions introduced within medical packages must respond to the real needs of users.
It seems, however, that the medical package is only one of the elements that HR departments should expect from partners in this area. Such cooperation, especially in the present reality, can and should have a much wider scope.
This is because medical service providers can provide support in improving the safety of the functioning of companies in the era of a pandemic. Assistance in the development of epidemiological safety instructions, advice on the type, scope and location of protection measures, as well as the principles of using common areas should be considered crucial. Moreover, thanks to the resources and know-how of medical partners, it will be possible to effectively plan and implement safe return operations to the office.
Safe work? Not only in the office
Especially in production plants, where remote work is not possible, especially in the current situation of an avalanche increase in disease, medical service providers at the employer’s request may be involved in conducting coronavirus tests for employees and even their families.
Ultimately, the tests will help top management manage the risk and safety of employees, as well as make an informed decision related to the implementation of solutions allowing for the continuity of work and, as a result, minimization of costs.
In addition, mobile doctor’s offices located at the employers’ premises are systematically becoming popular. As I mentioned, one of the pandemic’s achievements is e-solutions. This is exactly the package of possibilities they use. The office is available during office hours and allows you to effectively and safely take care of health in the workplace, conduct teleconsultation, e-visit, as well as obtain a prescription or referral for further tests.
The scope of medical packages, similarly to the other non-wage benefits discussed earlier, will not be subject to such radical changes, however, in view of the aforementioned challenges in terms of maintaining employee motivation, there will certainly be a need to organize additional support in the field of psychology and psychiatry, such as webinars, consultations with specialists or online workshops.
Prevention and cost reduction
The pursuit of efficiency and cost reduction in the long term may also bring positive solutions for patient workers. According to the principle: “It is better to prevent than to cure”, it will lead to education, dissemination of prevention and a long-term view of the capital which is health. Today, employers often implement programs of immunization, health check-ups and cancer prevention. However, I am convinced that this is only the beginning of what awaits us in the coming years.
Personalization of care by introducing dedicated solutions depending on risk groups – for smokers, obese people, suffering from civilization diseases. We should remember that in the end the costs are indirectly borne by the employer, for example due to reduced work efficiency, a reduced level of motivation, a higher level of sickness absenteeism.
Assessment of employees’ lifestyle, development of individual activity plans, thanks to digitization and wearables, active support of employees in achieving health goals, as well as real rewards for achieving them, will change in the long term
picture of medical packages
It seems that the key words for effective functioning in the pandemic era will be: understanding, flexibility, cooperation. This applies, of course, to employees, employers and business partners. HR departments should carefully listen to the voice of employees in order to effectively develop appropriate solutions with business partners, taking into account their needs and the employer’s possibilities.
Employees actively communicate their needs, show understanding and flexibility in this difficult for all situations. Service providers, on the other hand, support the employer in developing effective and realistic solutions, because by bringing added value to employees and awareness of well-spent funds, employers are able to retain clients for whom services in this area are most easily converted into real and hard savings.
