Health Care is a Right: How to Design a Truly Inclusive Health Benefit
Last week, I was invited to participate on a panel hosted by HLTH to discuss how we can eliminate structural disparities and bring equity to health care.
My philosophy is that health care is a right for everyone. The more we discuss how to build equitable benefit programs for our employees, the closer we get to creating a truly diverse and inclusive workplace culture. The session dove into defining what health equity means today and how we, as employers and leaders in the healthcare industry, need to address barriers to access that impact the various segments of our workforce.
The panel “Designing a Truly Inclusive Health Benefit” included forward-thinking insights from Google’s Director of Health Equity & Product Inclusion, Ivor Horn; CEO of Bind, Tony Miller; and Senior Principal of Rewards & Benefits at Korn/Ferry International, Julie Sirkin, who moderated the conversation.
As you look to transform your internal people operations and build an inclusive benefit program, here are some critical areas of focus and attention:
Maintain open communication channels to understand what your employees need to be healthy and happy. As employers we have a responsibility to be leaders in understanding the unique needs of our workforce. It’s important to recognize that we employ individuals across a variety of communities that have different levels of access to care. By tapping into our employee base, we gain a better understanding of what benefits they find most valuable. This can be done through a variety of ways including workforce surveys, employee resource forums, roundtables, and focus groups to gauge employees' insights on what is important to them. By doing this we can see, hear and feel what their needs are and mobilize to respond to those needs.
Recognize and acknowledge the needs of the marginalized and disenfranchised groups in your workforce. Ivor Horn, MD, MPH, put it best during the panel when she said that we have to recognize that health inequity is the result of a system that has been built on institutional and structural racism. “We need to acknowledge that when BIPOC individuals walk into that door there is a barrier and there are biases they encounter,” she continued. How do we begin to solve this problem? To address these issues, we need to acknowledge them. If we don’t, then we are leaving out a huge portion of our workforce and expecting them to fend for themselves. To close these health inequity gaps, it’s extremely important to help people navigate a healthcare system that was not designed for them. Support your employees and arm them with the resources and knowledge of what they should expect from their benefits to ensure they receive the care they deserve.
Engage with the communities where you work and live to understand their specific needs. A company’s workforce may be spread out through a vast array of different communities and geographies. Engaging with these communities helps us truly understand the unique needs and disparities each segment of our workforce is experiencing. This way we can provide personalized offerings to meet those employees where they are at and meet their specific needs. For example, at Delta Dental, we established our Delta Dental Community Care Foundation that focuses on supporting partners that bring oral health and wellness access to underserved communities.
Provide value-based benefits that address the needs of different populations in the workplace. Our workplace is composed of a spectrum of age groups, from Boomers to those just entering the workforce. That means we have a range of different lived experiences, levels of benefits knowledge, and different health and wellness needs. As employers, we can provide benefits that meet the goals of our employees at the right point in their life. An easy and effective way to nurture benefits equity is to offer opportunities for choice and personalization. At Delta Dental, through discussions with our employees we learned there was a demand for fertility coverage for our employees that were struggling with the high costs of IVF. To address their needs, we implemented a family-friendly fertility benefit that reinforces our commitment to supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce longing to start a family.
Educate and engage employees around their own health and wellness, health literacy, and the benefits they can take advantage of. As employers, we have a key responsibility to educate our workforce and hold open dialogues with them. This includes ensuring their needs are being met and they have specific, proactive ways to manage their health and wellness. By bringing awareness not just to what benefits are covered, but also to preventative care and overall health and wellness, we are giving our employees confidence to take charge of their own health.
Through our ongoing focus on our benefits program, we are owning our commitment to create opportunities for everyone and showing that we care about our employees outside of the specifics of their daily work. This focus is instrumental in acquiring and retaining top talent, and even more importantly, ensuring they are happy and healthy and feel inspired to ensure our customers are happy and healthy as well.
If you’re interested in watching the full panel discussion on how to provide equitable benefits to your workforce, you can find the video here.