How Can You Enhance Worker Health If Employees Refuse To Go To The Doctor?

When it comes to health care, companies can do a lot better by assisting employees in prioritizing and delivering it fairly.

 

How often do you visit the doctor for personal reasons? Maybe not as much as you’d like to acknowledge. I’ve known for a long time that I should have had my health checked more frequently. Instead, I’d persuade myself to push through pain or discomfort until it was too late — and a minor issue had grown into a major issue.

Why, though? Probably because ignoring a (apparently small) health problem appears to be the easy option. And when I talk to the people in my life, they all feel the same way. It’s safe to presume that your employees share your sentiments. We don’t have to make any assumptions. In a year, 80% of employees use few, if any, medical services.

 

It’s not that folks don’t have health issues to deal with. Despite paying more for health care, the United States has a shorter life expectancy and a higher disease burden than other wealthy nations. Given that businesses offer the majority of health-care coverage in the United States, it is our responsibility — and opportunity — to enhance our people’s health.

When it comes to health care, companies can do a lot better in terms of (1) assisting employees in prioritizing it and (2) delivering it fairly.

 

It’s difficult to get staff to look after themselves.

Returning to my previous point. People avoid going to the doctor because it is more convenient. What do you mean “easier than”?

It’s certainly easier than contacting HR and asking where you can find a list of in-network health care providers and treatment alternatives. It’s a lot easier than combing your inbox from two years ago for your benefits platform login information, then going through a laborious procedure requiring numerous authentications on multiple devices (including four or five CAPTCHA prompts) simply to change your password and log in.

It’s easier than taking half a day off work — while your work piles up — to go to the doctor’s office, tell your life story to a physician who barely knows you; paying what appears to be an excessive amount for such an inconvenience; then repeating the process to see a specialist; and finally making a trip to the pharmacy.

It’s easy for business leaders to overlook that these barriers to seeking treatment affect everyone in the firm, especially if they don’t put their own health first. However, the lack of clarity about available treatment options and the cumbersome process of obtaining help are only two aspects of a three-pronged problem. For many employees, a lack of confidence in the kind of care they will receive creates a slew of additional obstacles.

 

Disparities in health care exist for employees.

According to a McKinsey report, health care inequities exist among various talent groups at large U.S. firms, even for those earning high pay. According to the report, diverse employees are less likely to claim they have received the emotional and physical health care they require, with 30% or more indicating they have contemplated leaving employers because of their health benefits.

A lack of trust in the kind of care one will receive might also be a result of one’s employment culture. Even if a medical professional does not judge an employee for having depression or anxiety symptoms, the workplace culture may. According to a recent survey, nearly half of employees who disclosed their mental health issues faced repercussions such as being passed over for promotion or being regarded as “overly emotional.”

These negative results discourage employees from seeking the care they require, resulting in an unhealthy workforce, lower productivity, and higher employee turnover.

 

Human limits can be overcome by digital intervention.

Employers can use technology to solve two critical needs: helping people prioritize their health and providing more fair health care.

There’s the question of health-care access to begin with. It’s not only that logging into an employee’s benefits site is inconvenient. Rather, the quality of care provided to employees varies greatly depending on where they are located. Based on their desired income or social position, better doctors can be focused in specific places. Some work in geos with more resources for their specific specialty areas. In today’s world, a doctor’s location should have no bearing on who has access to the greatest care.

Technology can help level the playing field by ensuring that all employees (whether they work at a desk, in the field, or somewhere in between) have access to high-quality care regardless of where they live.

Employers must deploy solutions that connect employees with a provider of their choice without the need for in-person intervention as the workforce becomes more remote and dispersed. Companies may assist their employees obtain the treatment they need faster and offset gaps in the quality of care accessible to them by using workplace wellbeing apps designed to give that degree of access.

 

Second, each employee’s intervention should be distinct. People get a brief window of opportunity to disclose their health history at a regular medical appointment, and their nurse or physician must then swiftly offer a diagnosis with minimal information at their disposal (and we already know that people don’t go to the doctor). Technology can fill in the gaps in data, resulting in health care that is tailored to the individual needs of each employee.

Digital health applications can provide intervention recommendations based on personal health history by using sensors that track individual biometrics over time. Treatment is selected solely on the basis of health needs, excluding any bias or stigma associated with gender, race, sexual orientation, or illness symptoms.

Communication must also be a unique experience. To encourage employees to use their benefits, digital health platforms can use individualized data like employee communication preferences, benefit elections, and accessible solutions to prompt them on what steps they can take to improve their health.

Traditional health care has fallen behind the demands of today’s workforce. Employees now require a better understanding of the resources available to them, as well as simple measures they may take to enhance their health. They also require universal access to high-quality health-care resources. Employers who use technology to make health care more convenient and enjoyable for their employees won’t have to worry about how often their employees see the doctor.

 

 

 

 

Source: https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/05/05/if-employees-wont-go-to-the-doctor-how-do-you-improve-worker-health/