Each May, we recognize Mental Health Awareness, a complex and multi-faceted aspect of total well-being, often impacting and interconnected with other components of overall health. Mental Health is of paramount importance to NEEBC and our community and is a topic we will highlight and progress throughout the year.

With the spotlight on mental health awareness this month, we asked our partners to share their research, tools and solutions on mental health, and they delivered. This compendium of partner content (in alphabetical order by organization) covers a spectrum of mental health-related topics from access and care to the unique considerations for under-served communities, and it offers toolkits, strategies and a framework to help employers expand existing resources.

The lack of access to health care is often the biggest challenge that patients encounter when they are sick or seeking preventive care. Patients can face weeks of waiting to see a provider and insufficient time with that provider once they are finally seen. For many, access remains out of reach, particularly for those living in rural areas or under-resourced communities.

With virtual and digital capabilities becoming more convenient and widely adopted, consumers today have more options in how they access their care. The past year has seen people become increasingly comfortable with virtual care and, according to our recent Health Care Insights Study, 59% of consumers feel it is important to their health that they have access to virtual and telehealth services. This greater acceptance of virtual care, combined with the proliferation of telehealth options in the past few years, offers a promising solution to closing gaps in health care inequities and helping shape a better care delivery model for all.

As we head into May, National Mental Health Awareness Month, it is important to acknowledge the gains made to reduce mental health stigma in the workplace. When I started in the employee assistance field over 16 years ago, many organizations were reluctant to speak openly about mental health beyond the concepts of “stress” and “resilience.” Now, campaigns such as Just Five, StigmaFree and Mental Health First Aid are common in workplace settings (2,4). Organizational leaders, managers and employees are speaking openly about their own mental health challenges, reducing traditional taboos. These are important steps in the effort to place mental health awareness on the same level as other physical health needs.

Yet, stigma is not the only barrier to mental health.  Access to care is a hurdle many people struggle to overcome. Once an individual acknowledges the need to address their own mental health concerns, they face challenges of finding and connecting to appropriate care (6).

A recent email started like this: “I have had a few situations recently where managers are becoming impatient with employees who are parents, feeling that the pandemic is over and the desire to get “back to normal.”  The sentiment is very real and understandable, compounded by pressure from the top, but for caregivers, life is not normal, and many of the challenges presented by the pandemic endure. The incidence of serious mental health issues like depression and anxiety remains at crisis levels. Concerns about kids’ learning gaps and mental health, persistent illnesses and sick days, the specter of layoffs, confusing return to office messaging and plans, and economic instability have all impacted retention, advancement and efforts to make organizations more equitable and inclusive.

Caregivers represent an essential portion of your workforce, whether we realize it or not. Many of those who have caregiving responsibilities are invisible in the workplace; researchers estimate that while 73% of the workforce identify as caregivers, only 56% of them say their work supervisor is aware of their caregiving responsibilities—a phenomenon Julia Cohen Sebastien, CEO of caregiver-support platform Grayce, has described as “quiet caregiving.”

Starting April 1, 2023, employees no longer eligible for Medicaid may look to employer-sponsored health insurance to stay covered.

Beginning as early as April 1, approximately 15 to18M people will no longer be eligible for Medicaid coverage because of the redetermination process and likely will seek health insurance from another source, including employer-sponsored coverage. As a result, employers, brokers, consultants can work together to determine what this development might mean for companies’ health plans and employees.

Last year around this time, I gave a year-one progress report on the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program, as it had finished its first year of paying out benefits to eligible workers. Since then, the MA PFML program has continued to mature and adjust according to experience, and, around New England, Connecticut has had PFML benefits available for one year, and there are related updates from Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine to report.

Massachusetts: A Year in Review
In fiscal year 2022 (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022), the Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML) experienced¹:

It's the start of 2023, and we once again called on our partners to share their outlooks and perspectives on industry trends for the new year and other relevant research for the NEEBC community to consider.

Enhancing employee experience, reducing burnout and improving work-life balance through culture, flexibility and equitable, holistic benefits are some of the central themes woven throughout our 2023 compendium of outlooks, trends and research shared by NEEBC partners. 

Below are links to partner publications and microsites that canvas the landscape ahead (in alphabetical order by partner organization).

One of the tenets of NEEBC’s mission is to encourage the next generation of employee benefits professionals, in part, through mentoring.  Each year, seasoned NEEBC community members mentor a new class of emerging benefits professionals in both group and, as of 2022, one-on-one settings.  The goal of the NEEBC Mentoring Program is for HR professionals to share their expertise in various areas of career development so our mentees can build a framework for their own development and growth.  We foster a networking and collaborative environment and invite subject matter experts of chosen topics to discuss possible solutions to current challenging HR issues. Our mentors feel great satisfaction giving back to a field they love and often learn a few things as well.

Reflections from a Mentor and a Group Leader
December marked our last session of NEEBC’s 2022 Mentoring Program, and diving into January, National Mentoring Month, it is a great time to pause and reflect.  I have been fortunate to benefit from wonderful mentors over my career who helped me get to where I am today.  Through NEEBC membership and participation, I have grown my network and become a NEEBC Board member.  So, when the opportunity presented itself to help resurrect our mentoring program, which was suspended for one year during COVID, and give back to this field, I jumped at the opportunity!  I also LOVE to talk about employee benefits and learn from the mentees as well. 

CVS Health® offers a wide range of healthcare and benefits programs to help meet the diverse needs of our colleagues to build equity, diversity and inclusion into health and well-being, and focused on promoting health equity and affordability. We are continually evaluating gaps in well-being, what’s working, what new ideas we can bring to support total well-being, and how we can ensure we identify and address disparities and enable our workforce to thrive.

In 2021 and 2022, we expanded seven benefits programs.  The new programs are described below.

The pandemic and The Great Resignation have changed the world and with it the way we work. Employees now place a greater importance on their well-being than ever before, and employers that offer benefits packages that align with the lifestyle needs of the working population have a significant leg up on the competition.

Yes, it’s time to expand your benefits program and the competitive advantages employers get – increased employee retention, engagement, and satisfaction. It is well worth the effort.

116 million adults in the US—more than the number affected by heart disease, diabetes, and cancer combined—live with common chronic pain conditions.  Of those individuals, 20-50% experience comorbid depression in parallel to their chronic pain, and are 2-3x more susceptible to suicidal ideation and behaviors.

Over the last 3 years, we’ve conducted extensive research specifically around the relationships between chronic pain and comorbid anxiety and depression, and more importantly, how organizations like yours can reduce the associated downstream effects of chronic pain including absenteeism and high medical claim costs.  

At Biogen, we understand the importance of taking a proactive position on caregiving and offer solutions to support our employees as both a caregiver and someone who may need care. 

Employee Needs in a Competitive Industry
As with most working parents, juggling childcare needs and career responsibilities can be a daily struggle. In the competitive biotech industry, employers always needed and still need to recruit employees by providing a supportive culture that understands and meets the needs of employees where they are in their life…whether it be access to reliable, high-quality childcare or workforce education initiatives. 

The Institute of Medicine, in the 2001 landmark report Crossing the Quality Chasm, outlined six key aims for healthcare to focus on in the twenty-first century: a prime healthcare experience that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. Although many of these goals have been at least partly achieved, one is lagging – health equity.

Healthcare is no more equitable now than it was twenty years ago. The divide between rural and urban communities continues to show itself in average life expectancy. Research shows that 33 states have seen at least one rural hospital close in the last 10 years, and it’s estimated that just over 30 million Americans live more than an hour away from trauma care. In urban communities, like Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, physical disability, disease prevalence, and mortality rates are significantly higher in zip codes with lower median household incomes.

How employers can help ensure they are getting the value from their investment and employees are getting the value to their health

A lot more is asked of employers, particularly in terms of the workplace benefits they offer, including health care. As companies continue to recover from the variability in health care spending brought on by COVID-19, high-performing employers must look toward tomorrow as they execute on providing the best health care benefits to keep their workforces healthy, happy, and productive.

At one time, the primary health benefit that employers provided their workers was a health plan. Today’s health benefits landscape looks much different, with a myriad of plan options and point solutions offered to employees. This trend has only accelerated since the pandemic started. Employers must increase the perceived value of these new benefits by raising awareness and utilization and helping employees navigate their benefits. But how can employers do all this and administer these new benefits?

Student loans are back in the headlines with the announcement of targeted loan cancelation. With so much change on the horizon, you may be wondering how the new plans for student loan repayment impact Student Loan Repayment Assistance (SLRA). Is it still something employees need or want? Is it still a benefit employers should pursue?

Let’s take a refreshed look at the basics of SLRA, as well as some of the most recent data and most compelling reasons why adding an SLRA perk to your benefits package is as important as ever.

What is Long COVID?

Long COVID is the persistent presentation of symptoms 4 weeks after a COVID-19 infection. There are over 150 different symptoms of Long COVID, but common symptoms include brain fog, fatigue, loss of smell, difficulty breathing, joint pain, digestive issues.

It sounds counterintuitive — how can programs that enable time away from work possibly help companies dealing with labor shortages? Yet, a 2021 survey conducted by HUB International shows that 40% of participating companies indicated their leave of absence policies needed to be more enticing to attract and retain employees.¹ Absence programs are an important part of the employee experience, and organizations can leverage their time-off policies and benefits to stand out among competitors, especially now that workers have more options than ever before.

In a Gallup poll conducted earlier this year, employees identified well-being, including work-life balance, as one of the most important factors when deciding whether to accept a new job.²  Time-off policies and other absence-related benefits help employees achieve work-life balance by providing income protection while taking time to care for themselves and/or their families — from a well-deserved vacation to a healthcare emergency and everything in between.

The COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for shifting priorities and changing the way we work. The findings from our recent survey helped us understand what HR pain points and challenges professionals face in their daily lives, which will help guide future changes within this industry. Benefit Resource (BRI) conducted an extensive research project among 1000+ hiring managers to discover pain points they deal with day by day. These insights are crucial if you want to meet your company or organization’s performance goals. 

Managing cost increases can be challenging, but the underlying health plan will often be the key to reducing your costs. Position your benefits plans and the opportunities so employees pay for their increasing out-of-pocket costs. This can be achieved by offering a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) paired with a Health Savings Account (HSA), taking advantage of Self-Funded Plans, sharing educational tools that provide cost transparency, like MyMedicalShopper by Talon Health Tech, or connecting employees to health experts.