Why employers should focus on preventative health benefits

Health interventions via employee benefits are no longer enough. Employers need to help keep employees healthy in the first place

Poor health in the UK is increasing. A study by the University of Edinburgh projects that by 2030 new early onset cancer rates will rise by 31%. And yet, we spend 20 times as much on health intervention as we do on preventative healthcare. But why is this?

Employers face unique challenges. Globally, medical inflation is rising. That, combined with long wait times for cancer treatments and other medical interventions resulting from the backlog created by Covid-19, and health services around the world (such as the NHS) in crisis, has led to soaring insurance premiums and effects on businesses and employees.

The effects have been increased absence rates and lost productivity for employees who aren’t able to get back on their feet as quickly, meaning a dip in the performance of the organisation. It also means rising private medical insurance rates, costing employers more to keep their teams covered and back on the job.

Until now, employers have taken an intervention-focused approach in employee benefits plans, running them into a persistent cycle where they are addressing the symptoms of an issue, rather than the cause. And while recent technological advancements in healthcare mean that medical intervention has come a long way, there is an imbalance in how we treat the health of our employees in our benefits offerings.

Prevention is good for business

There’s a clear-cut business case for preventative healthcare in benefits offerings: namely, that it is cost-effective.

In 2011, the National Institute Clinical Excellence in Health and Care found most public health interventions, such as smoking cessation, were cost-saving or a good value for money when compared with standard treatments or no intervention at all.

But these intervention costs can be steep, begging the question: why why not try and prevent ill health from occuring? Employers can reduce the flow of poor health in their employees by focusing more on providing additional preventative healthcare in their benefits offerings, such as health screening, gym memberships and mental health support to name but a few.

Measures that work

Employers looking to implement preventative measures that make a difference will have to think outside of their usual offerings. While private medical insurance and health spending accounts are great ways to help employees manage health issues as they come up, it shouldn’t stop there.

With regular exercise leading to a 50% lower risk of type 2 diabetes and colon cancer, as well as 35% lower risk of heart disease and stroke, giving your employees access to gym memberships and other physical fitness benefits is a great place to start. But don’t assume one fitness solution will target everybody – not everybody likes the gym. You need to appeal to the masses and that doesn’t mean you need hundreds of solutions, you could have a per-employee fund instead.

Health screening can be a particularly powerful tool in benefits, too. Early diagnosis of breast cancer, for example, leads to a high survival rate, with almost all of those diagnosed at an early stage surviving. That number falls to just three in 10 with a late-stage diagnosis.

With only 5% of the UK’s private healthcare budget spent on prevention, it’s worth considering how our benefits mirror this troubling trend, especially as more employers seek to increase their benefits budgets.

It’s time employers start taking a different approach when it comes to healthcare, and moving toward flexible benefits that apply to the diverse healthcare needs of employees. The question of if you’re merely addressing symptoms or actively investing in the wellbeing of your employees may determine the future health and prosperity of your organisation.