Why integrated health journeys represent the future of wellbeing
Seven in 10 (70%) employers are working on, or planning, better integration, REBA’s Health and Wellbeing Research 2026 shows, up from the 9% currently offering integrated health. The aim is to achieve better health outcomes owing to improved speed of intervention, lowering costs all round.
It is rare to see such a huge market shift when it comes to any form of employee benefits. Realistically, this shift will take place over years, but current ongoing changes and launches from providers, along with increasing appetite from employers, mean this method of managing health and wellbeing benefits is moving at some speed already.
Further catalysts for this sea change include improved digital technology and the upswing in offering prevention interventions.
The increasingly common industry phrase for this way of delivering health and wellbeing to workforces is ‘integrated health journeys’. The journey hands the employee smoothly to the most appropriate support – from the employee’s first awareness of a problem (for example, a health screening result, injury or alarming message on a wellbeing app) to knowing what to do next and onto action or treatment, thus avoiding the ‘and what now?’ gap.
This is incredibly hard to achieve without connected data and digital health services. More than eight in 10 (84%) of the employers to that are already offering integrated health journeys say that digital services are key to success. This compares with fewer than one-third (31%) where the integration journey has stalled, the research shows.
A huge benefit of pulling together health, wellbeing and prevention offerings into a cohesive journey is the ability to better offer specialist care, be it menopause support, physiotherapy, cardio treatment or mental wellbeing services and support.
For too long, insurances, occupational health and wellbeing offerings have sat in silos, with employees (and often HR) not quite sure where to go first – never mind understanding how the different offerings overlap, or, most importantly, where to go next once one stage is completed (eg, a screening showing that treatment is needed).
Silos, different portals and pages of HR policies ultimately cost more. Not only because of human handling (which is important, but not infallible) but also because diagnoses and treatments are arrived at later as everyone tries to work their way through the maze.
Workforce health and wellbeing is an increasingly crucial risk and opportunity for businesses and wider society. The UK government’s Keeping Britain Working initiative will be addressing this strongly over the coming years. Anything that mitigates current risks, including better integrated health journeys, will be good for employees as well as employer budgets.
