In our latest video, Summus talks with industry experts Denise Murphy, Vice President of Total Rewards at the University of Notre Dame, Jerry Johnson, Partner at Brodeur Partners, and Nick Razzi, Summus Chief Revenue Officer, who has worked with employers across the country for more than 20 years to develop comprehensive benefits strategies. Together, they share insights gleaned from our nationwide survey of 273 HR and benefits leaders. In this blog we share key findings, perspectives on the state of healthcare benefits, and why employers are pivoting to comprehensive benefits—resolving to simplify healthcare benefits.
Key Finding #1: Most HR leaders are looking to consolidate benefits
The majority of HR leaders struggle with managing nearly 50 narrowly focused healthcare point solutions. The complexity of overseeing so many solutions poses challenges for managing, communicating, and measuring impact. As a result, 75% of leaders are actively seeking opportunities to consolidate their benefit offerings.
When employers provide too many options, employees become easily overwhelmed and confused—they don’t know which benefit to use and when. HR leaders are aiming to simplify benefits administration to ease the burden to their employees, enabling them to take action in the moments that matter most when it comes to their health. To do this, employers are pivoting towards solutions that are comprehensive—supporting the breadth and depth of health conditions and concerns—and can support all the employees in their workforce.
Key Finding #2: Pursuit for high quality, affordability, and simplicity
HR and benefits leaders are looking for affordable, high quality healthcare providers, and easy to use solutions when it comes to selecting healthcare benefits for their employees. HR teams want solutions that are affordable, easy to implement, seamlessly integrate with existing solutions in their ecosystem, and are straightforward to communicate to their workforce.
The impact of a solution on an employee’s quality of life and overall health and family situation is a top priority for HR leaders, taking precedence over an ROI calculation. When searching for and selecting healthcare solutions, HR leaders must consider fit with the broader benefits ecosystem and the impact to employees. That’s why many HR teams are revising their benefits strategy to meet the needs of the five generations of employees who makeup today’s workforce. Healthcare is complex and confusing, so identifying solutions that deliver the most positive impact to employees is paramount.
We introduced Summus in 2022, and I have to say it’s been game changing. The impact has been significant. Our employees ratings are 9.6 out of a 10-point scale for any experience, whether a chronic condition, cancer diagnosis, issue with their children, they have had great success connecting with specialists.
—Denise Murphy, VP of Total Rewards, University of Notre Dame
Key Finding #3: Specialty care is a gap in today’s benefits
Virtual care initially launched to address primary and urgent care, but has evolved to support specialty care across all health conditions and concerns—from allergies and migraines to more complex conditions, like ALS and cancer. But there is a specialty care gap in today’s employee benefits. A substantial 86% of survey respondents are likely to add virtual specialty care to their benefits offerings.
For employers that offer a specialty care benefit, less than half are satisfied with the quality (45%) and breadth of access to a variety of specialists (43%). To support simplicity, HR leaders are searching for comprehensive solutions that address the continuum of health conditions and journeys.
What’s more, for employers like the University of Notre Dame located in more rural areas, access to specialty care is often limited. Virtual specialty care bridges the gap to high quality medical expertise, providing guidance and education to help employees understand their health condition, options for treatment, and immediate next steps in care.
Resolving to simplify benefits with a comprehensive virtual care benefit
In the healthcare environment, people often don’t know what to do or who to go to. They don’t have a guide to help them navigate the intricacies of the healthcare system, from finding the right type of doctor to ensuring insurance network coverage. The onus is on employees to solve their healthcare problems, which is overwhelming, costly, and time consuming.
Virtual care is a timely, relevant, and convenient solution that simplifies the healthcare experience when addressing diverse employee health journeys. At Summus, we alleviate the guesswork in healthcare by putting a high quality physician at the center of every decision, no matter how big or small, empowering employees and providing them with a clear path forward in their care.
About Summus
Summus is the clinical front door to trusted, high quality specialist expertise. We support employees and families across any health question and at any point in their journey. Visit Summus to learn more about how we are restoring human connection in healthcare, and be sure to check out how we helped Summus member, Ben, navigate next steps in his daughter’s healthcare journey.
