Employers can learn how to best support workers diagnosed with cancer using the Northeast Business Group on Health’s guide, “Delivering Value in Cancer Care: The Employer Perspective.”
“For employers, maximizing the value of cancer care spending and ensuring that employees receive high-quality care are top priorities,” the authors write. “But while these priorities are clear, the road map to achieving them is not.”
The 36-page guide is based on an employer survey, as well as a roundtable discussion and additional interviews with employers, health plans and care providers. Key considerations are listed to help employers better assess the ROI of cancer care benefits and programs, and the guide also details some “high-value initiatives” that employers have implemented to support workers and family members dealing with cancer.
The Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH), an employer-led nonprofit coalition, recently posted an online guide to high-value cancer care. Delivering Value in Cancer Care: The Employer Perspective recommends giving employees and their families access to screenings for early detection, second/expert opinions, care navigation, high quality networks and centers of excellence, behavioral health care, and palliative/supportive care.
The guide also provides advice on how HR and benefit leaders can engage with vendors and health plans to make employees aware of the benefits and services available to them.
"For a growing number of employers, ensuring that employees and families receive high quality cancer care and maximizing the value of spending on care are top priorities," said Candice Sherman, CEO of NEBGH. "Unfortunately, while these priorities are clear, the roadmap to achieving them is not"—a need that the new guide is intended to address.
Employers that have not implemented policies or practices for employees who are also caregivers may be open to doing so. AARP and Northeast Business Group on Health have developed a tool kit to help employers support their working caregivers. Share it with your employer to help them learn more.
The nonprofit Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH), a coalition of employers that sponsor health benefits, has posted an online resource, Digital Tools and Solutions for Diabetes: An Employer's Guide, for employers interested in digital tools that can help employees prevent and manage diabetes.
"Employers are well-aware of the costs associated with diabetes in their employee and dependent populations," said Candice Sherman, CEO of NEBGH. Employers also are "increasingly aware of the links between diabetes and other chronic and debilitating health conditions, including cardiovascular disease."
The Connecticut Business Group on Health (CTBGH) is an advocacy group working to leverage the purchasing power of employers to make an impact on the quality and cost of delivery of healthcare in Connecticut. CTBGH works with organizations including the Connecticut Choosing Wisely® Collaborative, the Moving to Value Alliance, The Leapfrog Group and the Northeast Business Group on Health.
Employee productivity has long been something of an obsessive focus for corporations. According to a 2015 study, “Relatively common conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, and depression are estimated to cost $392, $368, and $348, respectively, per employee per year owing to productivity loss.”
"There has been a big jump in the percentage of companies offering concierge services that help employees navigate where to go for care and make the best decisions," Marcotte of the NBGH said. "We are also seeing primary care models move away from the traditional fee-for-service or encounter-based reimbursement model to more comprehensive patient-centered population health management."
Many employers are also making more use of telemedicine and other forms of remote medical care. "Virtual products bring health care to the consumer rather than the consumer going to health care -- and you are seeing significant growth in this area," Marcotte said.
Hope for lowering the cost of coverage lies in these kinds of approaches, said Candice Sherman, CEO of the Northeast Business Group on Health.
"It's a shared burden that unfortunately causes financial stress for employees and their families," she said. "Many of these initiatives hold promise for improving health outcomes and overall wellness as well as lowering costs."
Candice Sherman joined the Northeast Business Group on Health in 2013 as chief operating officer, applying her skills in hunting for efficiencies while enhancing operations and revenue opportunities for the employer-led coalition of health care leaders. She was promoted to chief executive last year after impressing the board of directors with her ideas about high-value projects that could transform how health care is delivered, measured and financed in the employer marketplace. NEBGH now plays a key role in policy forums and work groups on health care quality and transparency. Sherman also is chair of HealthPass New York, an NEBGH subsidiary that is a nonprofit health insurance exchange for small businesses.
For employers, caregiving benefits are becoming a new way to attract and retain talent in a tight job market. A survey by the Northeast Business Group on Health and AARP ranked caregiving among the top 10 employee health and wellness benefits priorities for most employers.
Three recent caregiving reports (Harvard Business School’s The Caring Company, Torchlight’s “Modern Caregiving Challenges Facing U.S. Employees, and Northeast Business Group on Health’s recent caregiving survey) had similar (and important) findings regarding caregiving issues that impact thousands of employers and millions of their employees. Today’s employee caregivers are exhausted, overwhelmed and stressed as they try to juggle family responsibilities with the demands of their jobs. Without proper support from their employers, the ability to succeed at both seems out of reach.