Almost three years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended workplaces, psychological well being protection stays a precedence for employers, in response to an annual employer survey fielded by KFF.
Nearly half of surveyed giant employers — these with a minimum of 200 employees — reported {that a} rising share of their employees have been utilizing psychological well being providers. Yet virtually a 3rd of that group stated their well being plan’s community didn’t have sufficient behavioral well being care suppliers for workers to have well timed entry to the care they want.
As hundreds of thousands of workers have been despatched away from shuttered workplace buildings to earn a living from home or risked an infection whereas engaged on the entrance traces, psychological well being issues soared. Now, at the same time as many workplaces have returned to a semblance of “normal,” some employees are nonetheless grappling with the adjustments of the pandemic years and searching for psychological well being providers.
Although 4 in 5 employers reported that they’d sufficient major care suppliers of their well being plan’s community, solely 44% of all employers reported they’d sufficient behavioral well being suppliers, in response to the KFF survey.
The 2022 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey, launched Oct. 27, analyzed the responses of a random pattern of two,188 employers with a minimum of three workers.
Overall, the survey discovered that this 12 months’s premiums for well being care protection have been remarkably just like final 12 months’s. Annual premiums for household protection are $22,463, on common, this 12 months, in contrast with $22,221 final 12 months. On common, employees this 12 months are paying $6,106 towards these premiums, whereas employers choose up the remainder of the tab.
Among giant employers, 14% stated extra workers have been utilizing providers to deal with substance use in 2022, though about half stated they didn’t know whether or not there had been a rise, in response to the survey.
Among all surveyed employers with 50 or extra employees, 17% stated they’d additionally seen a rise within the variety of employees who had requested depart for psychological well being circumstances underneath the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
Although the usage of telemedicine providers has eased considerably since early pandemic lockdowns, 90% of surveyed employers reported that they provided a plan that covers telemedicine providers. More than half of enormous employers reported that telemedicine can be “very important” in enabling them to offer their employees with entry to behavioral well being providers sooner or later. In distinction, solely a couple of third of these employers stated the identical was true for offering entry to major care, whereas 24% stated telemedicine can be “very important” in enabling them to offer entry to specialty care.
Twenty-seven % of enormous employers reported that this 12 months they added psychological well being care suppliers to their plan’s community, both in individual or by way of telemedicine.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is among the three main working packages at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit group offering info on well being points to the nation.
Kaiser Health News/Tribune News Service
Source: www.bostonherald.com”