Utilizing Technology to Improve Health Care Benefits
Technology and health care go hand-in-hand, but patients and doctors aren’t the only ones to benefit. Employers who incorporate technology into their health care benefits are creating tools that make it easier for their employees to make better decisions about their health.
Technology Helps Empower Employees
If you’re like most employers, you strive for loyal and engaged employees—especially in today’s competitive job market. You can get a leg up on the competition by offering technology that will help lower costs and improve health care benefits, resulting in healthier (and happier) employees.
Health care benefits are a major expense for all businesses. Investing in technology that provides data and metrics on how well a plan is performing allows you to make informed decisions that will save you money in the long run. It also demonstrates to employees that you care about their overall health by providing them with tools such as user-friendly portals and access to health-related information. Knowledge is power; educating your staff about topics like preventive care, chronic disease management, nutrition and exercise makes them more engaged in their own health care, reducing the likelihood that they will become dissatisfied and seek employment elsewhere.
A key role of benefits administration is explaining to employees what their benefits cover and how to use them. Technology can help automate the process by allowing employees to interact directly with their health care, educating them in a manner that is more efficient and cost-effective. Incorporating processes like open enrollment and the ability to shop for plans best suited to their own individual needs will really ensure you are harnessing the full power of your technology. This can help free up human resources personnel to focus on big-picture tasks like performance reviews and promoting company culture.
Once you have decided to implement technology, you’ll need to determine how it will help your company reach its goals. it’s important to partner with somebody who can help you through the process, which is sure to be complicated. Extensive training will be necessary, especially if this is an all-new approach versus a systems upgrade. But it’s well worth the time and effort. Healthy, engaged employees are happy employees—and it’s impossible to put a price tag on that!