74% of HR and benefits leaders plan to consolidate employee benefits in the coming year; virtual specialty care addresses issues access and quality to specialists across all health conditions and journeys
Summus, the leading virtual specialty care company, surveyed 273 human resources (HR) and benefits leaders across the U.S. to understand the state of current employer-provided benefits, perceptions of virtual specialty care, and gaps in current employee healthcare benefits. Survey results reinforce the current demand and gap in providing access to high quality physician specialists and affordable specialty care options for employees.
Enhancing benefits through consolidation
Seventy-four percent of HR and benefits leaders are looking to streamline employee access and use of benefits, drive employee recruitment, engagement, and productivity by consolidating benefits within the next 12 months. While the majority (86%) of HR and benefits leaders are satisfied with their current health and medical benefits offerings, they are inundated with the management of 49 or more narrowly focused, condition-specific point solutions.
“When employees have too many options that are not integrated, they just don’t use them. Consolidating into a broad, integrated platform that provides high quality access to leading specialist expertise across any health question helps employees get the personalized longitudinal support they need to make good decisions that result in better health outcomes,” said Julian Flannery, Summus CEO. “As the virtual front door to high quality specialty care, Summus supports employees in using their healthcare benefits more effectively, improving their experience, and building a healthier and more productive workforce while driving material cost savings for employers.”
Specialty care and access are lacking in current benefits offering
Creating an enticing employee health and medical benefits package is essential in today’s complex talent market for attraction and retention of top candidates, but selection is difficult with the proliferation of available solutions. Solutions that address a broad range of conditions, deliver high quality care, and are personalized to an employee’s unique health concerns can strengthen employee satisfaction and contribute to better health outcomes. Yet most employees and their families lack access to the continuum of specialty care, from allergies and migraines to more serious conditions like cancer and ALS.
- Nearly 35% of the HR leaders surveyed do not currently offer virtual specialty care, and of those that do offer specialty care, less than half are satisfied with the quality, breadth of medical specialties covered, and cost of the benefit.
- Satisfaction with current specialty care benefits is significantly lower for large companies with 5,000-15,000 employees as well as publicly-owned companies.
Personalized virtual solutions are growing in demand
As HR leaders explore benefits consolidation opportunities, they are focused on comprehensive, high-quality solutions with 86% of leaders looking to add virtual specialty care to their benefits strategies.
More than a third of HR and benefits leaders believe that virtual specialty care could address employee needs when it comes to personal choice of specialist, breadth of care options, and ease of access to specialty care. Summus’ virtual specialty care platform is an innovative solution that makes it simple for employees to use and for HR leaders to implement and measure demonstrable improvement in health and medical cost outcomes.
