Financial wellness benefits are critical to advancing whole-person health

Providing these resources may help pave the way to better financial wellness for employees, which may, in turn, enable them to concentrate more fully on their work and lead to better engagement.⁴ In fact, 43% of surveyed employees reported spending less time dealing with personal finance issues during work hours when financial wellness benefits were made available to them.⁵ As a result, 22% of employers saw an increase in productivity, with 66% ultimately reporting a positive ROI after offering financial wellness benefits.⁵

Understanding how much one’s financial stability can influence physical and mental health,⁷ some EPAs are evolving and expanding to include other areas of support, such as behavioral health, legal aid and caregiving.

When employers provide tools that help increase the financial literacy of their workforce, they can help employees to feel more in control of their personal finances and less distracted at work, as well as physically and mentally healthier.⁸

Where employees choose to seek care can have a direct impact on costs. For instance, a visit to the ER can be 15–52 times higher than a visit to alternative sites of care.⁹ Knowing where to go for a specific health event can help control costs for both employees and employers.

Employers can make it easier for employees to manage their health care costs by providing the tools and resources that help ensure they receive care from providers at the right cost.

Offering health plans like Surest® ,which provides upfront cost and coverage information, can allow employees to compare options and better understand how different care selections may impact their health outcomes and wallets. aim to provide members with upfront cost and coverage information, where members can check costs and compare options before even making an appointment. As a result, Surest has helped save members an average of 50% in lower out-of-pocket costs¹⁰ and employers an average of 15%,¹¹ resulting in more than $400 lower claims costs per member per year.¹²

Digital tools that allow members to search for providers and pricing within just a few clicks may also help. For instance, through the UnitedHealthcare® app or myuhc.com®, members have access to a proprietary provider search experiences that offers members access to quality, cost-efficient care options while also taking into account their personal preferences.

These types of resources and tools may give employees and their families a better sense of control over their care and costs, allowing them to also plan and budget accordingly.

Educating employees about what benefits are available to them at no additional cost, such as $0 copays for certain services like primary care, urgent care or virtual care visits, can be a solid first step. Providing opportunities for employees to earn and save money that can be used toward qualifying health care expenses can also help.

That may include offering employees incentives for taking in healthy actions as part of rewards-based wellness programs like UnitedHealthcare Rewards or offering financial savings account options, such as:

• Health savings accounts (HSAs), which are typically paired with a high deductible or low premium health plan, allow employees to put aside pretax contributions to pay for covered health care services and qualified medical expenses. HSAs may earn interest, serving as an additional investment opportunity.
• Flexible spending accounts (FSAs) work similarly to HSAs, with the exception that the money saved must be used by the end of the employee’s plan year and does not earn interest. With both types of savings accounts, an employer can elect to also contribute or match their employees’ contributions.
• Health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) enable employers to open an account on behalf of employees and make contributions that those employees can use toward premiums and qualified medical expenses. Depending on how an employer structures the HRA, employees may have to spend the money before the end of their plan year, or the balance may roll over.

In some cases, employees may also have access to health-related debit cards that are preloaded with a set amount of money that can be used toward out-of-pocket health care expenses like visits to primary care providers, specialists and urgent care.

Providing employees with benefits that aim to reduce out-of-pocket cost becomes even more critical when unexpected situations arise, especially considering upwards of 50% of U.S. adults are unable to cover an unexpected expense of $1,000.14

When challenging medical events like accidents, critical illnesses and hospitalizations occur, supplemental health benefits can be tapped to help cover some of the associated costs.

At UnitedHealthcare, these benefits can be bundled with a medical plan, which may reduce the financial impact of challenging health events by paying claims more proactively — in many cases without the member even needing to submit a claim.

Another option for helping employees with unexpected medical bills is to offer access to a program like Naviguard®, which is designed to help manage the medical bill resolution process for out-of-network claims to avoid overpayment for medical services.