Employers are spending more on women’s and family health, but that is not always being felt by employees, a new report finds.
The Maven Clinic released its fifth annual State of Women’s & Family Health Benefits report, which is based on responses from over 2,000 HR leaders and nearly 5,000 full-time employees across the U.S., U.K., Canada and India. The report highlights how rising healthcare costs are reshaping how employees seek care and what actions employers are considering to help address those costs.
Though employers reported a 39% average increase in women’s and family health benefits offered year-over-year, the share of employees who felt their benefits support them “very well” dropped 10% on average. Globally, across all benefits, employers were slightly more likely to add or enhance benefits in the next year compared to those in the U.S.
From Maven’s perspective, all the report's findings highlight the need for an integrated approach to benefits and care delivery.
“We think that the category continues to show importance, and that is a positive,” Stephanie Glenn, chief commercial officer at Maven, told Fierce Healthcare.
But the gap in what’s being offered and what employees are feeling exists because of a lack of thoughtful integration, she added. “Unless it’s a coordinated offering, if you get a one-time email about a new benefit, it’s very disjointed. You don’t understand what it looks like," she said.
More than half of benefits leaders say high-risk pregnancies have increased healthcare costs for their organization. In response, 93% of employers are taking steps to manage costs, including care coordination, mental health support and virtual maternity care. “That’s really showing up in the data, and that’s why we added the high-risk maternity program,” Glenn noted.
Globally, employees were more likely (70%) to say their reproductive and family benefits make their healthcare more affordable compared to in the U.S. (57%). And three-quarters of global employees felt their employer provides enough support to manage high-risk pregnancy, compared to 60% in the U.S.
But employee understanding of high-risk pregnancy remains limited, the report found. Only 3.5% of employees correctly identified all of the factors that can make a pregnancy high-risk. Most did not recognize that both IVF and surrogacy increase pregnancy risk, per the report.
Employees are turning to artificial intelligence for health guidance, with 81% reporting using it to find health information. A third also report taking action based on AI-generated guidance. Employers recognize the potential, with 71% believing AI can help employees find information more quickly and easily. Still, concerns persist: 88% of HR leaders worry that employees may make decisions based on inaccurate information when it comes to AI.
Globally, employers were more likely to be very concerned about employees using AI than in the U.S. Employees in other regions were also more likely (34%) to use AI daily for health information than in the U.S. (22%).
“Overall, we think that’s a positive, and anything that will continue to provide information and research in women’s and family health is a win for Maven,” Glenn acknowledged. But accuracy is a serious concern, she added, and research can’t be conducted in a vacuum without clinical guidance. Maven uses genAI to surface logistical information to patients and on the back end to alleviate administrative burden. Today, it does not use genAI to surface clinical information to patients.
Direct-to-consumer advertising has influenced awareness about GLP-1s and hormone replacement therapy. Nearly three-quarters of employees reported taking action after seeing an ad for HRT and 61% took action after an ad for GLP-1s. Demand for coverage is growing, with about half of employees believing employers should cover HRT and GLP-1 medications. In response, 44% of employers have added or expanded coverage for GLP-1s and half have done so for HRT.
With this rising trend, employers would do well to think about their benefits strategy broadly and decide where a GLP-1 offering fits into that to support more informed employees and better outcomes. For instance, Glenn has heard from her conversations with benefits leaders that, on average, some employees stay on GLP-1s for only nine months. That doesn’t necessarily suggest longevity and good long-term outcomes, she said.
“That’s why it's really part of a broader category discussion about what are the right benefits, what’s going to drive the right outcomes and what’s going to make employees feel that sense of connection and improvement?” Glenn said.
More than a quarter of women reported delaying or skipping routine women’s care in the past year, largely due to logistical barriers. This was more acute for women in the U.S. (30%) versus women in the other regions surveyed (21%). Of those who delayed care across all regions, half couldn’t find an appointment time that worked, 4 in 10 faced long wait times and a quarter cited transport challenges.
Three-quarters of HR leaders, specifically in the U.S., are concerned about declining access to maternity care due to hospital or provider closures. Half of U.S. employers are expanding or changing benefits to improve access, with another 41% considering similar changes.
Many prospective clients appreciate that Maven contracts with payers and can easily integrate into existing plans, per Glenn. In her view, more employers are starting to understand the benefit of such a coordinated, seamless approach to care delivery. “We continue to try to educate the market, because there are ‘point solutions’ in the women and family health space that we don’t think are addressing the full platform, or the full end-to-end.”
Maven works with more than 2,000 employers and payers globally, serving across the continuum of care from preconception and pregnancy through midlife. Because of its integrated and holistic care approach, Maven claims it sees superior outcomes. Employers who work with Maven see up to 2x clinical savings and 4x combined clinical and business savings. In terms of health outcomes, employees see a 27% reduction in NICU stays and a 94% return-to-work.