Written by: Michelle Strasburger, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
February is Black History Month. It’s a month to reflect on where we have inequalities and to celebrate the contributions that many Black Americans have made in our society. However, there’s still a lot of work to be done to bring awareness to inequalities. A lot of this work needs to be done in our workplaces and not just in our communities.
You may know that Black Americans do not have equal access to healthcare. More black women die in childbirth than any other race. More black infants die than infants of any other race. The wage inequalities create challenges with access to healthcare due to costs. According to a recent article from Jamila Taylor, she states that “ The average household income for African Americans in 2018 was $41,361, while it was $70,642 for white households. The average household spends 11% of their income on healthcare costs, while the average Black American family spends 20% of their income on healthcare costs.” These differences are staggering. In addition to this challenge, access to a viable doctor within low-income communities is a deeper issue.
Change needs to happen and it can start within the workplace. During Black History Month, I challenge you to look at your healthcare programs to find areas where there are disparities and make changes to your programs. Here are ten opportunities that you can start with to implement change and create more access.
Work with your brokers to ensure all employees have access to providers within their communities. You can have your brokers do a zip code analysis. Take it one step further and share the results with the employees to ensure they have a doctor within a feasible commuting distance in their communities.
Offer preventative services in house. Let’s face it, taking time off to go to the doctor is a hassle for most. Bringing in these services saves you time and money, but also gives the employee access to something they would deprioritize until it’s too late. Some examples might be some biometric screenings, onsite nurse care, telehealth services or flu shot clinics.
Pay for holistic care. Holistic care focuses on resolving the problem and not just bandaging the symptom. In most cases, it’s also a preventative service that you can offer your employees to stay well. You can, within your healthcare plans, pay for Naturopaths, Nutritionists and health coaches to help give this privileged access to everyone and keep.
Educate employees on their healthcare benefits, preventative benefits and where they can save money. Our healthcare plans are loaded with opportunities to save money buy utilizing preventative services, shopping around for prescriptions, utilizing urgent care instead of the emergency room and more. By educating employees on these savings, it will encourage them to use it and will save you money. Your brokers can help you understand the cost savings opportunities within your plan.
Offer virtual/in-house fitness classes. This could be easy as mindfulness sessions, morning stretches before your team gets started or offering yoga, Ergonomics, and other fitness programs weekly could improve access but also improve overall performance.
Change up your benefits to offer access to healthy foods. At one of the companies I worked for, we partnered with a CSA (community supported agriculture) program that delivered right to our office. Our employees enjoyed organic, fresh vegetables weekly at a significantly lower price point than buying it at the grocery store. You can also give out gift cards or partner with a healthy food delivery service to give employees access to healthy food options and recipes. There’s a huge food disparity in the country, and this small change in your benefits offerings can mean a huge difference in your employees’ health.
Pay for or beef up your prenatal care. I had a friend tell me last week that the birth of their first child cost them $11,000! They had medical insurance and the child was healthy. Imagine if they needed some interventions throughout her pregnancy or birth. Having children could put employees into significant financial stress, causing them to seek employment elsewhere to cover the costs. Take a look at your health plan to ensure employees are not breaking the bank to have children.
Offer wellness $$. You could offer employees wellness funds to pay for healthy activities. This could be for workout equipment at home or running shoes to go for a run. It could even be for the healthy food options we mentioned earlier.
Offer in house mental health support. Finding help in managing “life” is getting harder and harder. Find opportunities to offer this support internally. At The Wellness Value, we offer a program called Restore Resilience, which helps employees through mental wellbeing utilizing a coach, content and a community. This is a great option to offer to your employees.
Utilize a task force or hire a consultant to review your healthcare plans for any inequalities. This is a great way to look at your healthcare plan through another lens. Sometimes, we look at it too often in HR and having a fresh set of eyes on it, could bring things to your attention that you might have missed or overlooked.
Most plans also come with some type of wellness allowance that you can use to implement some of these programs. If you don’t know where to start, talking with your black employees is a great place to start. Learn about where they have access and where the access is lacking. Just leaning in and listening is a great way to understand where the challenges are so you can start working towards equality in your healthcare programs.
Michelle Strasburger, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Michelle Strasburger is CEO and Chief Strategist at The Wellness Value. Michelle has over 20 years of progressive HR experience and runs a group of progressive HR Pros, called The HR Rebels. Michelle combines this experience with her education from IIN and Functional Nutrition Alliance to create wellness programs for organizations. These programs are not a "one size fits all" approach and are designed to meet employees where they are and improve their overall health and wellbeing. Michelle is on a mission to make the world of work a healthier and happier place.
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