October 31, 2023

Many leading employers and their vendor partners are prioritizing health equity and aim to abolish health disparities across the globe.

The Employer Guide to Health Equity shares actionable ideas for those employers committed to advancing health equity within four domains: health care access, equitable engagement, inclusive experience and social determinants of health. It includes key employer strategies, large employer data, spotlights on employers in action, important considerations related to global implementation and links to related resources.

Health Care Access

Large employers have a unique opportunity to lead the charge in improving access to care for marginalized communities. Employers can increase access to high-quality, affordable physical and mental health care through a range of strategies, including conducting a benefits equity assessment, examining health care utilization to determine if members are acting in a way that indicates they may be underinsured, providing access to Centers of Excellence (COEs), medical travel benefits, second-opinions services, virtual care, on-site care and more. Achieving health equity requires collaboration, so it is important throughout these efforts that employers partner with plans, providers, and where appropriate, government health care systems, to align incentives, coverage and payment with health equity outcomes. This may include establishing and communicating the expectation that vendors provide accurate and timely data in a digestible format to determinate disparities in engagement, treatment adherence and outcomes, where legally permissible, as well as integrating equity expectations into vendor selection and shared goals, establishing clear and measurable performance standards related to health equity and explicitly addressing equity through a value-based care approach.

Inclusive Experience

Inclusion in work, benefits and health care experience is critical to helping all employees reach their highest health and well-being potential. Marginalized communities exist all over the world and face unconscious bias, exclusion, microaggressions and other stressors at work and when engaging in health care which have significant impacts on their physical and mental health. The good news is that many leading companies are doubling down on diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging (DEIB) efforts and aligning health and well-being strategies with these efforts to advance health equity. Employers can prioritize DEIB principles and practices throughout the organization through inclusive communications and activities, a means for employee self-identification, leader accountability and more. A particularly important aspect of ensuring an inclusive experience for geographically dispersed workforce is to have a local understanding of unique legislation, cultural norms and history that may influence health equity and DEIB approaches, adaptable corporate strategies and local engagement by employee resources groups (ERGs), well-being champions, managers and other leaders. Last and foremost, employers can have a large influence on health equity by ensuring that employees have access to and can easily find culturally relevant care. This may require pushing health plans and vendors to have a diverse care delivery network and a platform for employees to search for providers that match their identity, as well as requiring culturally conscious clinical care trainings.

Equitable Engagement

Addressing benefits literacy, implementing tailored communication approaches and ensuring that employees feel seen and represented in their benefits promotes engagement and can have a significantly positive impact on inclusion. These include practices like using conversational, plain people-first language and an active voice, sharing the most important piece of information first and helping navigate marginalized employees to high-quality providers through advocacy and care coordination services. Using trusted communication sources and context appropriate for people experiencing inequities is another key strategy. Employers should thoughtfully involve trusted messengers, testimonials, culturally relevant communications, well-being champions and ERGs in their health equity strategies.

Social Determinants of Health

Addressing social determinants of health (SDOH)—the circumstances in which people are born and live—offers an opportunity for organizations and the communities in which they operate to improve the health and well-being of people. These complex and interconnected factors impact physical and mental health, the ability to be productive at work and overall quality of life. They include early childhood experiences and educational opportunities; employment status and livable wages; housing, food, water, transportation, public safety, gender and racial equality; and of course, health care. Leading employers look beyond individual behavior modification and consider ways that benefits and well-being initiatives can be expanded to address the underlying conditions that impact the health of employees and their families. Key employer strategies include identifying employees’ social needs, connecting employees with community resources that address unmet life needs, filling gaps through benefits, programs and policies and advocating for improvements to community health and sustainability locally and globally.

Employer Guide to Health Equity: Executive Summary

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