Figure 4.1: HDHP Offerings, 2018-2025

 

Figure 4.2: Highest Enrolled Plan, 2024

Services and Solutions Offered

As mentioned in Part 3, some employers may be making significant changes to their health and well-being partnerships (Figure 3.1). This could include condition-specific offerings, navigation support and engagement platforms. Based on the data shown in the next few figures, it doesn’t appear that employers have settled on eliminating any specific solution type; rather, they are continuing to strive to offer comprehensive benefit solutions. As discussed in Part 3, employers will seek to offer holistic programs while potentially streamlining and integrating the vendor relationships needed to deliver those programs.

Figure 4.3 shows that employers commonly offer programs to support the mental health (98% in 2025), metabolic health (94%) and musculoskeletal (83%) needs of employees. These programs can be offered virtually, in-person or a hybrid of both. Potential areas of growth in condition-specific employer offerings are those that address digestive health (up 41% by 2027), chronic kidney disease (up 26%) and cardiac care (up 22%). 

 

Figure 4.3: Service/Solution Offerings, 2024-2027

At the same time, many employers are looking to navigation and engagement platforms to provide support to employees in this increasingly complex benefit environment. Navigation solutions that address a broader spectrum of needs are perceived to deliver a more integrated experience for employees. These offerings continue to grow year over year.

 

Figure 4.4: Navigational Tools and Programs, 2019-2025

Engagement platforms offer the opportunity to aggregate communication and engagement efforts from multiple program offerings for a more comprehensive and cohesive member experience. In 2025, 36% of employers will make an engagement platform available – 26% will do so through a third-party platform and 10% will rely on their health plan’s offering (Figure 4.5). Upwards of 54% could offer an engagement platform by 2027. While that jump is significant compared to 2025, it is down in comparison to employers’ intent last year.

 

Figure 4.5: Engagement Platforms, 2023-2027

Engagement platforms hold potential for assisting both the HR/Benefit team and employees. To uncover where engagement platforms excel and fall short, a series of capabilities were assessed by employers currently offering an engagement platform (Figure 4.6). The top-ranked capabilities are communicating with employees and aggregating resources. On the other hand, engagement platforms have fallen short in the promise of combining data from a variety of vendors, as well as managing health care spend. In order to be successful and to address employers’ dire cost concerns, those offering engagement platforms should focus on how to convert their efforts into improved integration of experience and lower cost.

Figure 4.6: Engagement Platform Capabilities, 2024

Zeroing in on cancer screenings

As described in Part 1, 72% of employers are currently witnessing a higher prevalence of cancers in their population, and 16% are anticipating this occurrence for the future. This no doubt contributes to the year-over-year findings that cancer is the top driver of health care costs, as detailed in Part 2. With these pressures mounting, many employers are covering screening services above and beyond what’s required by the United States Preventive Services Taskforce (USPSTF).

Figure 4.7: Cancer Screening Measures, 2024-2025

Colon cancer screenings continue to be the top target of employer efforts, with 41% of employers covering alternatives to traditional colonoscopies in 2025. However, this number is down from 49% in 2024, a surprising finding given recent research about colon cancers impacting young Americans at higher rates₁. Breast cancer screenings are also a common target, with 25% of employers covering all breast cancer screenings as preventive and 20% providing resources specifically on recommended screenings for those with dense breast tissue, for whom it can be more challenging to detect cancer using traditional screening methods. Addressing a broader need and possible variety of individual cancer risk profiles, more employers (10% in 2024 to 16% in 2025) will provide personalized screening navigation support in 2025 (Figure 4.7).

Mental Health Access Addressed Through Coverage

While employers have made considerable strides in mental health, high demand for services and access challenges persist. Similar to earlier years, employers will focus on access (79%), burnout (31%) and stigma (30%); however, in 2025, more employers will be focused on areas such as appropriate treatment, substance use disorders and caregiving concerns (Figure 4.8).  

 

Figure 4.8: Mental Health Focus Areas, 2024-2025

Employers are deploying a variety of efforts to address mental health, from providing access to services, improving workplace culture to lowering out-of-pocket costs for those seeking support. In 2025, the two most common strategies shown in Figure 4.9 are 1) manager training to help recognize mental health issues and to direct employees to services, followed by 2) working with a health plan to expand the network of mental health providers. A new datapoint collected this year was offering a pediatric mental health solution, which a quarter of employers will do in 2025.

 

Figure 4.9: Strategies to Address Mental Health, 2023-2025

While some of the above strategies are holding steady for 2025, employers are looking to implement new plan design features to encourage the use of mental health services, primarily by lowering or eliminating out-of-pocket costs for the patient. Eighty-one percent of employers—the highest number seen to date—will provide no- or low-cost virtual counseling via telemental health. Additionally, more employers will provide no- or low-cost counseling directly at the worksite (37%) as well as contract with a high-performance network for mental health and SUD services (26%). All in all, employers remain committed to the suite of offerings in mental health services, with a deeper commitment to telemental health, which is seen as a vehicle for reducing out-of-pocket costs and expanding access to high-quality, cost-effective services (Figure 4.10).

 

Figure 4.10: Approaches to Improve Mental Health Access, 2023-2025

Related Business Group on Health Resources

• Engineering Mental Health: Building a Strategy from the Ground Up
• Exploring Innovation in Preventive Care: Cancer Screening Guidelines and Methods
• Integrated Benefits Experience: Four Key Considerations for Employers
• Under 50 and At Risk: The New Face of Colorectal Cancer