This conversation was hosted and transcribed by Curai Health President, Peter Bridges.
Curai is now available to businesses looking to provide fast access to high-quality and low-cost medical care for employees and their families. All startups try to “eat their own dogfood,” and Curai employees are indeed some of our power users. As we approach other businesses, we thought the best place to start learning would be our HR leader, Ally Ranier. I sat down with Ally to understand what problems she is trying to solve and what is top of mind for her and others shopping for health care benefits.
Peter: Curai Health’s mission is to “provide the world’s best healthcare to everyone.” How do you see our mission fitting into your work?
Ally: It is an exciting mission and one I take seriously when looking to provide our employees with the best healthcare available.
As a series B company with under 100 employees, every dollar we spend counts. Those dollars spent on benefits help us attract and retain talent, which is super important. Still, it is also money that we cannot invest in hiring additional team members to build and support our great product. Thus, I need to maximize our spending on benefit offerings as much as possible to provide competitive benefits to our employees.
To tie this back to our mission statement, my goal is to narrow “the world’s best healthcare” from everyone to ensure our employees have access to the best healthcare they need at their current stage in life.
Peter: So, what criteria are you looking for that help you include or exclude options?
Ally: I look for the following when shopping for healthcare options to purchase for our employees:
Scalability and cost
Nothing is worse than changing plans every year. Finding benefits that can grow with our company and employees is top of mind. On average, insurance premiums increase annually anywhere from 5–20% year over year. That is huge, and you must believe you can absorb that increase as your business scales. You don’t ever want to take benefits away from your employees if you can help it at all. Ideally, as our company grows, I would like to be able to offer more benefits, so I need to keep these things in mind always.
Network coverage with options
This primarily revolves around coverage that works in your geographical location and accessibility when you travel or have dependents who live elsewhere. I ask, “What options do employees have to meet their family and life needs? Do they provide options to different life phases, and are those easy to change when needed? Are there different tiers based on health needs? How large are the networks? Are there provider options and availability?” Having the benefit accessible when you need it is paramount.
Ease of use
I always ask, “Are our benefits easy to access and navigate?” I look for what options are available to access the benefits (in person, telehealth, chat, email, web support, apps for your phone, etc.). Are they easy to navigate and get live help or support when you need it? Are they clear and concise to show prospective employees and for enrollment?
Competitiveness
Not everyone will use or need every benefit we offer. However, some benefits are not core to every employer, but offering them gives you a competitive advantage in the labor pool. Benefits such as mental health, fertility, and financial wellness are core examples that need to be considered and on your radar. Having those available to those that need them is a critical offering that one cannot overlook. All benefits have a cost to your P&L, so weighing these offerings to your business and competitors is an essential factor to consider.
Peter: Can you tell me the top three factors that keep employees away from work at Curai (typically it’s child care, illness, or leave of absence, I think ) — but has Covid changed things?
Ally: Those top factors have evolved over the last few years. Typically illness was the number one factor, and while that is still predominantly why employees miss work, now with virtual working options and access, many people work through their illnesses. However, not all jobs allow that flexibility, so yes, illness remains number one.
What has changed is that number two spot, it used to be child-care or family issues, but it has now been replaced by stress and mental health.
Peter: How have you evolved benefits and HR functions generally in light of the pandemic (have you sought to add benefits, made business decisions such as permanent work from home status, etc.)
Ally: This has been an exciting time in HR. All the standard rule books have been thrown out, and now more than ever, we can get really creative in coming up with solutions that work for our business and employees. Being a technology company with a virtual care clinic, moving to 100% remote was more of a natural progression since the clinic was already virtual. The challenge that came in was how do you keep people connected (not isolated) and make sure they have access to the resources they need. These are both challenges that we are constantly fine-tuning. From a benefits perspective, we need to make sure our employees have access to care in whatever format they are comfortable with, whether in person or virtual. Virtual options went from being nice to critical offerings from everyday healthcare to mental health resources. Every day I think about what more we can be doing on this front.
Peter: What would you like to tell digital health solutions providers who want to sell their services to you?
Ally: Two things come to mind.
Peter: How does Curai Health fit into the big picture then?
Ally: Our Curai service complements our current employee benefits offerings. As we grow, it will become an even more major component in scalability and costs, as I mentioned earlier. We have flat benefit rates with a Professional Employer Organization as a small employer. But as we move to become self-insured, the Curai service will help offset those costs. Anytime our employees use Curai Health, it is one fewer doctor’s visit bill we will have to pay under a self-insured model. I see this providing substantial cost savings for self-insured organizations.
Considering all these factors, Curai Health (the employer) offers top-notch health benefit options to fit our employees’ needs. We provide several medical, dental, and vision insurance options at various coverage and scaling options. We also offer telehealth access to MDs through our Curai Health service, at-home lab options, and health care concierge support. We offer life, AD&D, disability, and employee assistance for mental health on the wellness side.
For financial support, we offer the following: HSA, FSA, commuter benefits, pet insurance, financial resources, banking, and 401k with matching. These benefits have a support team available via email and phone to support our employees in navigating their options. I am always open to feedback from our employees to understand their needs and keep an eye out for new offerings or partnerships to enhance our offerings.
Peter: And what else do I need to know to “really get you”?
Ally: Equity, inclusion, and cost. Those three things are music to my ears. What service is equitable and inclusive for all of my employees, and can the company afford it? If those do not align, I have to keep looking.
Peter: Ally, thank you for taking the time to help us learn. We know that adding value to our business sponsors is crucial to adding value to end-users — their employees. We look forward to checking back in with you later in 2022 to see how the plan year is going!
If you think Curai Health could be additive to your business, you can learn more here or reach out to our team at inquiries@Curai.com. Thanks for reading!
