Businesses want to invest more in supporting the health and wellbeing of their employees – and there’s a lot the government can do to help, says David Hare.
Healthcare practitioners deliver care to millions of patients every year – in turn playing a significant role in improving their health and overall quality of life. But there is increasing evidence that their impact, and that of the independent sector as a whole, reaches well beyond healthcare.
This can be seen most clearly in terms of the link between health and employment, with more than 2.7million people now estimated to be economically inactive due to poor health, and increasing numbers of people in work also struggling with their mental and physical health, particularly younger generations.
And overall lost productivity resulting from ill-health is estimated to cost the UK economy around £150 billion per year.
So it is little wonder that the Independent Healthcare Providers Network’s (IHPN) latest polling of businesses has found that a quarter of employers are planning to offer or introduce more private medical insurance (PMI) provision in the next 12 months. And more than one in five are planning to offer or introduce more employee assistance programmes.
With Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting making an explicit commitment for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to “drag our economy out of the sluggish productivity and poor growth of recent years”, IHPN has been working with Future Health – run by former Government adviser Richard Sloggett – to look into how the government and employers can work better together to improve workplace health and support.
Bringing together members working in the occupational health space, along with insurers and other policy thinkers in this area, IHPN has recently published a report to look at the role of employers in improving the health of the UK workforce and what action can be taken to bolster support in this area.
While the overall picture of high levels of economic inactive and lost productivity due to ill health looks gloomy, the report found there are positive steps that employers can take.
This ranges from simple steps – such as encouraging employees to be active during the working day, bike-to-work schemes and taking breaks from sitting at the desk – through to more comprehensive support – such as providing additional benefits to employees including private medical insurance, gym membership, health assessments and advisory services.
As many healthcare professionals will of course be aware, private medical insurance not only provides access to high-quality private healthcare when people require treatment. It is increasingly offering products and services that can help employees proactively manage health issues, including, for example, providing staff with musculoskeletal health (MSK) issues with access to physiotherapy, and a broad range of support and services for preventing and treating mental health.
Many independent practitioners are leading the way in delivering this workplace support. Organisations such as VitaHealth Group and Nuffield Health are providing a package of services including physiotherapy; online exercise classes, and functional restoration programmes for those individuals who experience persistent or chronic MSK conditions. Employers are reporting a 317% average return on investment of £3.17 per £1 invested.
IHPN’s report makes a number of recommendations about how to make workplace health a greater priority.
These include legislating for a minimum-standard occupational health framework for all workplaces (which has proven successful in other European countries) and an expanded occupational health workforce to ensure employers are able to deliver on these new standards.
Likewise, IHPN has issued national guidance for employers with the development of an accreditation scheme to particularly help smaller organisations navigate the world of occupational healthcare and ensure they are getting best value for money.
There is also much more that can be done via the tax system to incentivise employers to improve their workplace health offer.
This could include removing or raising the ‘one per employee, per tax year’ limit on health screenings and medical check-ups, as well as implementing an uplift in the non-taxable employee benefit amount from its current maximum of £500.
It would also be beneficial to expand the types of health and wellbeing support that are included within the current ‘benefits in kind’ exemption lists.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has estimated that making Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) and early occupational health referrals fully-tax free benefits could boost the economy by £2.65 billion over the next four years.
This expansion could also include tax-free access to occupational health equipment and vaccinations as well as private GP appointments and private medical insurance.
It would also be sensible for the government to review its approach to the Insurance Premium Tax on health insurance and gather a clear evidence base to ensure it is not disincentivising employers to invest in the health of their workforce.
Embedding improved workforce health within wider health service reforms would also significantly help.
This could include, for example, a greater focus on the early detection of MSK conditions to enable individuals and employers to take proactive and preventative action to avoid the worsening of symptoms, potentially through the inclusion of MSK within the NHS Health Check programme, which is currently being trialled in the workplace setting for cardiovascular disease.
There has undoubtedly been a welcome acknowledgment in the past few years that tackling ill-health is key to economic growth – IHPN’s report demonstrates that businesses want to invest more in supporting the health and wellbeing of their employees, with a pivotal role for independent practitioners and the wider sector.
David Hare is chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN).
