Consumers Share on Employer-Sponsored Mental, Behavioral Coverage

Consumers reported having positive experiences with their employer-sponsored mental and behavioral healthcare coverage during the coronavirus pandemic, a survey conducted on behalf of AHIP discovered.

“Health insurance providers are working every day to support Americans by helping them find the mental health support and counseling they need at a price they can afford,” Matt Eyles, president and chief executive officer of AHIP, said in a press release.

The online survey, conducted by Morning Consult, occurred from April 20 through April 23, 2022 with a little more than 700 respondents. Respondents had employer-sponsored health plans and a little more than a third received mental or behavioral healthcare services since the pandemic began.

Three out of ten respondents (29 percent) who had employer-sponsored health plans shared that they had sought after and received mental or behavioral healthcare services since the start of the pandemic.

Employer-sponsored health plans also help children access necessary mental and behavioral healthcare during the coronavirus pandemic, the responses showed. Over a third of parent respondents said that their children had accessed mental or behavioral healthcare through an in-person visit or telehealth.

“We are committed to working together to improve access to mental health support for every covered patient who needs it,” Eyles said.

Satisfaction with employer-sponsored mental and behavioral healthcare support was high. Nearly nine out of ten respondents who had accessed mental or behavioral healthcare stated that they felt satisfied with the help they received.

Additionally, respondents indicated that mental and behavioral healthcare was accessible in employer-sponsored health plans, with over three-quarters of the respondents stating that they had an easy time finding a covered mental healthcare specialist.

When it came to policymaking, respondents across the political spectrum were largely supportive of policies that bolstered employer-sponsored health plans’ coverage for mental and behavioral healthcare. In particular, many said that they would be less likely to support lawmakers who did not uphold employer-sponsored health plan coverage for these services.

Moreover, many voters—from liberal to conservative—supported flexibilities from the federal government for employer-sponsored healthcare coverage. 

Nearly all respondents who had employer-sponsored health plans (98 percent) affirmed that the flexibilities for telehealth coverage during the coronavirus pandemic—which may have enhanced access to behavioral and mental healthcare services—were either very important or somewhat important.

The report is part of AHIP’s Coverage@Work initiative, which seeks to help educate both policymakers and consumers about employer-sponsored healthcare coverage. 

Coverage@Work recently put out a separate resource that provided an overview of employer-sponsored health plan coverage across the US. The document shared employer-sponsored health plan trends in each state, such as the number of employees with employer-sponsored health plan coverage and the number of providers that are funded in part through employer-sponsored payments.

At this period in healthcare history as the Great Resignation sweeps across the US, employer-sponsored health plans are at the center of employers’ efforts to attract and retain talent. 

A study by Quest Diagnostics revealed that, although human resources teams were very likely to name mental healthcare benefits as something that the company covered, many employees were not as aware of mental healthcare benefits.

Still, healthcare insurers are focused on providing these benefits to consumers as well as to their own employees. 

In the Business Group on Health’s Best Employers Award for Excellence in Health & Well-being, which recognized employers that offered strong employer-sponsored wellness benefits, three major insurers on the list received an additional distinction for Excellence in Mental Health. The insurers were Cigna, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Humana.

AHIP’s survey demonstrates that consumers are looking for strong mental healthcare and behavioral healthcare benefits as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact their lives and wellbeing.