Boost utilization and successful outcomes through integration

The key to the success of programs like Employee Assistance Programs lies in ensuring high levels of utilization and successful outcomes between users and the services. While our systemic implementation process and customized promotion have helped our clients average a utilization rate of 9% or higher, one key area that needs to be considered as well is integration. By integrating the Employee Assistance Program with other benefits, systems, and initiatives of an organization, you will see two primary benefits:

1. Enhanced awareness and utilization of the EAP services – When all benefit providers and wellness programs are integrated with one another, information can be shared from multiple sources ensuring all members and employees are aware of the services available to them. Additionally, when an employee or member learns about another benefit, such as the EAP, from their primary care doctor or through an onsite clinic at work, they are better able to connect the dots between the service and the issues they may be tackling in their everyday lives making it much more likely they will proactively reach out and access services.
2. Creation of a holistic care system – By creating a holistic benefit suite that successfully integrates employee benefits and an organization’s other health and wellness initiatives, cross-referral between providers is made possible which helps to ensure employees and members are receiving all possible services available to them that may be relevant to issues they are dealing with and co-morbid conditions that necessitate more than one area of care. Increased coordination between providers can also expedite the rate that care is accessed allowing employees and members to resolve wellness and health issues faster and more efficiently.

Integration opportunities

While integration opportunities will vary from one group to the next, the following represents some common and key integration areas to consider. The MINES Team is always happy to discuss and collaborate around these areas or any others that your organization would like to explore with us.

• Health Plan
  • MINES collects other accepted insurance information from our EAP providers. When requested by a caller, and/or deemed necessary through the assessment, we will send referrals for providers who are in both networks. This allows for a seamless transition from EAP to the behavioral health component of their medical plan should their concern not be resolved within their allotted EAP sessions.
• Short and Long-Term Disability
  • MINES could proactively outreach and effectively counsel employees who have been placed on leave such as FMLA, workers compensation, ADA, STD, or LTD, to assist with the primary concern, life adjustment, and associated loss. The purpose of the outreach would be to ensure that the client on leave is aware of all of the benefits available to them including and not limited to :
    • Counseling: Being on leave can be stressful for the individual and family. There also may be mental health impacts related to identity, PTSD, etc. depending on the leave.
    • Financial coaching (often those on leave are receiving fewer wages and might need support with budgeting).
    • Wellness coaching to help get the member on leave back on track and help with healthy coping strategies.
    • Parent and lactation coaching
    • Work-life: There may be services that the EAP can support such as someone to assist with errands if the impacted member is unable to.
    • Legal referrals: Some on leave may need support legally (for non-work-related issues). An example would be a car accident or a fall in a public place.

Such an intervention, which may or may not include the family, could result in quicker recovery, and minimize likelihood of secondary injury development. MINES could further be involved in the recommendation and/or release to duty from disability.

• Disease and Case Management
  • MINES could partner with the disease and case management teams of an organization’s health plan carrier(s). When the carrier identifies a chronically ill member with a behavioral health concern comorbidity, they can bring MINES in to help. MINES has found that many cases under the disease/case management that may look like physical conditions (such as diabetes, heart disease, etc.) often have a comorbid behavioral health diagnosis or condition. When the behavioral health and physical health conditions are treated together, positive outcome rates increase significantly.
• Organizational Health and Wellness Initiatives
  • MINES can partner with an organizations’ internal health and wellbeing intiatives. We want to collaborate and connect to internal solutions. An example of a collaboration effort would be if an organization has a healthy eating initaitive, MINES could connect our board-certified wellness coaches into support those who want to learn more about healthy eating. The organization could also utilize their training hours to provide education around the desired iniative such as “Nutrition and Aging- Eating for a Longer Life.” The work-life services could also help them find fitness classes, gyms, and restaurants that fit their dietary goals.
• Organizational Policy
  • MINES assists with policy and human resource consultation. Working with MINES provides a consultant with HR and/or organizational psychology expertise at your fingertips.
• On-site or Near-Site Clinics
  • MINES can both make and receive referrals from on-site medical clinics as clinically indicated. MINES recommends working collaboratively with the on-site clinic partner to include ways to trigger providers to refer to the EAP or on-site counselor such as though assessments or other testing results. In addition to the counseling services, MINES recommends that the clinics also have awareness of the services that can be useful to the providers and clients as well. MINES can also staff an onsite or near-site clinic with a clinician, either in person or virtually. This arrangement tends to be in addition to the EAP and allows increased access to all members of the organization.

How could MINES integrate with your organization? Call us today, we would love to talk about!

To your (and your organization’s) wellbeing,

-The MINES Team

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• Promote a healthy organizational culture. There are some simple ways to do this. When ordering in meals for seminars and/or trainings, order healthy items – skip the unhealthy choices such as pizza, cookies, and chips. Involve your company in local 5ks and/or other exercise initiatives. This does more than get everyone out for some exercise; it’s the perfect environment for socializing!

•  Encourage Preventative Care.  This begins with offering health insurance; statistics provided by the White House show that the smaller the company, the less likely they are to offer health insurance.  In fact, less than 50 percent of employers with less than ten employees offer health insurance.  When selecting a health insurance company, it may be wise to ask about preventative care options such as vaccines, smoking cessation programs, and perhaps annual exams without charge.   Be sure to advertise these benefits to your employees, encourage them to get physicals, and consider offering them time during the workday for preventative care (The White House, 2009).

• Consider Incentive Programs.   Incentive programs in organizations are growing all over the United States.  Programs that encourage employees to exercise, attend regular doctor appointments, get vaccinations, eat well, and overall take care of themselves have really jumped in popularity. Some incentives to consider may include bonuses, awards when they reach their goals such as certificates or fitness gear, and overall continued encouragement for the effort in which they put in!

Daniél Kimlinger, MHA, PHR
Human Resources Specialist

Reference:
The Economic Effects of Health Care Reform on Small Businesses and Their Employees. The White House (2009, June 25). Retrieved August 22, 2011, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA-smallbusiness-july24.pdf

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“I just had surgery and can’t sit for long periods of time.”

“It doesn’t make sense for me to work and pay for infant daycare!”

Do any of these issues come up in your company? If you think that they are stressful for the organization, just imagine the burden on your employees. One option that is grasping more and more attention is allowing employees to telework if they as employees, and their positions, permit it (Heathfield, 2011).

So, how would an organization determine whether or not a position is a strong fit for telecommuting? There’s no simple answer but here are some variables to consider (Heathfield, 2011):

• The position must be able to be completed outside of the office building. There are some new and creative ways to make this possible, even for those  positions that seemingly need to be completed in the office. One such position is a call center employee — many companies are offering their employees remote access and soft phones on their computers.
• The employees should be able to work independently inside of the company in order to be considered for telecommuting.
• The employee and the manager should both be comfortable with electronic communication, i.e. e-mail.
• The employee should not be wearing the “home” hat and the “work” hat during their working hours. The employee should have uninterrupted work time at home.
• The employee must be trustworthy.

Daniél C. Kimlinger, MHA, PHR
Human Resources Specialist

References
Heathfield, S. (n.d.). Life and Family Challenges With Flexible Work Schedules? In About Human Resources. Retrieved June 21, 2011, from http://humanresources.about.com/od/workschedules/f/life_family.htm

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1. Emphasis on and reasoning for worker health varies by region
2. Wellness programs are growing in popularity
3. Communicating employee health and safety strategy is critical

These three points stood out to us as well.  Behavioral health got a lot of attention through the survey results, underscoring the important work that we do and its impact on the overall costs of health to an organization.

The gulf between communications with top-level leaders and the dispersion of that information downward sounds to be a case for our BizPsych friends as the information disparity seems to be great, globally.  Further, while the fact that wellness programs are growing in popularity may not be of any surprise to anyone here, the priorities that these multinationals place on various components of a wellness program are.

If you find any other interesting articles on the subject, feel free to share those through the comments!

‘Til next time…

Ryan Lucas
Supervisor, Marketing

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One common and inexpensive benefit that the vast majority of organizations provide to their employees is an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Yes, MINES and Associates is an EAP provider, and as such we see the issues that come to the table: low morale, family conflicts, substance abuse, and financial stressors to name a few. We also hear success stories of employees completing their counseling sessions and feeling that many areas of their lives have improved – including their job! Being the HR specialist of an organization which provides EAP services, it was easy to see where the value of an EAP lies. When an employee comes to you with a problem or suspicions of a mental illness, it’s reassuring to know that as an HR specialist, you have a great resource available where you can refer employees to clinicians that are better suited to help with these sorts of problems.

In addition to an EAP, there are other ways that you can regularly support your employees. Some benefits that our employees greatly appreciate include generous time off, the ability to work remotely, and encouraged open-communication. During times of stress, employees tend to appreciate time off to deal with personal matters. Working remotely allows the employee flexibility in their work. Finally, open-communication allows employees to bring forth concerns and needs without fear of reprisal. Your employees are the greatest asset of the company – show them that you care and support them!

Daniél C. Kimlinger, MHA
Human Resources Specialist

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