New Orleans— Employers offering mental health coverage in 2022 hit a new high of 91 percent since the COVID-19 pandemic. Benefits such as mental health coverage, telemedicine, telehealth showed upward movement, according to SHRM's latest Employee Benefits Survey released today.
Healthcare emerged as the leader in ranked importance by employers as the most important type of benefit that an organization can offer its workers followed by retirement and leave benefits, which ranked jointly at number two. Retirement benefits were at 55 percent in 2020/21, back up to 82 percent in 2022. Although the importance ratings of many benefits changed drastically during the height of the pandemic, now that businesses have regained a more normal semblance of operations, so too have businesses ranked benefits in a more typical order of importance. Although this order of importance is back to what was typically seen prior to the pandemic, it is key to note that all benefits are now individually viewed as more important for businesses to offer than they were prior to the pandemic. The pandemic's impact on the world of work appears to have resulted in lasting changes of the views around specific benefits offerings.
For example:
She is 66 and on Original Medicare. Her latest Medicare Summary Notice (MSN) lists a $1,200 knee brace from a supplier she has never heard of. Her knees are fine and no package ever came. Medicare...