The current dual-system model is inefficient, wasteful, and inconvenient. There is a clear need to integrate workers’ comp and medical benefits programs to cut down on costs and alleviate the hassle of dealing with separate care silos. It’s possible, and its time has come.

Employer-sponsored health insurance now costs approximately $12,000 per plan member per year. Accordingly, for many employers, healthcare and health insurance are the second largest company expense after payroll. The Head of Benefits is in charge of this expense and is in the best position to use it for positive change.

The major healthcare players have no incentive to bring costs down. Insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other healthcare interests profit by charging higher and higher rates. However, one entity has the scale and incentive to meaningfully lower costs: employer health plans.

Talkspace’s new product, Talkspace Engage, aims to help employers promote their mental health benefits to their employees. It allows employers to easily share mental health resources and virtual classes led by Talkspace clinicians.

The healthcare navigation market — especially companies targeting self-insured employers — is fairly crowded. You […]

Nearly a quarter of private sector employees don’t have any paid sick days, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. Providing this benefit will save employers down the line, one expert argues.

The annual open enrollment period is the right time to proactively address common benefits knowledge roadblocks with more in-depth education and communications.

HealthJoy has raised more than $108 million total. This funding round was led by Valspring Capital, while other investors of the company include Endeavour Vision, CIBC Innovation Banking and U.S. Venture Partners.

Through the new collaboration, Carrum Health is offering GRAIL’s cancer test called Galleri as a benefit option for employers. It is an early-detection test for more than 50 types of cancer.

The partnership is with PlanSource, a benefits administration company. By working with PlanSource, Wysa can be offered as a mental health benefit option for PlanSource’s network of small to mid-sized employers.

Here are the eight companies selected by professional investors to pitch at the upcoming INVEST Digital Health conference in Dallas on September 28.

In an exclusive interview, an attorney at McDermott Will & Emery’s Post-Roe practice group answers questions about how Texas’ trigger ban laws will impact employers, whether HIPAA protections apply to abortion access and the latest in Washington on rulemaking to strengthen ERISA preemption defense.

Nearly 25% of working-age adults have hearing issues, and 60% percent of people with hearing loss are below retirement age. But 50% of those with untreated hearing loss do not have their hearing professionally checked before the age of 60. Tuned is trying to change that by offering its platform to employers as a benefit.

The MedCity INVEST Digital Health conference in Dallas September 28 in collaboration with Health Wildcatters marks our first conference in the Lone Star state and new themes embracing employee benefits and the financial experience in healthcare. Register today!

Add an Ask the Investor breakfast meeting to your INVEST Digital Health agenda and gain insights from investors from DaVita Venture Group, Noro-Moseley Partners, Providence Ventures, FirstTrust Capital, Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas, and Flare Capital Partners.

The reversal of Roe v. Wade led Forma to make a series of changes to its reproductive health benefits on top of what it originally offered — both for its internal employees and its customers.

Employee benefits is the theme of the MedCity INVEST Digital Health conference in Dallas September 28, in collaboration with Health Wildcatters. We’re looking for startups across insurance, care navigation and those that help to improve and provide ROI on employee benefits programs. The application deadline is July 15.

The peer-reviewed research is among the first to examine the effectiveness of the new crop of digital mental health startups. It looked at people enrolled through their companies in a mental health platform developed by Spring Health.

Armed with fresh capital, Nava Benefits hopes to take advantage of what it believes will be a disruption in the way smaller businesses approach health and wellness benefits, including the many digital tools now on the market.

Flume Health offers a platform for customized health plan administration for insurers who want to develop customized health plans to target certain populations. The company says it can bring tailored plans to the point of launch in just six months.

Forma, a company offering customizable benefits for employees announced a rebrand as well as $40 million in Series B funding that will be used to build more products and services and increase hiring, among other things.

Employers today realize they must give workers choices to support their whole being, including resources to meet their psychological needs. Fortunately, digital health management platforms bring together robust offerings that evolve as health needs change.

B.Well Connected Health, a startup that brings together patients’ health records and helps them navigate their benefits, recently raised $32 million in funding. CEO Kristen Valdes started the company based on her own experience advocating for her daughter.

A randomized, controlled three-year study of workplace wellness programs found no significant improvement in health outcomes for employees or cost. In fact, there was no improvement in self-reported health behaviors for employees who participated for the full 3-year period compared with those who participated for just 18 months.

Employee benefits firm Aon is bundling together three digital health solutions as part of a broader musculoskeletal care offering. It’s partnering with Hinge Health, 98point6 and Employer Direct Healthcare.

Glen Tullman’s newest healthcare navigation startup, Transcarent, raised another $58 million in funding. The company plans to use the funds to quickly build out its offering for employers. 

Less than a year after Haven dissolved, JPMorgan is starting a new venture to improve healthcare with a similarly broad vision. In the meantime, Amazon is rolling out new employee benefits as it starts selling a telehealth benefit to other companies

Establishing digital biomarkers which correlate physiological parameters with mental health and wellbeing not only has the potential to provide more reliable tools for guiding diagnosis and evaluating patient outcomes but will also improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of mental disorders

Insurer Cigna plans to cover mental health startup Ginger’s coaching services as a covered benefit. Investors are pouring more funds into mental health startups as they companies and insurers alike look for more ways to meet people’s care needs during a challenging year. 

Ginger, a startup that connects users with mental health coaches and therapists, raised $100 million in funding. The company is shifting to a risk-based model as it expands.