Absenteeism is at an all-time high. A loss of flexibility. The hassle of commuting. Insufficient childcare. Now, add one more to the list of reasons that many workers are reluctant to return to the office: Pooping.
One in five working-age people struggle with a diagnosed chronic gastrointestinal (GI) condition like IBS, IBD or GERD. Millions more remain undiagnosed yet suffer chronic symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, stomach pain or nausea.
For these workers, returning to the office and its extended team meetings and communal bathrooms is a source of immense anxiety and even a potential trigger for a decline in GI health. For employers, it can mean increased rates of presenteeism and absenteeism over work-from-home scenarios, multiplying into a major impact on workforce quality of life.
Fortunately, virtual care modalities are ideal for treating GI issues, providing companies with powerful and economically advantageous new ways to support employees with these deeply stigmatized conditions.
The Employer Economics of Digestive Health
Digestive health issues also pose a massive economic strain on the bottom line. Healthcare spend on GI diseases is already estimated to be $136 billion each year – more than heart disease ($113bn) or mental health disorders ($99bn).
Informally, many benefits managers say that GI conditions are increasingly showing up as one of their top health expense categories. This is especially true with large retailers and manufacturers that remained onsite throughout the pandemic and found poorly managed GI health negatively impacted both employee productivity and their healthcare costs.
Also, GI conditions tend to show up early in life, affecting a younger and disproportionately female population, creating a new class of workers with health needs distinct from older employees that can present with heart disease and diabetes. This casts a picture of a wider, more diverse range of a company’s workforce requiring benefits support.
Current Benefits Programs Are Lacking
One of the reasons that digestive health is such an economic drain on employers is that America’s healthcare payment model does not incentivize the right care model and interventions for these conditions.
Our country’s current volume-driven, fee-for-service reimbursement model leads to short doctor visits and a reactive, rinse-and-repeat approach that waits for the patient’s symptoms to escalate before providers intervene and test a medication. They then typically wait six more months to see if it works before trying another medication. All while the patient continues to struggle.
Yet, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that dietary changes, psychological interventions, and behavioral health support are critical to mitigating GI health conditions. These interventions are not well reimbursed, leading to very few GI-specialized dietitians and therapists and even fewer willing to take insurance. Instead, patients are left on their own to figure out whether food, stress and anxiety may be triggering their symptoms, or to pay for professional support out of pocket.
Meanwhile, the litany of colonoscopies, endoscopies, medicines, surgeries and emergency room visits created by the current payment model is expensive, mentally draining on employees, and takes them away from the workplace. Ultimately, it leaves patients not feeling heard or supported by the medical community.
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Creating a GI-Friendly Workplace
Employers planning a return to the office and those that have been there all along can do more for their workers who struggle with their GI health.
First, employers should consider near-term workplace infrastructure and policy improvements such as redesigned floor-to-ceiling bathroom stalls, improved quality of personal care products like toilet paper, and flexibility for remote workdays for those that are routinely absent due to illness.
Second, companies can fill the holes in their healthcare offerings with employer-sponsored care options that include dietary and psychological treatment.
There is already a precedent for engaging virtual specialty care clinics as part of a company’s benefits ecosystem to support mental health or women’s health needs. Leveraging virtual clinics for GI care is also a natural fit because they can address provider shortages and, more importantly, deliver an integrated care experience based on whole-person care protocols. The result for employees is a quicker diagnosis, faster time to symptom control and an overall amazing patient experience.
Companies that take these steps as part of a return to work initiative can make their employees feel seen and heard and supported, often for the first time. It also makes the office bathroom seem a lot less intimidating.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]