Marissa Plescia , 2025-05-08 00:24:00
Americans are facing difficult times, including rising healthcare costs and increasing prevalence of mental health challenges. And many are looking to their employer for support.
That’s why during a Wednesday panel discussion at the Midwest Business Group on Health conference in Chicago, four employers shared the strategies they’ve implemented to help their employees both financially and mentally.
For example, construction company Caterpillar started doing direct contracting with pharmacies, manufacturers, hospitals and providers several years ago to bring down costs, said Jason Duhon, director of total rewards and HR at the company. In addition, it’s trying to encourage employees to seek care with higher-quality, lower-cost providers, and is sharing the savings with the employees.
“If there’s a $50,000 procedure at Hospital A, and the same procedure is $40,000 in Hospital B and is higher quality, we’ll share the savings back with the employees, up to $1,500 depending on what the procedure is,” Duhon said on the panel.
On the mental health front, Caterpillar also has a clinical psychologist and a team of counselors who work with the company’s leaders and employees. The company has also removed some of the cost barriers so that the first 16 visits have no out of pocket costs.
The Boeing Company, an aerospace company, started offering virtual support groups for its employees with its mental health provider, Spring Health, said Tara Sherman, mental health and well being strategy leader. These support groups focus on issues like improving sleep, processing current events, parenting teens and more.
[Employees] get a little bit of expert guidance. But I think even more importantly, they recognize they’re not alone,” Sherman said.
Another company, Sargento Cheese, added a mental health provider to its onsite health and wellness center last June, according to Sherri Samuels-Furest, VP advisor of the company. The provider travels to all the company’s locations and sees employees and their family members up to age 26. This benefit is available to anyone at Sargento regardless of if they have Sargento’s medical plan or not.
Last fall, Sargento also switched its Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider to a more “holistic EAP and mental health app,” Samuels-Furest said. Through the app, employees can receive support for sleep, meditation, anxiety, stress and depression.
“Having that app available, we found out things like, people didn’t feel safe at home, and that shocked us,” she said. “Those kinds of things are eye opening.”
She added that it’s important to promote that this support is available because employees are “going to forget about it until they need it.”
Carole Mendoza, former VP of benefits at Voya Financial, noted the importance of benefits leaders being available to employees.
“No matter your reaction to the election, to the inauguration, other things that are happening, your people … are experiencing all of these things as well. So be open to that feedback, because maybe people aren’t at their best because of what’s going on,” Mendoza said.
Photo: Nataliia Nesterenko, Getty Images