Holistic healthcare is the future of employee benefits: says Plum
Bangalore, 26 August, 2022 – Employee health insurance platform, Plum says that the future of comprehensive benefits programme for employees lies in providing holistic healthcare. As per the Economic Survey released in 2021, India has one-of-the highest level of Out-Of-Pocket Expenditures (OOPE) for healthcare contributing directly to the high incidence of catastrophic expenditures and poverty. In line with the above, Plum has been advising its clients to provide insurance coupled with healthcare benefits to employees and has witnessed an increase in demand for holistic healthcare packages by 50% among corporates over the past year.
As part of its holistic healthcare package are services like telehealth consultations, wellness initiatives and access to mental health support bundled with group health insurance. Telehealth consultations are being increasingly used by young millennial employees. Among Plum’s customers, the majority of the bookings were done by employees between 21-40 years of age, over the last one year. Top three specialties consulted were general medicine, dermatology and mental wellness. Besides, consultations were also availed for treatments related to obstetrics & gynecology, dietitian, internal medicine, orthopedics and veterinary among others. Tech savvy millennials are finding tele-consultations convenient and effective in addressing their critical medical requirements.
Plum’s services are being utilized by both male and female employees for themselves and their family members with overall 51.4% bookings coming from female employees and 48.6% from males. Plum has seen a steep spike in bookings made post working hours, with the highest bookings being witnessed on weekends and Mondays. Overall, 64% of the bookings came from metros and 36% from non-metros.
Abhishek Poddar, Co-founder and CEO, Plum, “Popularity of online doctor consultations, which had gained tremendous traction during the pandemic years, has sustained over the last one year. This clearly showcases the growing preference for such treatments among the workforce. Healthcare inflation is a reality and it is no longer limited to hospitalization expenses. Therefore offering an all-inclusive preventive and curative healthcare facility for employees has become a social responsibility for all the corporates who care for their employees. At Plum, we always advise our clients to provide holistic healthcare for all the employees and take a stance in ensuring their complete well-being.”
JayanthGanapathy, Director-Healthcare, Plum, “Plum’s mission is to offer a complete wellness programme for all the employees which takes care of their insurance as well as healthcare requirements. We have carefully constituted our panel of doctors who are well-experienced and best in their respective specialties. There are a plethora of case studies where our doctors have been able to accurately diagnose diseases and offer effective treatments to patients. We strongly believe that holistic healthcare is the future and therefore it should be considered by all corporates for their group health insurance covers.”
Ashish Kumar Singh, CHRO, Meesho, said, “At Meesho, holistic wellbeing of employees is of utmost importance. Driven by two of our significant mantras — ‘People Centric Workplace’ and ‘User First’, we have designed all wellness initiatives and benefits keeping in mind the best interests of the employees. ‘MEECARE’ is the umbrella benefits program that Meesho runs under which all wellness related initiatives are covered. Transcending insurance benefits, we firmly believe physical, mental, financial and social wellness collectively contribute to one’s holistic health and thereby we have taken some key steps in that direction. From 24×7 telehealth support, annual health checkup, infinite wellness leaves for critical illness of self, mental wellness sessions, and yoga to MeeSOPs, tax sessions, capability enhancement program (CEP), and quarterly summits (Future of Work) — these various initiatives are devised to protect the overall wellbeing of our employees.
Additionally, we conduct a sense check every 6 months to collect feedback from the entire workforce on our perks and benefits which can help identify the required corrections and amendments. Plum has been a great partner in our endeavour to drive our ‘people-first’ mindset forward — we have seen a positive response with a large number of employees adopting some of the vital offerings such as sessions on yoga, nutrition, and sexual health amongst others.”
Plum has consistently counseled its clients on the best health and wellness benefits and has bundled employee health insurance with doctor tele-consultations, weekly wellness programs and discounted medicines among others.
