UnitedHealthcare is rolling out a new benefit option aimed at making it easier for employers to offer more personalized wellness programs.
Called Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs), the benefit allows employers to offer a stipend that members can put toward wellness solutions. The LSAs are integrated with UnitedHealth's UHC Store, which is a digital storefront where members can purchase select health and wellness programs at a discount.
The accounts exist alongside health savings accounts or flexible spending accounts, allowing individuals to purchase health and wellness generally not available under HSAs or FSAs, UnitedHealthcare said.
The store is integrated into UnitedHealthcare's member app, so users do not have to go outside of that ecosystem to find the solutions that may meet their needs. It also prevents individuals from waiting to be reimbursed for the services they've chosen, per an announcement from the company.
Alison Kosup, chief product officer for UnitedHealthcare's commercial business, told Fierce Healthcare in an interview that members increasingly expect personalized experiences, and that a program like the LSAs allows employers to make that available while still managing costs.
For example, there is significant work required for human resources teams to manage contracts and relationships with multiple wellness vendors, Kosup said. And even if a team can do that work, uptake for some of these offerings can be a challenge.
"Historically, employers just add programs across the entire benefit offering," she said, "and when that happens, you end up with lots of programs and really pretty exorbitant costs."
Kosup said that the launch follows a growing expectation and demand from employees to access the particular programs that meet their individual health and wellness goals.
For instance, employers have broadly offered things like gym discounts or smoking cessation programs, but many options that may be wanted by a high-value employee are not needed across the entire workforce. The needs of a middle-aged male worker are going to be very different from those of a 25-year-old woman, she said.
A program like this also makes it easier for employers to address gaps in coverage options that their employees may identify without needing to establish a broad contract that covers everyone. This can be especially beneficial for smaller employers that cannot financially offer broad array of options for everyone.
"We're really excited about the sort of direct-to-consumer chassis that we built," Kosup said. "We think it's going to continue to allow us to offer more and more toward consumers and really bridge the gap where the plan design maybe hasn't been enough for them."
She said that the rollout will be a learning process for the UHC team as well as the employers that sign on to offer the LSAs as they develop the most effective ways to reach out to members and make them aware of the offering. Having the program linked to the UHC Store and the existing member app can help bridge those gaps, she said.
Kosup added that the LSA rollout is another step on the insurer's journey to offer more consumer choice and options in their health benefits. Also in that broader goal is its Surest plan, which drops deductibles and coinsurance for upfront, variable copayments that are based on provider quality.
"We're really excited about where we're going, and we think it's definitely the right track," she said. "Consumers have been saying they want more control."