Spotlight on women’s health: Challenges facing employees with maternity and family planning
A panel of women’s health experts chat about maternity and family planning — and the ways employers may offer support.
In a panel discussion, Stephanie Fehr, chief people officer for UnitedHealthcare, was joined by Dr. Lisa Saul, chief medical officer of women’s health for UnitedHealthcare, Alison Richards, chief executive officer for Surest® and Will Porteous, chief growth officer for Maven, for a thought-provoking conversation about women’s health. As the second of this 4-part series, learn more about the impact of maternity and family planning on the workforce and why supporting women’s health matters to employers.
The story data tells about maternity and family planning
Looking at both UnitedHealthcare data and national numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Craig Kurtzweil, chief data & analytics officer for UnitedHealthcare, is seeing some trends when it comes to maternity and family planning.
One disturbing trend is that maternal mortality in the U.S. continues to rise, with some regions of the country seeing higher rates than others. For instance, with 50.0 deaths per 100,000 live births, the Southeast fares worse than its counterparts in the West, with 18.7 deaths per 100,000 live births.2 There are also disparities in maternal mortality rates among different ethnicities, with rates for Black women significantly higher than rates for white or Hispanic women.3
192K
claims for deliveries over the last 12 months1
“That change — that difference — that we see across the different ethnic groups is not a one-year blip,” Kurtzweil says. “This has been a historical pattern. We’ve seen the Black population being much higher year after year — and if anything, that discrepancy is widening.”
Looking at the data on the utilization of fertility treatments4, Kurtzweil pointed out some interesting data points:
- Infertility diagnosis and treatment peaks in women ages 30 to 39 years old1
- Black, Hispanic and white claimants utilized fertility treatments about the same, but a higher prevalence of both advanced and non-advanced fertility treatments is seen among Asian claimants1
4 ways employers can help support employees actively planning families
As the data displayed, there is some room for improvement when it comes to maternity and family planning in the U.S., but the panelists point to 4 action items employers can take that may help:
1. Offer access to home care programs. At UnitedHealthcare, the OB Home Care program brings care to the members, especially those who are at high risk — maybe with extreme nausea that’s causing them to miss work or maybe with a chronic disease like diabetes. Home care can also help bridge the gap caused from maternal care deserts (areas lacking providers) or social drivers of health (SDOH) and may even improve maternal mortality rates since the program makes care more convenient and accessible.
2. Provide digital solutions to supplement in-person care. “Often people do have access to great opportunities and great care; they just don’t know about it, or they don’t use it,” Porteous said. Going on to explain that employers can add Maven, an online clinic offering health care solutions for women at any stage, to their health plans which can help connect employees to resources, education and providers whenever and wherever they need them.
3. Choose a health plan built around transparency. With the Surest plan from UnitedHealthcare, employees can shop around for the lowest cost, highest value providers in the broad network when choosing maternity care. Members have the advantage of knowing what their out-of-pocket cost will be prior to having a baby, bringing predictability and the ability to budget for the expense.
4. Choose a carrier that has robust fertility support. Fehr pointed out that as many as 1 in 5 American women experience infertility, which makes it critical for employer sponsored plans to include fertility support. At UnitedHealthcare, this looks like programs that offer inclusive, personalized fertility and family-building solutions designed to help employees navigate their unique path to parenthood.
Get more on women’s health
In the first of this 4-part series, learn more about gender and ethnicity — and the ways employers and the wider health care system can offer support.