In honor of Women’s History Month, the Women’s Health Coalition for Digital Solutions, a group of digital health and wellness companies prioritizing women’s health access, recently convened to address the pressing challenges women face in accessing affordable, high-quality health care.

Challenge 1: “The gender wage gap is well-known, but there is another gap that also deserves attention: out-of-pocket healthcare costs for employed women in the U.S. are approximately $15 billion higher per year than for employed men¹,” said Natalie Cummins, Chief Business Officer at Talkspace and co-founder of the Coalition.

Challenge 2: Women’s health remains disproportionately underfunded, leading to inadequate research, innovation, and care solutions. While the National Institute of Health (NIH) has a women’s health research arm, only 10.8% of funding is spent on women’s health².

“At a clinical level, for example, every single woman will go through menopause, but the traditional healthcare system isn’t equipped to guide women through it. Typically there is only 6 hours of training allocated to menopause in medical school, and most of it is out of date, so it’s no surprise women struggle to find care, ” said Alicia Jackson, Founder and CEO of Evernow, a personalized menopause care company.

Challenge 3: Uncertainties loom with respect to what benefits are covered by employers and what will remain recognized as medical benefits. For example, according to Thirty Madison’s Chief Business Officer, Rajani Rao, 43% of the women the company surveyed were concerned about insurance coverage of contraceptives.

Coalition members highlight how employers can have a unique opportunity to address these challenges by taking meaningful steps toward more equitable health care solutions to play a pivotal role in addressing the women’s health gap.

Five Ways Employers Can Support Women’s Health

The Women’s Health Coalition for Digital Solutions outlined five key actions employers can take today to better support women’s health:

1. Destigmatize women’s health conversations in the workplace – Mental health conversations became normalized during the pandemic. Continue to create a workplace culture where discussions around women’s health, from reproductive care to menopause and chronic conditions, are normalized and supportive in tone.
   
   
2. Aggregate employer solutions with navigation tools – “We’ve all heard of the mental load, where women bear a disproportionate share of responsibility in the household," said Cummins. “This often extends to managing the healthcare of family members, which can cause her to deprioritize her own, what we refer to as the ‘mental health load.’ We do not want to give women the feeling of having yet another thing to do.” Therefore Cummins stresses the importance of simplifying the benefits experience by integrating digital health tools that help employees easily navigate their available health care options and resources.
   
   
3. Create accessibility through specialized, virtual care – “Telemedicine and digital health tools can address the reality of provider shortages and wait times, while also offering high-quality, specialized care,” said Rao. “Beyond convenience, telehealth often enables a depth and frequency of conversation that both patients and providers often tell us that they couldn't necessarily have in person.”
   
   
4. Address women’s health holistically – Physical, mental health and hormonal health are intricately connected. “Helping target individual demographic, hormonal, metabolic profiles into highly personalized treatment plans leads to better health outcomes,” says Jackson. By offering comprehensive solutions for “whole woman” health organizations can help their female employees thrive professionally and personally.
   
   
5. Measure and capture ROI – Supporting employee health and well-being yields measurable impact on your employees and the bottom line. In fact every $1 spent on mental health benefits results in $4 in cost savings³. For example, providing mental health benefits has been proven to decrease rates of absenteeism and presenteeism and contribute to higher retention rates, all metrics that can be reported at the organizational level.

Employers play a critical role in bridging the women’s health gap and fostering an inclusive workplace. To hear a replay of a recent panel discussion where members of the Women’s Health Coalition for Digital Solutions convened to discuss the importance of addressing the women’s health gap, visit the registration page. Read more here about the Women’s Health Coalition and its founding companies.

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¹Deloitte “Closing the cost gap: Strategies to advance women’s health equity”

²Biden administration

³National Safety Council “New Mental Health Cost Calculator Shows Why Investing in Mental Health is Good for Business” 

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