{"id":147426,"date":"2025-11-22T17:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T17:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/147426\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T17:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T17:47:11","slug":"how-insurers-are-enriching-employee-mental-health-benefits-to-meet-shifting-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/147426\/","title":{"rendered":"How insurers are enriching employee mental health benefits to meet shifting demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

What once meant a few counselling sessions through an employee assistance program (EAP) now extends to a broader mix of practitioners, virtual care and even DNA-based drug matching.Charday Penn\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Interested in more careers-related content? Check out our new weekly Work Life newsletter<\/a>. Sent every Monday afternoon. <\/p>\n

Mental health coverage at work is no longer a perk. For young people in the workplace, it has become the price of entry. <\/p>\n

A 2024 survey<\/a> by non-profit health care and insurance organization GreenShield found that one in three Canadians would leave their job for better mental health benefits. Among workers aged 18 to 24, nearly two-thirds said they would walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cYounger employees are setting the bar,\u201d says Joe Blomeley, executive vice-president at GreenShield Health. \u201cFive years ago, mental health was treated as a nice-to-have. Today, if you don\u2019t offer it, you\u2019re not going to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

That shift has pushed employers and insurers to expand their offerings. What once meant a few counselling sessions through an employee assistance program (EAP) now extends to a broader mix of practitioners, virtual care and even DNA-based drug matching.<\/p>\n

Marie-Chantal C\u00f4t\u00e9, senior vice-president, Sun Life Health, says her team started to notice pre-pandemic \u201csignificant growth\u201d in long-term disability tied to a mental health condition as the primary cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw it clearly in our data and, at the same time, employees and employers were both raising it in conversations,\u201d she says, noting that advocacy work from organizations such as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and its \u201cmental health is health\u201d campaign pushed the industry forward.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, most workplace health plans only covered psychologists for mental health. Today, it has expanded to include social workers, nurse practitioners and psychotherapists. <\/p>\n

That breadth has been \u201ccritical for access,\u201d Ms. C\u00f4t\u00e9 says.<\/p>\n

Barriers to mental health support<\/p>\n

Still, there are barriers to workers receiving the mental health support they need.<\/p>\n

Stigma is a big one, Ms. C\u00f4t\u00e9 says. She notes that Sun Life expected to see a spike in EAP usage during the pandemic, but that didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we asked why, employees told us: A, I don\u2019t know what it is. B, I don\u2019t know how to use it. C, I don\u2019t think I can afford it,\u201d Ms. C\u00f4t\u00e9 says. \u201cAnd all of those assumptions were wrong. It\u2019s paid for by the employer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cost is another concern. The 2023 Commonwealth Fund (CMWF) survey reports<\/a> that Canadians are more likely than peers in comparable countries to cite affordability as the reason they didn\u2019t get needed mental health services. Fifteen per cent pointed to cost, rising to 34 per cent among those with a prior mental health diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Waiting lists are another obstacle preventing people from accessing services. Canadian Institute for Health Information<\/a> (CIHI) data show that in 2023\u201324, half of Canadians got community counselling within 25 days, but one in 10 waited almost five months or longer. Access is even more challenging in smaller communities, but insurers are working to close those gaps. <\/p>\n

How insurers are stepping up <\/p>\n

At Manulife, a partnership with Telus Health now enables employees to book counselling sessions through the Manulife app without incurring upfront costs. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt took 20 years to kind of remove that need to pay up front and submit for reimbursement,\u201d says Jennifer Foubert, head of product, Manulife Group Benefits.<\/p>\n

That same integration allows employees to keep seeing the same counsellor beyond the short-term EAP model. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt removes the barrier of having to retell your story all over again,\u201d Ms. Foubert says.<\/p>\n

Manulife has also broadened the scope of care providers, from psychologists to six practitioner types, including psychoanalysts and clinical social workers. It has embedded internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy into its counselling services, offering a blend of self-guided and therapist-supported options. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes folks aren\u2019t ready to participate in face-to-face care,\u201d Ms. Foubert says. \u201cHaving a mix of self-guided but therapist-supported therapy creates that space for people to connect with the care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employers are also responding with richer coverage. Five years ago, the average workplace mental health account was about $500, barely enough for a few therapy sessions. Today, some companies offer thousands of dollars in annual coverage. <\/p>\n

Mr. Blomeley at GreenShield says that a handful of clients now provide up to $10,000 per employee. He adds that virtual care has also become a standard feature, with 90 per cent of GreenShields\u2019 mental health sessions being delivered virtually.<\/p>\n

That kind of integration is part of a broader shift to make care more accessible, particularly outside major cities. The CMWF survey found that 82 per cent of Canadian adults who used virtual mental health care were satisfied with their experience. Usage is especially strong where long waits or travel make in-person therapy harder to reach.<\/p>\n

The impact of that access goes beyond convenience and into the workplace. Telus Health\u2019s Mental Health Index shows that workers with poor mental health lose an average<\/a> of 23 working days a year in reduced productivity, more than four times higher than those with good mental health. Employers that invest in support see the reverse effect in the form of stronger retention, reduced absenteeism, and better employee engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about creating workplaces where mental health is recognized as part of overall health,\u201d Ms. C\u00f4t\u00e9 says. \u201cThe more we have those conversations, the more people will actually use the benefits available to them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: What once meant a few counselling sessions through an employee assistance program (EAP)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[697,8150,163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":{"0":"post-147426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-appwebview","9":"tag-globe-advisor","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-mental-health","14":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}