Castlight Releases First-of-Its-Kind Report on Digital Health in the Workplace

SAN FRANCISCO, April 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Castlight Health, Inc. (NYSE: CSLT), a leading health benefits platform provider, today released its State of Digital Health: 2018 Annual Report, a comprehensive survey on how employers and employees interact with health and wellness programs, including digital therapeutics, telemedicine, and other apps, tools, and services. To complete the first-of-its-kind report, Castlight funded and analyzed a survey by Employee Benefits News with nearly 350 U.S.-based large employers — and more than 1,000 employees — about engagement, satisfaction, and ROI of digital health tools.

The report found that all of employers’ most commonly offered digital health benefits address health issues that employees rarely report as top health goals. Employers continue to invest in solution categories that they themselves acknowledge have the weakest business case or lowest engagement. These include Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), Smoking Cessation Programs, and Health Risk Assessments which are widely implemented, but fall short of employers’ expectation for their impact on employee health and satisfaction.

“Employers have access to an explosion of new digital health solutions, but most of them continue to offer the same solutions they always have, even though they are not delivering better health or cost-savings,” said Pierce Graham-Jones, Senior Vice President of Growth at Castlight Health. “To realize the full promise of digital health innovation, employers need to identify solutions that hit the sweet spot, driving engagement, increasing employee satisfaction, all while delivering a strong business case.”

Employees are finding the digital health solutions that meet their health goals, with or without their employer. Employees are using technology to help them lose weight and sleep better —  two of the top three health goals employees identified in the survey —  and are 5.9 times and 5.8 times more likely, respectively, to access that technology directly, rather than through their employer. Overall, employees are 1.8 times more likely to consume digital health directly, rather than accessing through their employer.

The report details how employers and employees perceive digital health and benefits, how their perspectives align or differ, and the key opportunities for employers implementing digital health.

Other key findings include:

Among employers:

• 2018 will be a breakout year for financial wellness. With 23 percent of employers surveyed committed to offering, or considering offering, a financial wellness solution in 2018, financial wellness is the fastest growing solution for 2018.
• Employers are incorporating a number of digital health solutions that meet discreet health needs into their benefits programs. The average employer offers 14 solutions, 9 procured from a health plan, 5 from a third-party vendor. Employers with 15,000 or more employees are even more likely to offer additional solutions, with 30 percent offering 20 or more solutions.

Among employees:

• Employees have no shortage of digital health enthusiasm. With 98 percent of employees having utilized at least one form of health technology, the demand taps into all generations.
• No matter the generation, all demand digital health. Overall, every generation is using digital health tools. Currently, millennials are only 1.2x more likely to use digital health solutions than Gen X’ers or Boomers.
• All generations share some of the same health goals. Millennials, Baby Boomers, and Gen X’ers all named losing weight, reducing stress, and sleeping better as top health goals.
• Employees are open to more skin in the game. More than 50 percent of employees currently using a children’s health and obesity tool, pregnancy program, smoking cessation program, or diabetes management tool would be willing to contribute more than $1 per month. More than 20 percent of employees currently using a chronic condition management tool, mental health program, gym, weight loss, or retirement savings solution would contribute more than $6 per month.

“It’s clear that employers and employees both recognize the immense potential of digital health tools,” said Derek Newell, President of Castlight Health. “This common interest presents a big opportunity for employers to use data to better align their investment in digital health solutions with employees’ goals and needs.”

The full results of the survey can be found here. Castlight is launching a nationwide roadshow to explore this research with experts from digital health solutions, major employers, and benefits consultants. The first four events will be held in New Jersey (May 8), Northern Virginia (May 10), Dallas (May 17), and Chicago (May 22).

About Castlight Health

Castlight is on a mission to make it as easy as humanly possible to navigate healthcare and live happier, healthier, more productive lives. Our health navigation platform connects with hundreds of health vendors, benefits resources, and plan designs, giving rise to the world’s first comprehensive app for all health needs. We guide individuals – based on their unique profile – to the best resources available to them, whether they are healthy, chronically ill, or actively seeking medical care. In doing so, we help companies regain control over rising healthcare costs and get more value from their benefits investments. Castlight revolutionized the healthcare sector with the introduction of data-driven price transparency tools in 2008 and the first consumer-grade wellbeing platform in 2012. Today, Castlight serves as the health navigation platform for millions of people and is a trusted partner to many of the largest employers in the world.

Download the report here 

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