Employee wellness, encompassing an employee’s physical, mental and emotional health, has quickly become a key performance indicator for many New Zealand businesses, quickly surpassing the ‘overtime worked’ and resulting additional hours billed, whose link to employee burnout and turnover is now well-established.
As a result, many employers are now investing more into their employee’s health and wellness strategies, and are re-evaluating what this approach best looks like not only in the context of the employee, but in the very relevant context of their family life, too. One of the results is an uptake in employer aid payments being offered, which is now making many more health services from GP care to allied health care, much more accessible.
While using employer aid funding to pay for health visits is a well appreciated and growing payment approach, not understanding how it works and what it involves for clinics to offer this payment option is causing some clinics to miss out. Here’s a look into what clinics should know about employer aid payments, and how you can start offering them in your clinic today.
What Are Employer Aid Payments?
Employer aid payments are funds that an employer chooses to contribute to their employee’s health saver wallet accounts. Specifically, more NZ employers (and employees) are now valuing the benefits that giving employees flexibility and control over how they use the money allocated towards their health brings. This trend is rising in three ways:
- Employers that are looking to start investing into employee health are choosing employer aid as their first preferred option
- Employers are making the switch from offering partially funded private health, to putting the same monetary sum into their employee’s health wallet every month
- Employers are using health wallets as additional health investments alongside private health insurance payments
A health wallet is a personal and private account where the funds can only be spent on medical and health services and products. These health-only transactions are ensured by the accepted payment platform only being available in specific clinics and areas – namely a wide range of medical services, allied health services, pharmacies and more.
Employer aid payments are becoming the preferred option over private health copayments as companies are starting to realise that the health and wellbeing of their employees exceeds the urgent and limited medical services routinely offered by insurance companies. Instead, it encompasses everything from allowing employees to seek help for health fears or concerns that are still at a pre-diagnostic level (may not be formally diagnosed yet or display acute symptoms, but the person has genuine concerns that are affecting their mental, emotional or physical health on the issue), to being able to purchase nutritional supplements, thermometers and other pharmacy products, to using the funds on unwell family members – because our own health can be very closely tied into the health of our family, something that regular insurance plans do not acknowledge in their black-and-white approach.
Who Can Accept Employer Aid Payments?
Any health or medical professional, including allied health services and pharmacies, can accept employer aid payments via the HealthNow app. This process is screened and each clinic or health service is individually yet efficiently onboarded to ensure that this is a viable clinic or service.
HealthNow currently operates both across NZ and the United States (under the name CoverUS). They host a wide range of health services including:
- Pharmacies
- GP clinics
- Skin check clinics
- Optometrists
- Audiologists
- Osteopaths
- Chiropractors
- Physiotherapists
- Podiatrists
- Nutritionists and dietitians
- Psychologists
- Mental health services
- Dental clinics
- Radiologists
- Dermatologists
- DNA testing services
How Can I Start Accepting Employer Aid Payments In My Clinic?
Accepting employer aid payments is now a simple and streamlined process, with very few technical requirements for your clinic due to HealthNow’s innovative AI technology. Start by following the free and easy sign up process as a health provider.
All health wallet holders have the HealthNow app on their smartphone, which is used when it comes time to pay for their health service or product. This is done instantly from the app much like an eftpos card – funds are withdrawn from their account and you receive instant confirmation that they’ve been successfully passed to your clinic and you get paid in full on the day.
As a health provider, you incur minimal fees for each transaction, with full transparency and no surprises. Moreover, you also reap the range of benefits that comes with offering HealthNow as a service, including:
- Attracting more clients – users are able to search for health providers offering the HealthNow payment platform through the app
- Building loyalty through access – allowing clients to see you when they may not have been able to previously afford the upfront costs
- Supporting long-term health outcomes – when the stress of upfront cost is removed, users increase the amount they spend on health products and services leading to better long term health outcomes
- Offering a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) alternative for those without employer aid payments – HealthNow first built their reputation through being the world’s first health-specific BNPL platform at no cost to health consumers. This means that clients can access the health services they need and split the cost of the payments over up to six weeks, while the clinic gets paid in full on the day.
Get Started For Free Today
There is no cost to sign up or integrate with HealthNow, and all training and support are completely free with no ongoing subscription or monthly charges. HealthNow also offers a free trial period so you can ensure it’s easy and simple to use, and right for your team.
