Everyone is talking about now being a good time to find ” good deals”. That’s true but good deals aren’t always defined by price alone. Take the case of Employee Assistance Programs. There has been a lot of downward pressure on the cost of EAPs for a long time. So what do we see now? We see alot of programs that are “free” or embedded in group health or disability insurance plans. Great deal, right? After all, why pay for something when you can get it for free? Because in times like these, you need an EAP that is visible, pushes for high utilization, has experienced consultants available to assist senior level managers and line supervisors, can be on-site for training and to assist with workplace crises (death, injury or RIFs) and has proactive account management. Furthermore, you want an organization who can join senior management and HR at the table to provide their expertise in planning for change. This has never been more important than in this economic downturn when organizations are dealing with changes like RIFs, mergers, plant closings and much more.
Sounds good so what is the problem. Well, to do this right takes money and requires experienced and trained EA professionals. And most of the free or embedded EAPs count on less utilization or use the providers on their network who may not have these workplace skills. They also don’t actively promote the program and certainly aren’t available at a moment’s notice.
Here is one example that Perspectives recently encountered that demonstrates dedicated EAP work and the power of the collaboration between the EAP and the company. We received a call from a supervisor at a company that does drug testing. His employee had confided in him, prior to taking a drug test that he had a problem. Based on this discussion with the company and supervisor, the EAP counselor coached them on how to get the employee to call the EAP and the employee did call.
Here is where the story gets more complicated. After a discussion, it was clear that the employee needed treatment immediately. The counselor spoke to a nearby facility in the insurance network, and they agreed and recommended admission. However, the insurance company indicated that the level of treatment at this facility was not covered under their plan.
In the meantime, we arranged for the employee to come in and meet with an EAP counselor near where he lived to help tide him over until he could get into treatment. In addition, the EAP counselor continued to try and get the employee into treatment but kept encountering difficulties with the insurance coverage for the facility closest to the employee’s home. So the EAP re-engaged the benefits manager who stepped in and was able to arrange for coverage at the local treatment facility and the employee entered treatment that same day.
It is doubtful that this situation would have been handled in the same way without the expertise and the dedication of an EAP who takes care to assess carefully, involve the company and “hang in” with the affected employee until they recieved treatment. The employee has an increased chance of getting better and the company has a greater likelihood of a more productive employee all because they paid for what they got!!
Tags: drug testing, EAP, substance abuse
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