How U.S. Employers Can Meet the Healthcare Needs of Younger Workers

Millennial and Gen Z employees—people in their 20s to mid-40s—have unique healthcare needs, and they’re demanding more from business and health system leaders like us. They want care that helps them stay well, doesn’t break the bank, and supports their mental health and family planning goals. They want clear, science-backed information they can trust. They want care that’s easy to access and is seamlessly woven into their lives, matching what they’ve come to expect from other services like retail and banking. And as we know professionally and as parents of fiercely independent young adult children, they want to feel heard and respected every step of the way. Here are some ways that leaders of businesses and health systems can meet these needs. 1. Enlist AI Younger people are increasingly trusting and using AI in their lives. This provides an opportunity for businesses and health systems to employ AI in the design of benefits and the delivery of care. AI-powered wearables and advanced chatbots are already being woven into coverage offerings, making personalized recommendations that help users meet their health goals. These include wearables that monitor an individual’s health metrics such as heart rate, activity levels, and sleep patterns, and hybrid mental health apps that provide emotional support with an option to upgrade to human mental health professionals. Physicians can leverage AI to optimize the patient experience and workflows. One example is our making ambient scribes available to more than 25,000 Kaiser Permanente physicians. This technology transcribes patient-clinician conversations, reducing the time physicians spend on administrative tasks and allowing them to focus more on patients during visits. The results: positive feedback and stronger patient connections. Obviously, careful assessments must be conducted before AI is adopted. At Kaiser Permanente, seven principles—transparency, accountability, safety, equity, quality, privacy, and clinician oversight—guide responsible AI use. AI tools are thoroughly evaluated before implementation and aligned with clinical and operational goals. 2. Embrace the Virtual World It should come as no surprise that that half of younger consumers intend to purchase insurance online—regardless of type—and when it comes to interacting with clinicians, 70% of young people prefer virtual care. It’s on us as employers and health care leaders to harness virtual technologies to boost employees’ engagement in choosing and making the most of their healthcare benefits and make managing their health or connecting with a doctor via phone or video feel as seamless and intuitive as possible. Virtual technologies—including AI, interactive tools, and gamification—can encourage younger employees to select health benefits by transforming a complex and confusing process into an interactive and rewarding experience. For example, companies can add gamification to wellness programs by using challenges, incentives, and rewards. Employees earn points, badges, or accolades for completing health-related tasks, which can translate into tangible benefits like wellness credits, health savings contributions, extra time off, or reduced insurance premiums. Telehealth tools can help provide seamless care delivery that is also critical for increasing adoption and satisfaction among younger employees and patients. These tools should offer real-time, intuitive features such as instant appointment confirmations, medication reminders, and test-result notifications. One example of this patient-focused approach is our Kaiser Permanente Intelligent Navigator, an AI-powered tool that enables more than 4.9 million Southern California patients to describe their health care needs in their own words—not via preset menus—and receive immediate, personalized recommendations for care, whether that’s a prescription refill, chatting with a clinician, a virtual or in-person appointment. 3. Focus on Prevention Young people are increasingly facing stress and chronic health issues like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. To help them stay well—instead of treating health problems when they arise—both employers and health systems are shifting to prepayment reimbursement models, which give physicians and other clinicians a fixed amount of money in advance to manage patients. These models, which represents a departure from the fee-for-service model that pays clinicians for the volume of services delivered, emphasize maintaining patients’ health rather than generating revenue when patients become ill. Hence, the focus on vaccinations, screening, age-appropriate education, and holistic health. The money saved then becomes the foundation for upstream investments in research, analytics, and innovation that improve care and keep costs down for patients and health systems. For example, Kaiser Permanente has conducted extensive research on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for teens, including studies on its safety, efficacy, and factors influencing immunization rates. As a result, Permanente physicians regularly emphasize the importance of HPV vaccination, and two-thirds of boys and girls served by our system are vaccinated before age 13. Higher vaccination rates mean fewer cancer cases. In Kaiser Permanente Northern California, pre-cervical cancer rates for those aged 20 to 24 have plummeted a whopping 90% for our members. 4. Listen, Communicate, and Simplify Care Gen Z and Millennials expect instant, mobile-friendly access to personalized information and treatment plans. It’s essential that physicians learn to connect with younger patients both technologically and culturally. Kaiser Permanente clinicians ask teens to complete a survey before each appointment. Our goal is to provide teenagers with an opportunity to share sensitive information without fear of judgment, fostering a more open relationship with their physician, and helping them to focus on these immediate concerns during the visit. Kaiser Permanente also offers clinicians and employees a digital-first mental health communication course. It trains them to give their full attention, observe the patient’s behavior and tone of voice, and confirm with the patient that questions and concerns about their health have been understood as intended, whether the clinical visit or interaction is in person, online, or via phone. Another way to satisfy Millennials’ and Gen Zers’ craving for simplicity is to ease engagement with the healthcare system by addressing the care and insurance coverage divide. All patients want to know that their health insurance will cover what their doctor recommends. Americans are too often caught in the middle of payor-provider conflicts over prior authorization. At Kaiser Permanente, we integrate care and coverage, minimizing burden on patients to reconcile disputes between their physicians and their health plans. In supporting employee health, effective communications strategies depend upon real employee stories, peer recommendations, and informal videos. For that reason, it’s essential that employers use various channels—emails, intranets, social media, mobile apps, in-person presentations, and surveys—to share health benefits information and ensure it resonates with younger employees. Internal social platforms such as Slack or Microsoft Teams are useful for sharing informal updates or employee benefit success stories. For example, employees may share how they lost weight through a workplace walking program, while others might share how they found an employer-supported meditation app helpful for managing anxiety. Organizations often use surveys to better understand preferred benefits and communication preferences as well as chatbots to answer basic employee questions 24/7 on topics such as holiday schedules, job openings, deductibles, and network providers. 5. Expand the Physician Pipeline A continuing projected shortage of physicians from all backgrounds—particularly in primary care—threatens the kind of access young people need to meet their care needs. Moreover, teens and young adults increasingly seek out physicians with whom they can relate. This suggests the need for a diverse physician population made up of a broad cross section of backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Employers outside the health care industry can support the U.S. physician pipeline by joining us in funding educational programs, contributing to scholarship and loan-repayment programs for medical students, and advocating for legislation to increase residency slots. We’re trying to do our part by waiving tuition at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine through 2026 and by offering mentoring programs aimed at encouraging young people to become physicians such as the Hippocrates Circle for middle schoolers from underserved communities in Southern California and Prep Medico, a program connecting college students from the Central Valley to the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine in Northern California. 6. Treat Mental Health as an Essential Part of Overall Health U.S. depression rates among those under 30 remain historically high. That’s the bad news. The good news is young adults—particularly Gen Zers—are much more open about their mental health challenges than older generations and are embracing mental health care. Many openly discuss their experiences on social media, raise awareness about common issues, and seek to build supportive communities. Company leaders can set a positive example by openly discussing mental health and promoting healthy work-life boundaries. They can support young adults’ interest in mental health by launching awareness campaigns, establishing peer-led support groups, providing crisis intervention services, and advocating for mental health education in schools to equip youth with essential knowledge and coping strategies. They can also offer engagement programs that empower employees to tell first-person stories to foster understanding, encourage empathy and break down stigma. In practice, this could mean making fellow employees mental health champions by training them to be a first point of contact for colleagues experiencing mental health struggles. Or organizations may offer 24/7 free professional counseling and honor Mental Health Month in May and World Mental Health Day in October with webinars and presentations on the importance of mental health and wellness. In addition, some companies are partnering with organizations that specifically work to support mental health like This Can Happen, The Jed Foundation and the Child Mind Institute. Kaiser Permanente proactively supports teen and young adult mental health through preventive screenings and by leveraging algorithms to identify those at risk for conditions like depression, anxiety, suicide, and substance use. Our members are five times more likely to be screened for depression and nearly twice as likely to respond to treatment compared to the national average. Research shows that patient screening and safety planning can reduce suicide rates by 25%. Our Youth Mental Health Resource Center offers confidential support for anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and substance abuse. As mental health care becomes normalized, we remain committed to making care accessible through individual or group therapy, and app-based interventions. 7. Make Care More Affordable Two-thirds of young adults say they’ve skipped care because of the cost. As individuals move off their parents’ plan or select coverage through work, affordability can be a major obstacle. There are several ways for government, employers, and insurers to address this problem. They include offering coverage options that are reasonably priced for young people, eliminating obstacles to preventive and timely care that reduces the burden of chronic illness, and enhancing cost transparency so patients are well-informed about potential expenses. To keep care affordable and accessible, employers can implement employer-sponsored benefits like health stipends, health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), wellness programs, and support services that provide transportation to healthcare visits and tools for navigating insurance complexities. They can also join health system leaders in advocating for extending premium tax credits for state health care exchanges, which lower monthly insurance costs for millions, and for the preservation of Medicaid, which covers two in five children and one in six non-elderly adults. Sustaining Medicaid enrollment requires collaboration between states and community organizations to help patients and their families navigate administrative challenges, especially as Medicaid eligibility checks grow more frequent and out-of-pocket costs increase starting in 2028. Preserving Medicaid coverage helps ensure young people’s physical and mental health, financial stability, and long-term success. Reimagining Health Care It is essential for both employers and health care leaders to become a trusted source of truth to young people. As parents, physicians, and executives, we must compassionately welcome them, listen to their concerns, and guide them toward the simplest, most effective path to their healthiest selves. Young people need health care and coverage that works—with no fuss and barriers, just solutions that fit. Let’s build and provide support for a system that truly supports the next generation. Our future depends on it.

How U.S. Employers Can Meet the Healthcare Needs of Younger Workers

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