Employers can retain the best by supporting living donation
It’s no secret that strong employee retention provides numerous benefits, from reduced costs and improved company culture to a better customer experience and higher revenue. While there are many strategies to drive employee retention, more benefits managers are seeing the value of supporting healthcare benefits that provide real solutions to serious illnesses such as chronic kidney disease.
Currently, one in seven Americans has CKD, which may lead to kidney failure that requires dialysis or, better yet, a kidney transplant. But, the average wait time for a kidney is three to five years, and an astonishing 60% of patients will die waiting for this lifesaving gift to become available. Increasingly, employees and their families are seeing that this is not a real solution.
While a living donor can reduce this wait and provide a better medical outcome, there are multiple barriers to making living donation more accessible to all. Benefits managers who help break down these barriers not only save lives but also demonstrate to their employees that they care.
“Good workers are at a premium,” says Tom Riley, president of Rejuvenate Kidney Transplant Solutions. “Unless you’re an employer offering something that captures people’s imagination, you’re going to be at the losing end of a competitive battle with other employers.”
There are several ways benefits managers can support living donation both for living donors and those in need of a lifesaving transplant. One of the first and most important steps is to ensure privacy. “Benefits managers need to make clear that the company wants to support the best care for its employees while protecting the privacy of their medical information,” says Riley. “Employees need to know the company supports medical innovation because it cares. Period. No hidden motives.”
When it comes to living donation, it’s important to make sure employees understand your company is innovative and supports new solutions, and perhaps most importantly, that they know you’re committed to following through on your promises.
“To retain good employees and attract the best and the brightest, you can’t just talk the talk; You must walk the walk,” notes Riley.
To do this, some companies provide funds to cover employee expenses such as meals, hotel rooms, and travel to and from medical procedures. Others may cover lost wages during recovery from surgery.
“Why would an employer not pay for a plane ticket that could save thirty months of dialysis at $20,000 per month and result in their employee living a longer (10 years, on average) and healthier life?” asks Riley.
New solutions are helping benefits managers implement new approaches that directly alleviate kidney failure. Rejuvenate Kidney Transplant Solutions exists to help overcome barriers to transplantation, saving lives and dollars. Its knowledge of the system has led to thousands of kidney transplants.
Rejuvenate helps benefits managers educate and advocate for their employees. Using a hands-on approach, the Rejuvenate team works with a patient’s physicians, helps identify the best transplant center, expedites referrals and evaluations, and aids in the search for living donors.
Rejuvenate also uses its Nobel Prize-winning data-driven process to identify kidney failure patients earlier and get them transplanted faster, resulting in significant cost savings for employers and a better quality of life for their employees.
“Whether you’re in early-stage chronic kidney disease or kidney failure, this disease can, and eventually will, take over your life,” says Riley. “To have an employer who is sensitive to that – creating policies that help workers overcome barriers to donation and transplantation – is everything in the current world in which we live.”