Workplace Benefits in Healthcare
From Challenges to Opportunities for Impact
Executive Summary
Healthcare employers are balancing rising costs, workforce shortages, uneven benefits participation, and increasing employee financial strain—all while trying to improve retention, engagement, and quality of care.
This brief explores how intentional workplace financial benefits can help healthcare employers better support workers earning low and moderate incomes while strengthening workforce outcomes.
Grounded in Commonwealth’s national survey research and interviews with benefits leaders across large healthcare employers, the brief highlights emerging opportunities around:
- Emergency savings
- Student debt support
- Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
- Financial wellness benefits
- Multi-channel benefits communication
- AI-enabled engagement strategies
The report also examines how healthcare employers can improve benefits utilization across a distributed workforce where many employees lack consistent digital access.
Key Findings
- Rising healthcare costs are reshaping employer benefits strategies
- Healthcare employers are navigating highly segmented, multigenerational workforces
- Cost barriers are reducing benefits participation among lower-income workers
- Emergency savings demand significantly exceeds current employer access
- Student debt remains a major financial challenge for healthcare workers
- Communication gaps—not just benefit availability—limit engagement
- Employers are increasingly exploring financial wellness strategies tied to retention and workforce stability
- Multi-channel and in-person engagement strategies remain critical in healthcare
Why This Research Matters
Healthcare systems are increasingly recognizing that employee financial stress impacts more than personal finances—it can affect retention, productivity, workforce stability, and even quality of care.
This research helps healthcare employers better understand how intentional workplace financial benefits can support both employee financial stability and organizational outcomes.
Our Methodology
This brief draws on multiple sources of research conducted through Commonwealth’s Benefits for the Future initiative, made possible by the philanthropic support of JPMorganChase.
The findings are grounded in Commonwealth’s 2025 national survey of workers earning low and moderate incomes, including analysis specific to healthcare workers. The research also incorporates qualitative interviews conducted in Summer 2025 with human resources and benefits leaders from 10 large healthcare employers, each representing organizations with more than 20,000 employees.
Together, these perspectives provide insight into both the financial realities healthcare workers are navigating and the operational challenges employers face when designing and communicating workplace benefits.
Questions This Report Answers
- How are healthcare employers rethinking workplace benefits?
- What financial challenges are healthcare workers facing?
- Which workplace financial benefits are gaining traction?
- Why are emergency savings and student debt benefits emerging priorities?
- How can healthcare employers improve benefits communication and engagement?
- What strategies can better support distributed healthcare workforces?
Download the full report to explore how healthcare employers can strengthen workforce financial stability through more intentional workplace benefits design and communication strategies.
