WINDSOR, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA), announced today a new collaboration with Wellthy, a health care concierge service focused on helping families care for loved ones with complex, chronic or ongoing care needs (e.g., a parent with dementia, child with autism, spouse with Parkinson’s disease). Through its Voya Cares® program, which helps people with special needs and their caregivers plan for a secure financial future, Voya will team up with Wellthy to provide support and resources to help working caregivers save time, money and stress. Voya’s Retirement and Employee Benefits businesses will offer Wellthy’s services to its current and prospective workplace clients as an added benefit they can provide to their employees.
“One in five Americans — approximately 66 million people — are caregivers in the U.S.2 Through our Voya Cares program, we have started to shine a light on the unique issues that people with special needs and disabilities, including their caregivers, face every day,” said Heather Lavallee, president of Tax-Exempt Markets for Voya’s Retirement business.
“Our research through Voya Cares shows that many employees who serve as caregivers are struggling to balance their responsibilities in the workplace and at home — by teaming up with Wellthy, we can help employers and employees address this pressing need. Additionally, this collaboration with Wellthy is a natural extension of Voya Cares and our broader mission to help all Americans plan, invest and protect their savings so they can retire better,” added Lavallee.
How Wellthy Works
For an employee with an aging parent, child with a disability, or his or her own complex condition, managing care can become a second, full-time job. Wellthy assists families by matching them with a dedicated Care Coordinator who can help minimize the logistical and administrative responsibilities often experienced by caregivers. These Care Coordinators, many of whom are social workers by background, are the skilled and knowledgeable workforce that helps families manage and navigate care. Wellthy Care Coordinators guide families through a care plan, advocate for loved ones and tackle tricky tasks across medical, in-home, financial, legal, housing, and social and emotional needs. For example, they help find medical providers, schedule appointments, contest medical bills and claims, find the right in-home aide, arrange a move to a residential care facility and much more.
Through the Voya Cares program, Wellthy’s services will be offered to Voya’s Retirement and Employee Benefits workplace clients as an additional benefit they can provide to their employees for a fee. The fee for Wellthy’s services will be paid for by the employer at a preferred price negotiated by Voya. If offered as an employer-paid benefit, there will be no cost for caregiving employees accessing Wellthy’s services. Voya currently offers Wellthy’s services free of charge to its nearly 6,000 Voya employees. Voya is also considering expanding Wellthy’s offering to Voya Investment Management clients in the future.
Silent Caregivers Crisis
“Wellthy believes there is a silent, massive caregiving crisis impacting families, communities, companies and our country,” said Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, co-founder and CEO of Wellthy. “We’re excited about this opportunity to collaborate with Voya, which is an organization committed to supporting the financial wellness of all Americans. Together, I believe we can make a meaningful difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of families.”
According to a new caregivers study sponsored by Voya Cares1, which surveyed caregiving employees and benefits decision makers, employers tend to underestimate the direct and indirect costs of caregiving and the potential impact caregiving has on their employees’ productivity at work. Key findings include:
- Nearly one-in-five caregivers (17%) are afraid to disclose their situation to their employer and (22%) have quit their job due to caregiving responsibilities.
- 81% of caregivers report experiencing added stress or anxiety at work as a result of their caregiving responsibilities.
- 83% of caregivers have taken time off work to provide care — double the amount of days taken off by their non-caregiving colleagues.
- 90% of caregiver employees feel that they lack company support in some areas.
“Increasingly, we find more and more clients, across all the markets we serve, are looking for affordable solutions to help their employees address this unmet caregiving challenge — especially when you consider the costs of caregiving to companies is approximately $38 billion per year, according to industry research3,” said Lavallee. “Through this collaboration with Wellthy, our clients will be able to differentiate their benefits offering to help attract and retain top talent; maximize employee productivity and engagement; address employees’ financial wellness needs; and create a supportive and inclusive workplace.”
“Through our Voya Cares program, we’ve discovered that people with special needs and their caregivers make up a vast and largely underserved market,” said Jessica Tuman, vice president, Voya Cares Center of Excellence. “By teaming up with Wellthy, we’re excited to bring more tangible, holistic solutions that help lift the financial and emotional stress that caregivers often face, so they can focus on preparing for a secure financial future.”
To help both employers and employees learn more about the caregiving crisis and its impact, educational resources are made available through the Voya Cares resource center, which provides further information and support for those with disabilities and special needs, as well as their caregivers.
As an industry leader and advocate for greater retirement readiness, Voya Financial is committed to delivering on its vision to be America’s Retirement Company®. Voya’s goal is to make a secure financial future possible for everyone — one person, one family, one institution at a time.
1) Findings of an online survey of 510 HR Decision Makers respondents and an online survey of 1,815 employee respondents, both conducted by Voya Financial in partnership with Lieberman Research Worldwide (LRW) during the period of Dec. 2, 2018 – Jan. 14, 2019.
2) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Caregiver Resources & Long-Term Care, 2017.
3) The Caring Company, Harvard Business School report, January 2019.
About Voya Financial®
Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA), helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings — to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial needs of approximately 13.8 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $8.5 billion in revenue in 2018. The company had $547 billion in total assets under management and administration as of March 31, 2019. With a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible — one person, one family, one institution at a time — Voya’s vision is to be America’s Retirement Company®. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to Work® Institute, Voya is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has been recognized as one of the 2019 World’s Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute; as a member of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; and as a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index by Disability:IN. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya.
About Voya Cares®
As an extension of Voya's vision and mission to help all Americans have the quality of life they seek in retirement, the Voya Cares program is committed to being a leader in making a positive difference in the lives of individuals with special needs and disabilities — as well as their families, caregivers and other providers — by offering a depth of resources focused on education, planning and solutions. Visit voyacares.com to learn more.
About Wellthy
Wellthy is a modern healthcare concierge service. Wellthy uses dedicated Care Coordinators and a seamless technology platform to project manage healthcare for families with complex, chronic, and ongoing care needs. Wellthy takes the pain out of healthcare — scheduling appointments, finding the right specialists, researching treatment options, managing insurance, organizing records, communicating with family members and much more. Wellthy adds a layer of much-needed customer service to the health system — giving families help, hope and peace of mind. Get the care you and your loved ones deserve. With a Wellthy Care Coordinator, you'll always have someone on your side. Find out more: www.wellthy.com. Follow Wellthy on LinkedIn and Twitter @WeAreWellthy.
