by Leslie Small
With some states starting to relax shelter-in-place orders meant
to slow the spread of COVID-19, health insurance companies are among the many
businesses deciding when and how to transition some employees back to the
office. However, companies that shared their plans point out that how their
workplaces look and operate won't be the same as before.
Mary Anne Jones, chief financial officer and vice president of
operations at Priority Health, says it’s become apparent that "we're going
to have new normals that are going to extend out into the longer term."
For example, "we likely will have a lot more employees working from home
as part of their normal work than we did before," she says.
The Michigan-based insurer moved almost all of its 1,500
employees to remote-work status as the novel coronavirus sparked mass shutdowns
throughout the country. Now, as Michigan is beginning to allow some businesses
to open back up, Priority Health is "gearing up our plan for a very
measured and moderate return to the workplace," Jones says. The insurer
left it up to managers and their teams to determine who would benefit most from
working from the office, according to Jones.
When its own facilities reopen, Humana Inc. "will have
social distancing measures in place, such as new desk configurations and
revised policies on elevator and stairwell use," a spokesperson tells AIS
Health in a statement. And, while approximately 40% of the insurer's employees worked
from home before the COVID-19 crisis, "we're also considering expanding
work-at-home options, given the success we're having right now with so many of
our employees who have shifted to working at home."
Blue Shield of California appears to be rethinking its post-crisis
approach to remote work. "The degree of 'teleworking' now underway is
proving and dispelling myths about productivity and driving companies to adopt
a truly remote and digitized workforce. As we go forward, remote work could
stick in some industries but which jobs and who is eligible for these kinds of
ongoing arrangements should be re-examined," Mary O'Hara, chief human
resources officer at the insurer, wrote in an internal document shared with AIS
Health.
From
Health Plan Weekly
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