René Y. Quashie, a Senior Counsel in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, and the firm’s Telehealth practice were featured in Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, in “Telehealth Increasingly Used for Mental Health Care.” The article discusses how the findings of Epstein Becker Green’s “50-State Survey of Telemental/Telebehavioral Health (2016),” a detailed analysis of the laws, regulations, and regulatory policies impacting telemental health in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, relate to the health care benefits employers provide to their workers.
Following is an excerpt:
Mental and physical health problems are often related, and many studies show that stress is the top workforce risk, leading to lots of chronic health conditions in the workplace, Rene Y. Quashie, senior counsel in the health-care and life sciences practice of Epstein Becker Green in Washington, told Bloomberg BNA May 17.
Furthermore, while mental health issues increase employer health-care costs and absenteeism, and decrease employee productivity, only a small segment of employers have identified mental health as a top priority in their benefits program, Quashie said.
This could be due to cultural stigma that still surrounds mental health issues, in addition to workplace productivity disruptions that can occur when employees need treatment, Quashie said.