Building a World of Accessible, Affordable Healthcare For All Women

BY Katie Chambers | March 06, 2025

Women’s health, once overlooked, is now receiving the attention it urgently needs. In response to growing demand, the Women's Health Coalition for Digital Solutions was formed to leverage technology and innovation, and to improve the accessibility and affordability of women’s care by working with employers to improve corporate benefits and workplace support.

During a From Day One webinar, experts from the coalition and women’s health advocates discussed resources and solutions to ensure every woman has access to high-quality care tailored to her specific needs, focusing on virtual behavioral health, digital health solutions for women and families, personalized menopause care, 24/7 fertility and pregnancy support, and best practices to support women’s health and improve overall well-being.

The Women’s Health Coalition for Digital Solutions was formed two years ago by partner organizations including: Ovia (pregnancy), Conceive (fertility), 30 Madison (reproduction), Evernow (menopause), Talkspace (mental health), FitOn (exercise), and Nutrium (nutrition). “All of these companies came together with a goal of creating access and creating affordability to close the gaps in women's health care,” said Natalie Cummins, chief business officer at online therapy tool, Talkspace.

Among those gaps is the growing need for healthcare for women past reproductive age, as employees in their 40’s and 50’s become one of the largest demographics in the workforce. “The fastest growing benefit that [workplaces are] offering to employees right now is this menopause and perimenopause benefit. And they’re looking for something beyond just a conversation with a general practitioner–they’re looking for very deep clinical expertise that can continuously be high touch for this journey, because it really is a decades-long process,” said Dr. Alicia Jackson, CEO & founder of Evernow, which offers online menopause treatment. 

The cognitive symptoms of perimenopause can start as early as someone’s late 30’s or early 40’s, Jackson says, which can impact their work performance. “Their most severe symptoms are things like inability to focus, brain fog, and sleeplessness, which leads to fatigue and compound brain fog,” Jackson said. “The workplace dynamic gets pretty complicated, because it either looks like they’re not capable or they’re lacking engagement, when the real thing is that they’re going through this huge physiological change without any form of support.”

Because of the stigma attached to menopause and aging, women have been afraid to speak about it, especially when facing the glass ceiling at work. Providing women with the tools they need to navigate this hormonal transition, which often happens right as they hit the peak of their leadership years at work, can support their career longevity.

Providing Mental Health Support

Particularly post-pandemic, mental health benefits are also becoming a popular option. “This is more than just a women’s issue,” adds moderator Tricia Schmidt, SVP, senior healthcare strategist at Alliant. “It’s more of a family issue,” she said.

And indeed, mental health support is essential across all genders, ages, and cultural demographics. Cummins highlights five key mental health trends to consider when planning benefits.

First, emotional burnout and the mental health toll of caring for a family are significant challenges, especially for women. Second, hormone fluctuations can have a major impact on mental health, particularly in relation to conception, pregnancy, and menopause.

Third, there has been a huge increase in anxiety and depression, which are the top two concerns clients seek help for on Talkspace. Fourth, there is growing acceptance of women speaking publicly about trauma and PTSD. Finally, digital options now provide convenient, 24/7 access to mental health support.

Panelists spoke about "Building a World of Accessible, Affordable Healthcare For All Women," during the webinar moderated by Tricia Schmidt of Alliant (photo by From Day One)

For all benefits, but especially those related to mental health, immediate access is crucial. “To be able to send a text message to my therapist when I can’t sleep at two in the morning is great because. There are studies that show that [opportunity to get something off my chest] relieves anxiety and probably will put me to sleep, even without a response at the moment,” Cummins said. 

Talkspace has 6,000 providers across all 50 states and matches a patient with a provider within 24 hours of initial intake. The digital benefits are always there but need to stay top of mind for patients to use them. Cummins says it all comes down to consistent communication and awareness. “We can’t just stop at one-time awareness or a one-time message. It needs to be a true campaign around women’s health and all the aspects around a women’s life cycle,” Cummins said.

Incorporating Inclusive Reproductive Healthcare for Employees

Given the volatile political landscape in the United States, reproductive healthcare is top of mind for many employees. “What we hear from our patients is widespread uncertainty: uncertainty around access to critical services, and also uncertainty around how to access accurate information,” said Rajani Rao, chief business officer at Nurx, an online platform offering birth control, skincare products, weight management solutions, and more.

Nurx is listening to both clinical experts and patients through surveys and direct conversations to understand how best to support them. “27% of women are not confident that their right to use contraception is secure. More than half of women surveyed are concerned about a national abortion ban, and 43% of women are concerned about changes in the state-level abortion restrictions. Just shy of 50% are concerned about more limited access to their [preferred] choice of contraceptive care, and 43% are concerned about changes to insurance coverage for contraception,” Rao said. “That, for us, is additional fuel for how we drive access.”

Given the highly localized nature of some of the restrictions, telehealth may become increasingly critical in providing access to reproductive care. “For HR, when you have to manage a program across 50 states with different mandates and different laws, having a strong provider that can provide these services digitally helps you make sure that your employees have coverage,” Schmidt said.

Increased Accessibility For All

Digital solutions have more expansive options for follow-ups, allowing patients access to doctors beyond the standard once-per-year consultation that may last only a few minutes. “[Evernow does] a full consultation, but then we also have unlimited care follow up, similar to Talkspace, where you can text your doctor anytime you could do a video visit,” Jackson said. Patients have the freedom to get their questions answered as they pop up any time along their healthcare journey.  

Cummins emphasizes the importance of having a strong navigation tool so employees can easily access all the benefits on offer. “When we have healthy minds, we have healthier bodies, we’re more present, we’re less absent, we’re more satisfied,” Cummins said, so providing a benefits navigation tool will impact all areas of business. 

In terms of measuring ROI, Cummins points to “absenteeism, presenteeism, work satisfaction, retention, and turnover” as stats to measure in relation to the implementation of a new benefits program. Ultimately, providing comprehensive health benefits for women is a way of ensuring economic parity. “In a year, women will have $15 billion more out-of-pocket expenses in the U.S. compared to their male colleagues,” Cummins said. “And so providing these digital solutions, it’s a really important gateway for accessibility and affordability for support.”

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Talkspace, for sponsoring this webinar. 

Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.

(Photo by gorodenkoff/iStock)

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Carrie Snider January 03, 2025
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