Swapnil Prabha Helps Craft Programs that Employees Love

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In many ways, Swapnil Prabha was well positioned to tackle the role to build digital wellness solutions at Fortune 500 insurance company Unum. The insurance professional had experience at large organizations like Progressive and smaller shops like Pilgrim Insurance in pricing and product development roles. She also dedicated seven years to McKinsey’s insurance practice, where she specialized in digital services and employee benefits and claims. Her MBA from MIT certainly didn’t hurt her cause either.

But Prabha admits that even with all that preparation, she’s learned more in four and a half years at Unum than she ever imagined possible. In that time, the VP launched the Unum Care Hub, a product that she believes embodies the shared vision of Unum and wellness partners Meru Health and Cariloop. According to Prabha, this product provides the best options for businesses to provide more holistic disability and leave offerings to their employees, encompassing mental health, caregiving for everyone from infants to elderly family members, and a wide range of solutions for people in all life stages.

The vital differentiating factor at Unum is that, unlike what Prabha has seen as the norm in the industry, Unum’s offerings are designed to be utilized by as many employees as possible. They do this by reducing the friction for individuals to take advantage of what their employers are already investing in.

“What you see in the industry, traditionally, is that employee assistance programs (EAPs) are often very cheap,” she explains. “It’s something solution providers who prioritize driving utilization have to constantly contend with. With many traditional EAPs, the incentive alignment has broken down. The reason EAPs can be so cheap is because they’re often not counting on being utilized as much. They may not have a need to staff at higher levels, and, thus, their cost structure can be very different.”

Prabha doesn’t mean to malign any of the players in the space. It’s not an inherently cynical model, but like so many things in the US healthcare system, it’s complicated, misaligned, and needs to evolve. That’s where Unum comes in.

“I’m grateful that people’s expectations are changing in terms of what they want from their employers.”

Swapnil Prabha

Through mental health partner Meru Health, Unum guarantees therapist appointments within three business days. Does that mean a higher cost relative to traditional EAPs? Of course, but it also means that employees at strained and difficult moments of their lives will ultimately get the care they need. Prabha is finding new and better ways to align doing the right thing with a viable business model.

“We have found a way to ensure that the right people are paying for care,” the VP says. “Employers are paying for it, not individuals. We’re removing barriers that will keep employees from utilizing a solution, like cost and ease of use. And we believe employers understand the value that they are providing here. Employees will feel more engaged, healthy, empowered, and present at work. In this case, the right thing to do is also the right business decision.”

But that doesn’t mean it was easy. Prior to building the Unum Care Hub, Prabha had never built a digital wellness product from scratch. Working through the entire value chain—spanning strategy, product design, marketing, sales, and implementation—included a lot of firsts, even for someone with her experience. Prabha learned the value of creating a minimum viable product, testing it, and building it out with the right selection of vendor partners. Over fifteen years, the VP says this role has been her biggest learning challenge, but she’s thrilled by the impact.

When she was devising Unum Care Hub, Prabha wanted employees to access supportive solutions within the Unum ecosystem while planning for or taking a leave. Prabha says it’s imperative for their organization to identify root causes of issues so they can present “just in time” offerings for individuals who may be scared and facing an unknown future. The Unum Care Hub offers additional offerings that may make employees’ time away healthier, aid a faster recovery, or ensure that unforeseen burdens have immediately accessible solutions.

The VP lauds Unum’s ventures team, whose mandate is to source the most innovative and mission-aligned partners in digital healthcare to provide the best care possible. When the Unum Care Hub journey began in 2021, the organization consulted with dozens of potential partners, from the biggest names in the business to small startups. Unum ultimately tapped Meru Health and Cariloop for partnership.

“Meru Health ended up as our provider of choice for multiple reasons,” Prabha explains. “At the time, they were one of the only organizations that had published peer-reviewed studies on impact.”

Cariloop was selected for its decade plus of caregiving expertise. Prabha says she was impressed with Cariloop’s “over-pouring” in terms approach to coaching and hands-on member interaction, as well as its ability to then digitize and scale where appropriate.

Prabha says the Unum Care Hub reflects a postpandemic, redefined workplace. The way we all work has changed drastically, especially when it comes to willingness to talk about issues like mental health and challenges outside of our careers.

“I’m grateful that people’s expectations are changing in terms of what they want from their employers,” Prabha says. “In addition to the pandemic, the changing employee demographics are responsible for normalizing topics like mental health in the workplace. I for one am grateful, as that increasing demand is what motivated the inception of the Unum Care Hub.”

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