Employers offer mental health benefits, but large gaps remain

The 2025 EBRI Employer Mental Health Survey surveyed about 400 employers of 500+ employees on the mental health benefits being offered, views of employer responsibility regarding worker health, and perceived challenges and opportunities regarding worker engagement.

The findings:

• MH/SUD coverage: It found that mental health coverage was nearly universal among large employers, with 97% of surveyed plans offering mental health services. But only 67% covered substance use disorder (SUD) treatment.
• Additional supports: Beyond traditional medical coverage, a number of employers were also providing employee assistance programs (EAPs) (72%) and wellness programs (54%), as well as more novel offerings, including financial therapists (62%) and mindfulness apps (74%).
• Tracking employee use and satisfaction: Just 22% of employers surveyed tracked employee utilization data. A majority were tracking and measuring employee satisfaction with regard to ease of getting a behavioral health care appointment and quality of care received, with a smaller number tracking and measuring employee satisfaction with out-of-pocket costs for mental health care.
• Network adequacy: Fewer than half of employers collected or received information on network adequacy measures like provider-to-enrollee ratios, geographic standards, appointment wait times, or out-of-network use. Employers were collecting some data from their health plans regarding practices to promote access to quality mental health care, including access to providers, telehealth, integration with primary care, crisis support services, and EAPs.
• Responsibility for mental health care: Fewer than 10% of employers believe they should be responsible for ensuring fair prices and quality of mental health care; they believe federal or state governments and insurance companies should be. But most believe they can improve mental health care access and quality, even without government intervention.
• Enhancing benefits: 85% of employers surveyed said they were interested in enhancing their mental health benefits, but they reported challenges encouraging their employees to engage with mental health care, including lack of awareness of available benefits, stigma, confidentiality concerns, cultural barriers, and limited resources or budget. A majority reported considering adding clinical services to their benefits, like urgent care for psychiatry, additional mental health services, and additional SUD services.

Read more: Employers can do more to track the efficacy of mental health benefits, study says; Numbers Game