A county's EAP and mental-health benefit look rich in the plan documents, but the network has no local counselors and wait times run months. What should HR treat as the benefit-strategy gap?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A library card for a library that is two counties away is not a library. Mental-health coverage on paper with no local counselor is the same trick. Access is the benefit; the brochure is just the cover.
Full Explanation
Health and welfare value includes network adequacy, wait times, and usable modalities, not only the existence of a line in the summary plan description. An EAP or behavioral panel that cannot be reached locally is a strategy failure even if the design looks generous in print. Rebuilding access—telehealth, panel expansion, and service-level standards—is the evaluation move; unused claims often measure inaccessibility, not absence of need. Brochures, dropping coverage, or shifting ordinary mental-health care into workers' compensation do not close the gap.