Why is India Inc paying for employee therapy and gym memberships? Plum report reveals a ₹480 advantage

Perks like mental health support, telehealth consultations, and gym memberships at work are no longer just about building a feel-good corporate culture — according to new industry data, it is a calculated financial strategy that yields a direct return on investment (ROI) by lowering long-term insurance costs.

There is a clear and measurable financial advantage for companies that invest in proactive workforce health, according to a report by Plum, an employee health benefits platform.

Math behind preventive healthcare

Plum’s Standard of Employee Benefits 2026 report, which analysed data from over 15,000 policies across one million lives over a four-year period, highlighted that the traditional approach to corporate health—waiting for an employee to fall ill and claim insurance—is actively shifting.

Companies investing in preventive healthcare, such as telehealth, health checkups, and early screening, recorded a 13% lower incidence of chronic disease claims when measured against a matched-pair comparison of otherwise similar companies without these benefits.

For businesses, that gap is worth close to ₹480 per employee in premium savings.

This financial advantage is not a one-off event; the report found that this is “expected to compound at close to 6% a year over the next three years” as the positive effects of preventive care build up within the workforce.

Moving beyond the insurance checklist

Four years ago, a benefits plan combining comprehensive insurance with deep healthcare support was considered the exception. However, the report suggested that the landscape has transformed now.

The share of employers offering comprehensive health benefits—combining deep insurance with real preventive healthcare—has surged from 5% to 23%, the Plum report found.

This means nearly one in four companies is now providing a much broader safety net.

● Companies offering sum insured > ₹5,00,000 has increased 53%

● Companies offering a maternity limit > ₹75,000 has increased 155%

● Companies adding term life and personal accident has increased 179%

● The median number of healthcare benefits offered has increased from 1 to 3

● Healthcare’s share of total benefits spend has grown 4x

“For years, the conversation around employee benefits in India began and ended with insurance,” said Abhishek Poddar, Co-founder and CEO of Plum. “That’s no longer where the best companies stop. What has changed is that employers are beginning to think about healthcare before a claim happens, not only protection when it does. That is a fundamental shift — from thinking of benefits as a checklist item to actually proactively building great health outcomes.”

This rapid acceleration means that the median benefits plan today roughly matches 2024’s top-quartile plan on insurance quality and actively beats it on healthcare benefits.

The report also noted the rise of the “2% Club”—companies spending roughly 2% of payroll on health benefits. Two years ago, these companies were in the top two per cent; today, they represent roughly the top decile.

Driving tangible health outcomes

By footing the bill for comprehensive care, employers are introducing a massive segment of the workforce to preventive health for the first time.

The data revealed that 61% of employees used a health checkup benefit, 74% used mental health support, and 31% used gym memberships for the first time in their lives—entirely because their company made them available.

This corporate investment is acting as a catalyst for better health, the report said.

Among employees who booked repeat health checkups, 70% saw a clinically significant improvement in biomarkers across nutrition, metabolic health, and cardiovascular health.

The report found that dependents were also utilising these proactive benefits alongside employees, accounting for 37% of doctor consultations, 38% of mental health usage, and 24% of OPD claims.

Rising utilisation and Jevon’s paradox

As tech platforms make it easier to access these perks, companies will face a new phenomenon regarding their healthcare budgets, the Plum report highlighted.

“The next big challenge for companies is getting people to use the benefits they already have, for it to change an outcome,” noted Saurabh Arora, Co-founder and CTO of Plum. “As tech improves the experience of using benefits, we will witness Jevon’s Paradox in employee healthcare — we predict healthcare costs to go up as companies see exponentially higher utilisation rates.”

Ultimately, the report said, thoughtful investment in a company’s workforce acts as a force multiplier for millions of Indians. Productivity, retention, and cost savings all naturally follow from getting health benefits right, not the other way around.

While health insurance currently reaches under 40% of India—with premiums making up just 0.36% of the GDP, a fraction of markets like the US and South Korea—India’s group health coverage is already expanding rapidly at 23% a year.

The data clearly showed that progressive employers driving private coverage forward are the ones setting the new standard for India Inc.