Caregiving is a health benefit, not just a talent benefit

Many employees are the so-called “sandwich generation”—those who are responsible for taking care of children as well as aging parents or relatives. Many of these caregivers are pulled between two worlds without the support to effectively manage either. The result is a workforce at risk for burnout, mental health issues, and high stress.

Many employers know that caregiving is a growing challenge for their workforce. But what they may not realize is that caregiving isn’t just a talent issue. It’s also a health issue. And the costs are showing up in their claims data.

When caregiving responsibilities go unsupported, employees don’t just struggle at work. They delay care, skip preventive appointments, and wait until a crisis hits to seek help. That delay drives up costs in the highest-spend categories: behavioral health, chronic conditions, neurodivergence, and even cancer care.

The truth is, unless your organization is actively supporting the caregivers in your workforce, you’re leaving one of your biggest cost levers untouched.

Caregiving impacts health—and health impacts cost

Caregivers are managing far more than their job. They’re coordinating treatment plans, researching diagnoses, sitting in emergency rooms, managing meltdowns, fighting insurance denials, and skipping their own checkups to do it. This invisible labor takes a measurable toll. According to the CDC, over half of caregivers report frequent mental distress, 61% experience depression, and 41% suffer from persistent physical symptoms like back pain or sleeplessness—rates dramatically higher than those of non-caregivers.

And it leads directly to higher healthcare spending across the board. U.S. healthcare costs reached $4.9 trillion in 2023, rising 7.5% year over year—outpacing GDP growth and driven in large part by chronic conditions, mental health needs, and late-stage interventions. Employers, in particular, feel the impact: according to the Family Caregiver Alliance, caregiving-related absenteeism and health neglect result in an estimated $13.4 billion in added healthcare costs annually. When caregivers delay preventive care or skip it altogether because they’re too busy managing someone else’s, they’re more likely to require urgent, complex, and costly interventions down the line.

But there’s good news: when caregivers get support, their health behavior improves. Studies on caregiver support programs show that when caregivers have help navigating the system, healthcare utilization drops. According to the The MetLife Study of Working Caregivers and Employer Health Care Costs, total healthcare costs decreased by 11% per patient per year thanks to reductions in hospitalizations, emergency visits, and skilled nursing use. And one of Cleo’s own customers, a leading biotech company, found that employees using Cleo were 40% more likely to be compliant with their preventive care than those who weren’t—demonstrating the power of early intervention and ongoing support. Read the case study →

You can’t reduce costs if you ignore caregivers

Most employers are investing in mental health tools, chronic condition programs, and virtual care platforms. But if they’re not designed to meet caregivers where they are, they won’t get used.

That’s why caregiving support is a healthcare strategy. By proactively supporting the people who are holding others’ health together, you create ripple effects across your population: better access, earlier care, fewer complications, and smarter utilization.

Supporting caregivers might start as a talent play—but when done right, it transforms your healthcare ROI.