As small businesses navigate an uncertain economic environment, many are still looking to expand or maintain their health benefit offerings, according to a new report from Chase.

The report surveyed 563 small business owners in June for the annual midyear check-in on their business and found that 80% currently offer health coverage for their employees, with half of those firms planning to either expand or maintain their health plans in the coming year.

Among the remaining businesses that said they planned to cut back or eliminate benefits, more than half (55%) cited economic uncertainty as the main reason, according to the report.

Molly Chidester, an executive director at Morgan Health and part of the organization’s Health Care Innovation team, told Fierce Healthcare that the businesses considering new benefits are putting a focus on the quality of the programs they have in place.

She added that these benefits are a critical tool to recruit and retain the caliber of employees that they want, and, for those workers, coverage is generally a “non-negotiable” expectation.

“I think a lot of them are just trying to be able to offer what they see as an essential benefit … and that is core to the values of their company for so many of these business owners,” Chidester said.

For the team at Morgan Health, which is the healthcare-focused arm at JPMorgan Chase, a key goal is driving greater awareness of the options available to these businesses, especially as they want ways to offer high-quality benefits packages.

Chidester said that’s one of the reasons it chose to invest in Venteur, a company that supports individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs), which are gaining steam with some employers. 

As most firms tend to simply make a choice between the products offered by a broker, the potential value they may get from an ICHRA program may not be conveyed clearly. Morgan Health can also lean on other segments within the bank to reach these organizations, she said.

Chase for Business banks about 7 million small businesses nationwide, spurring it to work closely with Morgan Health colleagues to support these firms, she said.

“That is a lot of the way that we’re thinking about the work that we do with Chase for Business, and just educating the businesses on these new models that are out there in the market,” she said.

Chidester said small firms may also lack formal human resources departments or benefits leaders, meaning that the CEO or chief financial officer are tasked with taking the lead on selecting what’s offered to employees. And they often need support in understanding the broader world of offerings that are out there.

“I think it’s difficult for these business leaders to make these decisions,” she said.

In addition to the takeaways around coverage for small businesses, the study also found that smaller companies in the healthcare space are accelerating the growth of their businesses. More than half of the surveyed firms in health and medical services said they plan to expand their operations.

The survey also found that these companies are increasingly leaning on artificial intelligence. More than half of health and medical services businesses said in the coming year they’re actively looking into new ways to use AI or expanding existing programs. Other sectors, meanwhile, are further behind the curve, according to the survey.