Google's bet on an AI startup to streamline employee benefits quickly devolved into a privacy firestorm Wednesday. The company has told employees that they must hand over their personal data to healthcare startup Nayya in order to access health benefits, a move that Nayya's CEO said is unusual among its partners.
Google's initial data sharing requirements came from Big Tech giants, not startups, Nayya CEO Sina Chehrazi told Business Insider. Almost every other company Nayya works with allows employees to opt-in to share different parts of their personal data as needed, he said.
“We've never really seen anything like this before. Usually you just go in and get as much help as you need,” he said.
Founded in 2020, New York-based Nayya has raised more than $130 million for software that supports employee health and financial well-being. Its backers include top HR technology companies such as Workday and ADP.
Business Insider reported Wednesday that Google told U.S.-based employees this month that they needed to give startup Nayya access to their personal data in order to take advantage of the health benefits.
The announcement drew criticism from employees concerned about being forced to share personal health data with third-party companies. Google's initial guidance suggested that workers who declined would not receive any health benefits.
Google updated its policy following Wednesday's BI article, saying employees can choose not to share their data with Nayya without affecting their enrollment in benefits. The company told BI in this article that employees can also opt-in not to use Nayya if they don't want their data shared.
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As AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT catch on like wildfire, employees are increasingly sharing sensitive company information with technology, often without realizing it. At the same time, employers, including Big Tech companies such as Meta, Microsoft, and Google, are encouraging employees to use AI in their daily work, but may also mandate its use at the expense of expanding data collection.
“The future of data is consent. We are interested in helping people who ask for help, and only helping them in the way they want to receive that help,” Cheraj said.
AI-powered health benefits
Technology companies have been working for years to improve navigation of employee benefits.
Nayya, like many of its competitors, uses AI to tailor benefits recommendations. Employees can provide Nayya with information about their health and lifestyle, and the startup can use that data to guide employees to the benefits they already have. The technology also tracks an employee's use of existing benefits, such as how much their deductible has been met.
Nayya says it currently provides benefits navigation technology to more than 1,000 employers, from law firm Goodwin Procter to health system Bon Secours Mercy Health. Cheraj said most of Naya's contracts are with the employer's system of record, the benefits management software that the employer already uses, such as Workday or ADP.
Nayya has direct contracts with some employers. Google uses Workday to manage administrative tasks such as payroll, but it uses another platform called Benefitfocus to manage employee benefits, Cheraj said. To connect to Benefitfocus, Nayya contracts directly with Google.
Nayya CEO Sina Chehrazi told BI that Google contracted directly with Nayya this year to help employees decide which benefits they should opt into during open enrollment. The integration leverages Nayya's benefits decision support platform rather than the startup's agent AI.
Cheraj said Nayya's tools will be further rolled out to Google employees in the coming months, including technology that lets employees save money by filling out and submitting reimbursement forms in advance.
Naya says this will help save money, such as directing employees to fully covered medical services to avoid surprise bills. The employer's return on investment is less direct. In theory, employees who are better able to take advantage of their health benefits will be healthier on average and incur fewer significant costs to their employers. Cheraj said that in the long run, Naya can help employers cut unnecessary services by showing them what benefits they are paying for benefits that their employees don't use.
Health benefits navigation has been a tough market up until now. Many of the health benefits navigators are companies that were once publicly traded, like Castlight Health, but went private after struggling in the public markets, or 10-year-old startups like Included Health.
Chehrazi believes Nayya is carving a unique path in part because of its focus on seamlessly connecting disparate data sources. Cheraj said the startup has also certainly benefited from its close partnership with Workday, which has “tremendous distribution.”
He also sees new potential for cost savings, as Nayya's AI tools can perform actions on behalf of employees, such as submitting reimbursement forms.
“I think this is the type of ROI that some of the navigators in V1 and V2 weren’t as focused on,” he said.
