It’s hard to believe the year is already coming to a close. It’s even harder for me to believe that HealthJoy's 10-year anniversary is coming up in just a few months.
Obviously so much has changed over those 10 years.
At that time, the first few HealthJoyers sat in our “office” in a house trying to figure out how we could help people more effectively use their Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance plans. We thought we could just bring some technology to the system and fix it. We have spent the last 10 years being reminded of how little we actually knew, and honestly, that’s why it’s been so fun.
I don’t think any of us could’ve predicted what HealthJoy would turn into.
Even with all that’s changed, I get the sense that heading into 2024 our team is just as energized as we were back in 2014. It’s bigger, and things are a “different hard,” but we have the same glue that brought us all together in the first place: being part of something that fixes one of the biggest challenges our country, and really the globe faces, access to high-quality, affordable healthcare.
But before we move on to next year, I want to take a look back and celebrate everything the HealthJoy team accomplished in the last 12 months.
This has been a year marked by tremendous advancements to better serve our broker partners, clients and their employees. And we weren’t perfect, we made mistakes, we had wins we didn’t expect and we kept learning.
I’m proud of their tireless efforts to create healthier outcomes and savings for every person who opens HealthJoy
So, let’s take a look back at what 2023 looked like for the global HealthJoy team.
In 2023 we doubled down on our commitment to enhancing technologies that help our broker partners’ strategies come to life. And in 2024, we’re doubling down again, with the goal of further containing costs while providing an exceptional experience for their clients.
Simply put, our broker partners are what got HealthJoy this far and they’ll help us get to where we want to go in the future. Each time we invest in our partnerships, we’re investing in the future of HealthJoy.
This summer, we brought together some of HealthJoy’s valued broker partners with one simple goal: to listen. This time together allows us to identify priorities and needs based on industry trends and initiatives.
We also evaluated the current state of HealthJoy products, processes, and services to ensure we're providing the best experience possible to our clients and their employees. It doesn’t hurt that we had an excuse to enjoy some sunshine on the Chicago River either!
2023 was another great year with our TPA partners. When HealthJoy partners with TPAs, we use a wide range of data that allows us to proactively engage employees. This results in significant ROI boosts, and we were excited to receive new data validating these savings — including an ROI of 2.5-2.9x in year one.
We were also excited to roll out our new partnership playbook. This playbook was created to be a go-to resource for all things related to our partnership and is filled with tips for a successful go-to-market experience.
We kicked off the year by launching our partnership with Teladoc Health to bring the global leader in whole-person virtual care into our integrated partner ecosystem.
This partnership was an important step in our journey to improve access to care and simplify benefits navigation.
By integrating Teladoc Health’s product suite into the HealthJoy app, we were able to add a wide array of solutions for employees, including:
Our product and tech teams have worked hard to build out advanced integrations to ensure employees have a seamless experience any time they have a care need.
Whether an employee needs to treat a sinus infection, manage their diabetes, or anything in between, we want to deliver a great care experience.
By connecting the entire benefits package, we’re able to target members with recommendations for related concerns and enroll them in additional care programs as needed. This provides a less fragmented experience and delivers whole-person care to achieve healthier outcomes and contain costs.
Our team was thrilled to announce our offering with ParetoHealth — the largest health benefits captive in the country.
As a result of the partnership, HealthJoy will become the primary healthcare navigation solution for ParetoHealth members.
As healthcare costs continue to rise, ParetoHealth and HealthJoy are on a shared mission to guide employees to affordable, high-quality care options while helping employers contain costs.
We’ll work closely with ParetoHealth to drive utilization to their Integrated Cost Management (ICM) programs to provide cost savings.
For years, HealthJoy’s coach-led virtual exercise therapy has addressed chronic pain in just 15 minutes a day. Many participants see results even when other treatments such as physical therapy and invasive, expensive procedures have failed.
By adding pelvic floor programming, we hope to deliver the same life-changing results and savings that thousands of employees have already experienced with HealthJoy’s Virtual MSK Therapy.
Here are a few of the outcomes participants see on average:
Participants can now complete coach-led exercises that treat the group of muscles that form across the floor of an individual’s pelvis and connect with surrounding tissues to help keep pelvic organs — such as the bladder, uterus, intestines, etc. — in place.
We designed the program employees deserve — one that’s easy to access and empowers them to feel confident in their pelvic health during every step of their journey.
At HealthJoy, we’re here for employees no matter the need. Our team couldn’t be more excited to provide this program and help give more than just hope to those that have suffered from, in some cases, life-long challenges associated with pelvic health.
This year reaffirmed the power of data across our entire organization. We were able to harness proprietary data to better serve employees and highlight trends to inform our partners’ benefits strategies. We also saw studies verify the impact of several HealthJoy programs.
This fall we released the results of a claims-based study analyzing the impact of our care navigation platform on high-cost claimants.
The study found that high-cost claimants who activated HealthJoy experienced 21 percent lower medical spend than non-activated peers.
To conduct this study, we analyzed calendar year 2022 claims data from one of our third-party administrator partners. Claims data was matched to HealthJoy eligibility data, and eligible individuals were categorized as either “non-activated” or “activated” within the dataset.
Additional findings from the study include:
These results show the important role that care navigation continues to play in the modern benefits landscape.
Are your medical and pharmacy claims continuing to rise? See how HealthJoy clients are lowering their healthcare spend year over year.
Our first-ever HealthJoy Insights harnessed the power of our proprietary, member-generated data. The report highlights the stark difference between the type of benefits members want versus what employers know is needed to drive successful long-term health outcomes.
A few additional key findings include:
Check out our first HealthJoy Insights report for more data-driven, actionable insights. Stay tuned for our latest Insights report coming in early 2024!
Earlier this year our Virtual MSK Therapy team released results from a study analyzing the efficacy of its programming. The results showed that the team’s unique approach produces pain reduction outcomes that far exceed industry standards.
Study participants experienced an average pain improvement of 80% after being enrolled in HealthJoy’s chronic lower back pain program for eight weeks.
See how HealthJoy's approach produces improvements far exceeding traditional methods.
2023 was a year spent on the move for HealthJoy. Countless HealthJoyers traveled to conferences around the country to raise awareness about our mission, stay on top of industry trends, and hear directly from employers and consultants about their needs.
We look forward to getting back on the road in 2024 after the holidays. We’d love to connect with you at upcoming events, so be sure to stay tuned to HealthJoy’s LinkedIn for the latest news and updates on events we’ll be attending.
Over the years, HealthJoy has been recognized by many outlets for simplifying the healthcare experience. We’re always humbled by these honors. They serve as a motivator for our team to keep creating healthier outcomes for all.
Here are some of the honors the HealthJoy team took home in 2023.
We’re all proud of Doug Morse-Schindler for bringing home this award. Doug’s leadership is constantly on display to everyone here at HealthJoy and we couldn’t be more excited that others are recognizing his impact.
Our team was honored to be named the highest-rated benefits navigation platform and MSK program by Shortlister!
According to Shortlister, this award took into account:
We’ll continue using navigation to empower employees to actively engage in their health and look forward to helping even more members with recent updates to our Virtual MSK Therapy program.
Each year, Fierce Healthcare announces its Fierce 15, a selection of companies across the US that are transforming the healthcare industry.
Thanks again to Fierce Healthcare for selecting HealthJoy as part of this year’s Fierce 15, focused on “disruption.” It’s an honor to be recognized among companies that are making a difference in the world and creating positive disruptions in the healthcare industry.
And lastly, thanks to Nasdaq for recognizing this honor in Times Square!
HealthJoy’s team — spanning many states and countries — came together this year to achieve incredible things. But no matter how spread out our team is geographically, I’m always delighted by the ways they find to come together and create community.
From sporting events to happy hours to pumpkin carving contests, our team always finds new ways to connect and continue to grow as one team.
Earlier this year, we announced that all team members received a “Volunteer Day” they could use in May or June. We empowered our team to spend the day championing a cause close to their hearts.
We were blown away by the many ways that HealthJoyers gave back. One of the most impactful efforts featured a team of 23 HealthJoyers who organized a Chicago beach clean-up at North Avenue Beach. The crew collected a combined 55 pounds of trash from the beach, and did a great job exhibiting the HealthJoy value of care!
Thanks for taking a look back at all the exciting happenings this past year at HealthJoy. Nearly 10 years — and nearly 500 HealthJoyers — later, we’re still working towards the same goal: deliver life-changing health outcomes and save everyone money along the way.
To all our partners and clients, thank you for your continued support and for trusting us to provide an exceptional benefits experience any time someone opens the app. In 2024, you can expect HealthJoy to continue investing in technology to further bolster the results we’re committed to delivering.
If you’re interested in learning more about HealthJoy, we’d love to talk.
I hope everyone has a great holiday season and a happy, healthy new year!