Proactively Powering Savings Through Integrated Partnerships

INDUSTRY: BEVERAGE DISTRIBUTION
HEADQUARTERS: FRESNO, CA

For Donaghy Sales — the leading beverage distributor of Central California — delivering exceptional service to their customers is top of mind. They’ve serviced the area for over 50 years, and currently sell over 1,000 brands of beer, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages. Covering a territory of 26 counties means a workforce that’s constantly on the move.

But with their business continuing to thrive, they were still running into the same benefits issues. According to Donaghy’s HR Director, Brent Corson, a lack of access to affordable, quality healthcare “presented a significant issue” for Donaghy’s workforce. Employees weren’t searching for the best options for providers and prescriptions. They were oftentimes choosing the most convenient options — leading to major costs for Donaghy and their employees alike. And according to Corson, healthcare is very expensive
in Fresno, California, with average ER visits costing $3,500.

With an 80/20 health plan in place, Brent could see the costs adding up for employees and knew that something needed to change. HealthJoy was excited to partner up with Donaghy Sales to help drive long–term engagement, meet their workforce where they are and empower them to make the best healthcare decisions possible.

How HealthJoy Curbed Spending Related to Back Pain

It’s no surprise that when employees are performing straining work — like
unloading beverage shipments — it takes a toll on them physically. This becomes
an even larger issue if they don’t have easy access to care options for their
pain. Musculoskeletal (MSK) related conditions — like back and joint pain — are
expensive to treat and only worsen over time when left untreated.

Donaghy Sales noticed that when their employees didn’t know how to use their
benefits, they often didn’t take action to address health concerns. This resulted
in behaviors that drove up costs for all parties, such as costly back surgeries.

These problems became a thing of the past after implementing HealthJoy.
Here’s how HealthJoy seamlessly integrated claims and pre-certification data
to proactively redirect members to value-focused providers and facilities.

On average, high-cost claimants across HealthJoy’s book of business experience 21% lower healthcare spend than non-activated peers

Unrivaled Personalization

Building a complete member profile — that captures employees’ unique preferences and needs — enables us to meet employees where they are.

Each employee shares their personal health goals within the HealthJoy app during the onboarding experience. By capturing these goals and preferences, we’re able to keep employees actively engaged in their health with a world-class experience built just for them.

When Donaghy Sales employees activated HealthJoy, we were able to identify the members who set a goal of improving their back and joint pain. In total, 38% of members who completed the Health Goals questionnaire said they wanted to address back pain.

Outreach That Makes an Impact

Donaghy Sales leverages HealthJoy’s integrated partnership capabilities to pull in data from their TPA. HealthJoy uses this data to proactively reach out to members and steer them to low-cost, high-quality care. This outreach takes the guesswork out of members navigating care options on their own and leads to cost savings. By doing this, HealthJoy transforms the historically reactive healthcare process into a proactive, personalized experience.

We leverage numerous data sources including plan design, precertification and claims data to personalize the benefits experience and proactively engage employees before they even seek care.

Here’s how HealthJoy’s integration with Donaghy Sales’ TPA partner allows for real-time steerage to high-value, low-cost care when members need it most.

If a Donaghy employee visits their doctor and is given a referral for a back surgery consultation, HealthJoy receives a notification. We’re then able to reach out to the member to offer assistance in finding a low-cost, high-quality option for their specific needs.

In this case, a member of our team can reach out and recommend HealthJoy’s Virtual MSK
program rather than a costly and invasive procedure. HealthJoy’s MSK program is far less
expensive than back surgery while providing long-lasting pain relief to members.

Early graduates of HealthJoy’s Virtual MSK Therapy program have seen an average
85% improvement in their pain - all without complicated equipment or unnecessary surgery. The HealthJoy MSK Therapy program saves Donaghy Sales (and other HealthJoy partners) $2,572 per participant.

HealthJoy’s proactive approach has already led to $150,343 total estimated savings
in the first quarter post-launch. And while HealthJoy is driving these savings for
Donaghy and their employees, we’re also building stronger benefits engagement!
In the first quarter after partnering with HealthJoy, nearly 80% of employees have
activated HealthJoy and those members have a satisfaction score of 96%.

A Personal Success Story

Corson was able to personally vouch for the MSK Virtual Therapy program because in addition to seeing the results it’s had for Donaghy Sales, he’s felt the results himself!

After dealing with prolonged knee pain, he made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. 15 minutes into the appointment, Corson was already scheduled for surgery, eight weeks on crutches and three months of physical therapy. He had never had surgery in his life and in a matter of a few minutes an expensive and grueling recovery path was planned out for him.

Thankfully HealthJoy’s Healthcare Concierge team was able to provide a second opinion! Brent worked with a dedicated team member to review the options and decided to enroll
in HealthJoy’s MSK Therapy program. He now performs the exercises on a daily basis and is seeing improvement!

Corson says this is just one example of “the many things embedded in HealthJoy that help our employees get access to quality care and steer them to better pricing and higher quality.” He also notes that this has had a direct effect on making their employee satisfaction extremely high.

One Stop Shop

Corson says that in addition to HealthJoy’s virtual care solutions, one of the biggest benefits has been HealthJoy’s Benefit Wallet. “It’s been fantastic,” said Corson. “It’s been the one-stop shop for our team. You have your medical and prescription cards right on your phone! Even if you don’t have your wallet, you always have your phone on you.”

And with a team that’s always on the move, HealthJoy acts as an extension of their team. “In a distribution business we have people spread over 26 counties and they can be difficult to reach,” said Corson. “HealthJoy makes it easy to reach our employees to keep them aware and engaged in their benefits.”

About Donaghy Sales