Employers Don’t Need More Healthcare Solutions. They Need a Better Way Into Healthcare.

Michael Lomonaco | Chief Revenue Officer, HealthBar

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‍I recently read a Midwest employer benefits benchmarkingreport, and while the continued rise in healthcare costs wasn’t surprising, itreinforced something I’ve been thinking about quite a bit.

‍We cannot solve a fragmented healthcare system bycreating an equally fragmented benefits experience.‍

For years, employers have been presented with an expandinguniverse of healthcare programs, digital tools and point solutions designed tosolve specific problems.

Many of them are very good at what they do.

Behavioral health. Musculoskeletal care. Diabetesmanagement. Navigation. Second opinions. Virtual care. Pharmacy programs.Centers of Excellence. The list continues to grow.

Individually, each solution may have a compelling clinicaland financial case.

But there is a bigger question employers need to ask: What does all of this feel like to the employee?

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At some point, we risk asking employees to become theintegrator of their own healthcare experience.

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- Which program should I use?

- Which app do I open?

- Who do I call first?

- Is this covered?

- Should I go to urgent care, my primary care physician or usethe virtual benefit my employer provides?

- Which imaging center should I use?

- Where can I fill this prescription?

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And perhaps most importantly: who actually knows me and can help me make the right decision?

That fragmentation matters because the success of almost every healthcare strategy eventually depends on one thing:

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Engagement.

A solution can demonstrate tremendous theoretical ROI, butif employees do not understand it, trust it or use it, that projected value never becomes actual value.

I believe the next evolution of employer healthcare is less about adding solutions and more about connecting them.

That requires a different way of thinking about th ehealthcare ecosystem.

At HealthBar, we tend to think about it through three lenses:

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Access

Employees need a simple and trusted front door tohealthcare.

It needs to be easy to access, easy to understand andcapable of addressing a meaningful percentage of the healthcare needs employeesand their families experience every day.

That is one reason our onsite programs routinely generateapproximately 50% to 60% engagement during the first year.

When healthcare is accessible and employees develop arelationship with a clinical team they trust, behavior begins to change.

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Integration

The front door alone is not enough.

Primary care, behavioral health, pharmacy, imaging,specialty services and the other resources an employer has invested in cannotfunction as independent islands.

Someone needs to help connect them.

A clinician should be able to treat the patient whenappropriate, recognize when another resource is needed and then help guide thatindividual toward the right next step.

That might mean a lower-cost imaging provider, a directpharmacy option, behavioral health support, an existing employer benefit ortraditional specialty care.

The objective should not be to replace every solution.

It should be to make the healthcare ecosystem work together around the patient.

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Accountability

Finally, employers should expect to understand whether their healthcare investments are actually working.

- Are employees engaging?

- Where is care occurring?

- Are we moving utilization toward higher-value settings?

- Are we identifying opportunities earlier?

- Are the programs we have purchased actually being used?

- And ultimately, are we impacting healthcare spend?

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The industry has become very good at presenting projected ROI.

Employers should increasingly expect demonstrated value - this is also where I believe the role of the benefits advisor becomes even more important.

The answer to fragmentation is not eliminating good partners or suggesting that every healthcare need can be solved by a single organization.

Quite the opposite.

Employers need strong advisors who can help them understandtheir population, evaluate the marketplace and architect the right benefits strategy.

But once that strategy is designed, there also needs to be away to execute it at the patient level.

That is the role I believe advanced primary care and modelslike HealthBar can increasingly play.

Our clinicians become a trusted front door into thehealthcare system.

They provide care directly when appropriate. They helpemployees navigate to higher-value resources when additional care is needed.They can connect employees with other programs the employer has alreadyinvested in. And through data, we can identify opportunities to engage peopleproactively rather than waiting until healthcare needs become more complex andexpensive.

It turns a collection of benefits into something that beginsto feel more like an actual healthcare strategy.

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As employers and their advisors think about 2027 andbeyond, I would challenge them to ask four questions about every healthcareinvestment:

- Will our people actually use it?

- Does it connect to the rest of our healthcare strategy?

- Does it help move care toward the right setting at theright cost?

- Can we clearly measure whether it is working?

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If those answers are unclear, adding another solution maynot be the answer.

The healthcare industry does not suffer from a shortage ofprograms, vendors or technology.

What many employees are missing is something much simpler: A trusted place to start.

And what many employers are missing is the connective tissuethat turns their various healthcare investments into a coordinated strategy.

Healthcare costs are moving too quickly for employers tocontinue solving problems one program at a time.

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Employers don’t necessarily need another benefit. They need a better front door to healthcare.

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About the Author

Michael Lomonaco is Chief Revenue Officer at HealthBar, where he leads growth strategy, strategic partnerships and go-to-market efforts. He works closely with employers, benefits advisors and healthcare partners to develop strategies that improve access to care, increase engagement and create measurable value from healthcare investments.

Based in West Michigan, Michael is also actively involved in his community, with a particular focus on education, youth development and mission-driven organizations. He believes the health of businesses, schools and communities are closely connected, a perspective that shapes his work at HealthBar.

Interested in continuing the conversation about employer healthcare strategy? Connect with Michael on LinkedIn or learn more about HealthBar.

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