Give employees better healthcare At lower cost
for Employers
20% - 30% of employer healthcare costs are from muscle & joint injuries
…And 40% of those injuries are initially mis-diagnosed, resulting in millions of wasted healthcare dollars for employers. When you add to this the average 360 million days of lost productivity from MSK injuries, you have the single largest healthcare expense for American employers.
Upswing was created by orthopedic specialists to give employees immediate access to care, with accurate pre-diagnostic screening, on-demand consultations with certified athletic trainers and a library of physical therapist created exercises that can be used to effectively treat over 60% of MSK injuries.
Plus, on-demand access to orthopedic providers who can give you immediate medical advice. Employers who use Upswing Health save an average of $1100 per episode in healthcare costs.
Lower Costs
U.S. employers pay an average $458 per episode for musculoskeletal injuries (not including lost work days). The average Upswing cost per episode is only $60 and usually doesn’t require time off work and lost productivity.
Better Access to Care
Employees love being able to access a medical professional from anywhere, anytime, when they or their loved ones are experiencing pain. With our physician designed injury assessment app, they never have to worry about what’s wrong while waiting to see a doctor.
Less time off work
When people don’t have to wait to see a doctor, get an MRI and wait for a referral to find out what’s wrong and how to rehabilitate, not only are less healthcare dollars spent, but less work days are wasted in doctor and lab visits.
Reduce healthcare costs
(while offering better benefits)
Right now, the way most MSK conditions are diagnosed and treated wastes time and money – and requires patients to wait in pain for answers.
People are required to visit their primary care doctor, then go to a specialist who may order additional xrays or MRIs before typically providing them with simple exercises they can do on their own. This process costs employers $458 per episode on average, in addition to days of lost work. For employees it usually means living with pain while waiting for appointments, getting child care and asking for time off work.
60% of musculoskeletal injuries can be treated with simple physical therapy exercises at home.
Learn how Upswing can lower your company’s healthcare costs while improving your employee’s access to medical care.
Same plan. Better benefits. Lower cost.
Learn more about how Upswing takes the confusion out of muscle and joint injuries, and lowers costs by improving access to care.
Schedule a DemoThe best part of Upswing for Employers is seeing the confused – but happy – look on your employees’ faces when they first realize that they can speak to a medical professional in minutes with no doctor appointment, waiting rooms or copays.
Typically the first thing people want to know after a MSK injury is how serious it is and whether or not they need to see a doctor. In the current healthcare environment, many people just avoid the doctor altogether and live with pain until their condition worsens or just rush straight to the ER. For the ones who do see a doctor, they often wait days for answers, going from primary care physician to Xray lab to orthopedic specialist just to find out what’s wrong.
With Upswing’s symptom assessment tool, your employees can get answers immediately based on their symptoms – and follow up with a video call to a Health Coach minutes later. Since most musculoskeletal injuries can be treated at home, their Health Coach can check in with them throughout their recovery process, providing detailed downloadable rehabilitation exercises they can do on their own. And whenever they need one, a doctor or specialist is available for a consult or for an in-office appointment.
for Employers
Frequently Asked Questions
Upswing can structure employer plans several ways (see the next question for details), but all of them result in substantial cost savings for most employers.
American employers spend an average of $1000 per member in claims costs on musculoskeletal injuries. By contrast, Upswing customers spend an average of $30 per episode on musculoskeletal injuries.
We can structure employee plans in one of several ways.
A fee-per-episode model allows employers only to pay when their employees use Upswing Health.
For some larger employers, Upswing is happy to offer a percentage of savings model, where Upswing is paid a percentage of total claims costs saved
For many employers, a flat fee per employee model makes the most sense.
Over 50% of MSK injuries can and should be treated at home using physical therapist developed exercises that most people can do on their own without help.
Additionally, over 46% of MSK injuries are mis-diagnosed (typically because a medical professional with orthopedic expertise was not available to help diagnose the condition or the primary care physician had no other options available). This mis-diagnosis is a key contributor to the 50% failure rate of MSK medical interventions to solve the intended problem. 30% of joint replacements alone are medically unnecessary.
All of this together has created the largest single employer healthcare cost, especially when lost productivity of workdays spent at doctors offices and long recoveries from surgeries are factored in. Add to this unnecessary prescriptions, MRIs, Xrays and weekly physical therapist appointments and it’s easy to see that if patients could get a better diagnosis and at home treatment options, everyone would save a lot of time and money.
Upswing was designed by a team of orthopedic doctors to solve exactly this problem.
Upswing Coaches are a patient’s first point of contact with a broad network of orthopedic specialists, and they are all certified medical professionals in their own right, specializing in soft tissue, bone and joint injuries.
Most Upswing Coaches are Certified Athletic Trainers (the sports medicine specialists who run out on the field when someone is injured during a professional football game). Occasionally a health coach might be a certified Physical Therapist or another orthopedic specialist. In all cases, they can help answer questions about symptoms, injuries, treatments and can create referrals and appointments with other specialists including doctors, physical therapists and orthopedic surgeons. They can also refer you to an Upswing orthopedic doctor who can provide more in-depth assessments, treatments and specialized referalls.
Have Questions?
Contact us today to learn more.
For employees
Upswing Health gives qualifying employees immediate access to care on demand while lowering healthcare costs for employers. To learn more, or to ask your human resources department to offer Upswing Health, send them a link to our For Employers page here.
For insurers
If you’re looking for innovative ways to provide better access to care for members at lower cost, bundling Upswing with your Exchange plans for active people who are most likely to use physical therapy or sports medicine services is an effective and easy upgrade to your MSK clinical pathways. Find out more here.
For provider
Ever wish you had a musculoskeletal specialist on staff to provide expert guidance on orthopedic issues and give you more time to focus on the patients who need you the most? Upswing Health was built by orthopedic doctors to help you manage the 65% of MSK office visits that can be treated at home. Learn more.