Fort Worth is a growing metropolitan area just outside of Dallas with a robust business environment and a population of around 900,000 people. The City of Forth Worth employs over 8,500 people and its HR leadership remains committed to identifying strategies that reduce healthcare expenses, enhance employee satisfaction, and provide comprehensive wellbeing support throughout the year.
Industry: Public Sector
Workforce: 8,500 employees
Headquarters: Fort Worth, TX. U.S.A.
Featured Solution: Healthcare Navigation
Challenge: Fixing an inconsistent model for navigating health and benefits
Like many, the City of Forth Worth faced a number of challenges around rising healthcare costs and benefits engagement. Their goals included reduced healthcare spend, increased employee satisfaction and better utilization of key solutions, like the Employee Health Centers. The city’s diverse workforce is composed of busy professionals from all backgrounds, including first responders and other 24/7 service providers. This means their people need a mix of high-touch, concierge support and always-on digital tools to effectively navigate their health and benefits.
Prior to Alight, the City of Fort Worth had implemented a technology-forward, carve-out benefits navigation model from a third-party administrator (TPA). The intention was to drive better benefits utilization through a mix of digital services and then leverage a large group of customer service representatives as a backup to the model. However, despite a tech-first focus, the vendor was unable to provide accurate answers to benefits and eligibility questions, leading to constant complaints about the customer service model and low engagement.
Solution: Adopting an advocacy-based healthcare navigation solution with flexible integration
Leveraging over 20 years of award-winning experience and excellence in service delivery, the City of Fort Worth launched Alight Healthcare Navigation. This unique model points the City of Fort Worth employees to Alight as the trusted advisor and front door for everything related to healthcare, while also keeping the TPAs (Meritain Health, and now, Luminare Health with HCSC) plugged in for help with cost containment. This approach allows Alight to view claims, manage escalation points and work with case management on referrals, ensuring accurate answers and expert guidance for employees.
A dedicated Health Pro is assigned to each employee and their dependent(s) for concierge healthcare support. This small, dedicated team of professionals serves as experts in the challenges that the City of Fort Worth employees face and have the AI-driven resources to offer tailored healthcare guidance. Essentially, participants are freed from having to repeat their history each time they call since they always work with the same Health Pro.
Services include:
- Concierge benefits guidance
- Provider recommendations
- Program referrals — both digital solutions and the Employee Health Centers
- Help finding lower cost prescriptions
- Appointment setting
- Procedure cost estimates
- Coordination of care
- Bill reviews
"Brian [Alight Health Pro] and the team that has been assisting me has demonstrated wonderful customer service. I feel that they care about my situation, and it has made this horrible time in my life a little better to have Brian helping get the information I need. I have a 4-month-old and a two-year-old which has added some challenges to my situation. I greatly appreciate the help!"
City of Fort Worth Participant
The City of Fort Worth also gained access to Alight’s Medical Ally team of physicians and nurses, available to offer unbiased advocacy and clinical guidance for any condition. This includes virtual access to:
- Expert medical opinions/second opinions
- Evidence-based guidance and education
- Treatment and surgery decision support (elective MSK procedures)
- Pre-appointment preparation
- Post-appointment next steps and adherence
- Screening and support for anxiety, depression and social risks
With access to always-on digital tools and Alight’s high-touch experts, the City of Fort Worth’s workforce is now engaged and empowered to make simpler, smarter healthcare decisions year-round.
Enhanced capabilities
Unlike other providers that can only offer navigation, Alight’s enhanced capabilities included benefit administration. Even in the cases where Alight does provide benefit administration to a client, our technology and understanding of the data allows us to target employees and dependents who could benefit from another vendor’s point solution. Curated alerts based on claims and benefit administration data provide relevant suggestions and information to employees, leading to higher engagement.
Results
- $1,473 average savings per household, with $2.4M in assessed savings total in Year 1
- Average of 5 solutions delivered per employee (6,111 employees engaged)
- 1 in 5 employees became super users, utilizing the service 7 times or more in a year
- 60% of solutions reduced cost (doctor recommendations, cost estimates, bill and prescription reviews)
- 40% of solutions saved time and eliminated healthcare hassles (concierge services and coordination of care, like appointment setting and record transfers, insurance and benefits questions, symptom checker)
ROI
Start the transformation
Alight helps the world’s best companies gain a benefits advantage and build a healthy and financially secure workforce. We combine skillsets from strong, comprehensive partners to optimize costs while delivering a world-class benefits experience. Whether you’re looking for a modernized HR experience or compliance solutions to protect your data, we’ve got you covered with the technologies and support that boost efficiency and increase employee satisfaction. Learn more about Healthcare Navigation today.
