Closing the Gaps: Partnerships that Make Benefits Work for Employees

This article was written by Included Health, a sponsor of Hinge Health's Movement 2026 conference in Chicago.

Benefits leaders don't lack point solutions. Most employers today offer a growing menu of specialized programs, from musculoskeletal (MSK) care to diabetes management to mental health support. Though many of these solutions are well-designed and evidence-backed, the very specialization that makes them effective can create a fragmented, confusing experience for employees.

Improving clinical outcomes and reducing healthcare costs is nearly impossible if employees don't know the benefits available to them or don't know how to engage. We saw this challenge firsthand as we connected with benefits leaders at Hinge Health’s Movement 2026. The conversations we had at our booth echoed a theme we hear constantly from our clients and partners: Point solutions succeed or fail based on whether people actually find their way to them and stick with them.

That's the problem navigation and integrated care are built to solve, and it's the foundation of Included Health's partnership with Hinge Health. Personalized and proactive employee engagement and warm handoffs between partners improve outcomes for employees..

Getting to high-quality, high-value care

The key to value in healthcare is getting people to the right care, fast. That's why Included Health is designed as a clinical front door, the first place employees turn for guidance and support, whether they're facing a confusing bill, a new diagnosis — or, very often, chronic back or knee pain.

MSK conditions affect more than half of U.S. adults and are consistently among employers' costliest categories of care. The Business Group on Health's annual survey of large employers has found MSK to be the second most-cited condition driving increased costs between 2023–2025, trailing only cancer.

Why are MSK conditions so expensive? The overuse of low-value specialty care and surgeries — combined with the underuse of cost-effective interventions like physical therapy — is a major factor. Roughly one-third of all imaging ordered for back pain is inappropriate or unnecessary (and linked to higher rates of surgery, medication, and missed workdays). On the flip side, physical therapy remains underused as a first-line treatment, with fewer than 1 in 5 adults receiving a referral from primary care.

That gap between what's recommended and what's received carries a real price. When employees don't know where to start, don't realize physical therapy is covered, or get guidance from providers with limited visibility into their health history, it drives up costs and worsens outcomes.

Personalized, proactive engagement

Our partnership with Hinge Health is designed to close this gap. Included Health's integrated care model starts with a single, unified view of each member, drawing on signals like a recent hospitalization to a new diagnosis or a "back pain" search in the Included Health app. Our AI assistant, Dot, works alongside human care teams to interpret those signals and connect members to programs like Hinge Health's digital MSK care in the moment it matters.

In practice, that means a care team member can proactively and quickly connect an employee to Hinge Health, often before the employee has thought to look for help themselves. Advocates make a warm, human handoff when a member needs more support, and a Hinge Health evaluation becomes a concrete next step in that member's personalized care plan.

Partnership as a strategy, not just an integration

This is a fundamentally different approach than simply listing Hinge Health (or Included Health) in a benefits guide and hoping employees remember it exists. It goes beyond basic categories like "point solution" and "navigation" to describe a dynamic, integrated, member-focused approach to easing the burden of MSK conditions.

When navigation and point solutions work together instead of in parallel, the effect on engagement is significant. Employers who pair Included Health's navigation with Hinge Health help employees quickly find the right solution.

As more employers look to consolidate and simplify their benefits ecosystems for 2027 and beyond, we believe the winning approach won't be choosing fewer programs. It will be building smarter connections between the programs that already work, so that quality care like Hinge Health's is always the next step, not something employees have to find on their own.