Cubic’s Digital MSK Program Helps Busy, Hardworking Employees Get Holistic Care

Originally founded in 1951, Cubic Corporation is a public transfer and defense company with two parts to our business: First, defense training and equipping officers in the U.S. armed forces as well as allied forces; second, a transportation business that helps travelers safely get from one part of their journey.

Headquartered in San Diego, Cubic has over 6,000 employees. Although we are a U.S.-based company, we have offices throughout the world.

In the U.S., we are in many metropolitan areas, including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, but we also have employees in rural areas. As such, we want to plan our benefits program to be accessible for employees in different regions, since every employee is important.

We have a diverse workforce, and our average age is around 40, so we have a more mature workforce with a lot of long-service employees, who may stay as long as 40 years at the company.

Our employee breakdown is about 70% male and 30% female, as a blended number for both businesses. But some corporate jobs skew a little more than 50% female.

A lot of retiring military look to Cubic as an employer of choice because of all we do for our veterans throughout the world.

Cubic’s workforce and benefits challenges

We have a growing business, so we're all working long hours at a computer.

Access to care and time to get the proper care are big challenges for a lot of our folks. We need to make sure to allow employees mobility, but it's difficult when we're scheduled in back-to-back meetings.

Some of our employees might be in regions where they don't have access to care without a long drive. Also, musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is one of our top 5 claims.

We have busy executives and hard-working engineers who want to take care of themselves. They might be trying to avoid surgery through physical therapy, but how are they going to do it because they're on the road 80% of the time? They're out winning new customers or supporting current customers. 

My goal as Corporate Benefits Director is to not just give people access to one particular, standard industry. It's giving them all the healthcare options available to them to treat them in their specific, individual situation.

That can mean giving employees access to behavioral health practitioners in other regions, because maybe there's a shortage in theirs. Or giving them access to naturopathic doctors for alternative care. I also want to give people access to preventive care.

Cubic's journey to digital care

As I consider our benefits program, we want to get our employees the best care possible in a way that's personalized, easy, encouraging, and even fun. We're striving to treat employees holistically and give them support resources, both emotional and physical, to help them overcome their challenges.

Every employee is important, and if there is a support resource out there for our employees, we're going to find it and bring it to them. 

We knew MSK pain was an issue for our workforce, so our broker McGriff helped us vet a few different providers. Hinge Health came out shining. We really liked the clinical approach, as well as the pain management option, because one of our priorities is helping people get off prescription medications when possible.

One of the things that stood out to me with Hinge Health is that you still have access to physical appointments if you want to go see a physical therapist in person on your medical plan.

For many employees, their health suffers because they have families and children, busy activities outside of work, and a challenging workload at their jobs. So, it wasn't just about reducing claims, but about solving this from a financial perspective so our employees are not in chronic pain.

A huge benefit of Hinge Health is that you can do it on your own time. Maybe one day you do it for a lunch break, maybe another day, you do it at 10 p.m. after the kids are put to bed. It gives you that flexibility to be able to still care for you and your health without hindrances. 

Our metrics tell the story of success

We introduced Hinge Health to our workforce in January 2023. We've done a lot of different implementations, and the one with Hinge Health was very smooth and well thought-out. We felt like we were spoiled in our implementation process.

Anything that was a potential issue was very well-articulated and communicated in advance. There were not any surprises. And whenever we had an idea or a thought, maybe about approaching something differently, there was collaboration. It wasn't rigid.

As of July 2023, we're killing our metrics:

• 3.0x ROI

• 47% reduction in pain per participant over 12 weeks

• 86% reduction in likelihood of surgery

• 65% reduction in lost productivity (absenteeism and presenteeism)

Source: January-May 2023 Hinge Health Employer Case Study

We've been getting emails such as, "My spouse and I enrolled in the program. It's making such a huge difference. We thank you so much for introducing it." And that seems to be the consistent response. 

My priority for the rest of the year is fully leveraging the new programs that we've launched, including telehealth services like Hinge Health.

Hinge Health is providing our employees who have severe pain with emotional support and resources through the coaches. It's coming up with alternatives to pharmaceuticals, such as the electronic pulse pain management system. Those are factors that mean a lot to me as an employer, and it's a shining example of what I'd love to see across all areas of health benefits.