Air Liquide Achieves Significant Cost Savings and Improved Employee Health with Hinge Health

“I just assumed surgery was in my future. However, these simple exercises have really helped. I still feel a little pain, but nothing compared to two weeks ago.”

Air Liquide employee and Hinge Health member

About Air Liquide

Air Liquide is a French multinational company and a world leader in gases, technologies and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufactures. Having presence in 60 countries, the organization serves over 4 million customers and patients. Air Liquide embodies scientific territory and oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen (essential small molecules for life matter and energy) have been at the core of the company's activities since 1902. 

Samantha Rochetti, a seasoned professional in the benefits industry, transitioned into her role at Air Liquide nearly 5 years ago with a focus on enhancing employee well-being and reducing healthcare costs. Recognizing the high MSK and diabetes-related costs, particularly those associated with back issues and the need for surgeries, as well as high pharmacy costs related to GLP1s and other diabetic medications, Samantha sought a solution that could address these challenges effectively.

Understanding the Unique Challenges of a Shift Workforce

Air Liquide has a goal to stay ahead of trends and be able to provide innovative benefits for its employees. They want to be able to support its primarily remote workforce, who typically work non-traditional shift hours, with access to benefits, but also benefits that support claims reduction. 

Given their diverse workforce, which is made up of a small corporate employee base and the majority of shift workers in the field for gasses tech and services, communication is a top challenge. “We have difficulty communicating company-wide messages so we rely heavily on managers to help communicate, especially to our front line employees,” Samantha mentioned.  

Samantha also shared that they have a difficult time reaching spouses who are on their insurance plan. “Many of our employees are men, and their spouses tend to handle the administrative work at home, making it crucial for us to be able to engage both employees and their families about our benefits programs.”

MSK claims is the number two expenditure for the company, totaling $3.2M. They have another 30 approved MSK disability claims, which has resulted in another $280K spend. On top of the hard dollar spend, Samantha mentioned that employees have missed a total of 1,853 days combined from MSK related injuries.

From Implementation to Impact: A Collaborative Success Story

In early 2023, Air Liquide partnered with Hinge Health, drawn by its home-based, cost-effective model that perfectly suited their diverse, primarily remote workforce. "Our consultants presented Hinge Health to us, and I was immediately intrigued. The program's accessibility from anywhere was particularly appealing given our shift workers, for whom traditional rehab center visits aren't always practical,” said Samantha. 

Samantha also mentioned that the billing model was another factor in why they decided to go with Health Hinge as their MSK vendor. She mentioned, “It was a big thing for us to not have a monthly fee. We want to be able to offer our employees the best benefits, but we also need to ensure it’s worth it for us as well.” 

The implementation was remarkably smooth, with Samantha noting it was "probably the smoothest transition of a new benefit" she'd experienced. This seamless integration was partly due to Hinge Health's existing partnership with Air Liquide's PBM, which eliminated the need to consider other vendors.

To ensure successful adoption, Samantha leveraged the open enrollment period to highlight Hinge Health alongside other significant benefits changes in a large campaign. The communication strategy included:

• Mailers: Detailed information about Hinge Health was sent to all employees.

• Presentations: Held outside work hours to engage employees and their spouses, ensuring everyone understood the new programs.

• Emphasis on Convenience: The ease of using Hinge Health from home without needing a doctor's visit was strongly emphasized.

For year two, Samatha really focused on highlighting the Women’s Pelvic Health program, especially since a lot of women spouses are on their plan. “I tried to bring some humor to engage our employees, specifically our male employees who have their female spouses on our health plan. I wanted them to understand the importance and why they should encourage their spouses to sign up.” 

The partnership has already yielded impressive results:

• High Engagement: 9.8% of total eligible lives engaged with the program.

• Habit Formation: Engagement increased year after year.

• Pain Reduction: 58% average pain reduction within the first 90 days.

• Mental Health Improvements: 64% reduction in both anxiety and depression related to chronic pain.

• Member Satisfaction: 8.5/10 satisfaction rate.

The implementation of Hinge Health was met with positive feedback, with no complaints and even several compliments from employees. “I get a lot of compliments as a benefits person, but I will always get negative comments first. With Hinge Health I actually got all compliments and zero negative feedback. So in my world, that’s huge,” Samantha shared. 

Air Liquide's collaboration with Hinge Health has been a resounding success, addressing key challenges while achieving significant cost savings and improving employee well-being. The company's proactive approach and effective communication strategy have set a benchmark for other organizations looking to enhance their benefits programs.