Tag: healthcare news

Rightway and HBG Expand Partnership to Increase Health Coverage and Care Navigation Access

Rightway’s care navigation solution will be available to anyone who purchases health benefits through the HealthEE by HBG stores.

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Rightway, the healthcare company reinventing care navigation and pharmacy benefits, today announced an expansion to its strategic partnership with Healthy Business Group (HBG). This partnership combines the health plans available on the HealthEE by HBG store with Rightway to give everyone access to comprehensive benefits coverage and an effective, modern care navigation solution.

HBG is a workforce health solutions company that assists small to midsize companies in enhancing their offerings for full and part-time employees. Over the last year, HBG has grown their platform to include HealthEE, an online store that makes benefits accessible to association and union members, part-time and gig workers, freelancers, and more. These individuals can purchase many different coverage options, all in one location, directly from the HealthEE by HBG store.

By teaming up with brokers, associations, and employers, HBG and Rightway can solve one of the biggest challenges that part-time and hourly workers face, which is finding and navigating their health benefits. The HealthEE by HBG store makes it easy for these individuals to purchase affordable benefits traditionally offered by organizations. When members buy a health plan through the HealthEE by HBG store, they will also receive access to Rightway.

Rightway is a clinician-driven care navigation solution that improves healthcare outcomes by pairing members with a live, personalized health guide who can help them find affordable, high-quality care. Having access to a care navigation solution is an especially important benefit for members that have nowhere to turn for healthcare support due to a lack of medical coverage through their employer. Rightway’s goal is to democratize concierge navigation and give healthcare support to individuals who previously didn’t have access to one-to-one clinical experts.

“When people get benefits outside of their employers, they’re even more confused about how to seek the best care,” said Christian Stearns, Managing Director of Innovation and Growth, HealthEE by HBG. “Rightway health guides will become a lifeline to members who buy benefits through our store. Guiding them to highly rated providers and facilities, informing on what they can expect to pay for the services, and more. This partnership will improve health literacy and equity for people that haven’t traditionally been eligible for benefits in today’s healthcare ecosystem.”

“Through an expanded partnership with HBG on their benefits store, we’re able to tap into an important and growing market of part-time workers in need of health insurance,” described Kara Kubarych, VP of Partnerships, Rightway. “Medical coverage is just the first step for this population. By offering Rightway in tandem with HealthEE by HBG plans, individuals are better equipped to navigate the healthcare system to get the most value from their coverage, leading to better health outcomes overall.”

By embedding Rightway in HBG’s medical coverage choices, employees can receive the best health benefits and support to get the care they need–displaying the partnership’s commitment to making healthcare more attainable for everyone, everywhere.

For more information on the Rightway and HBG, please email partnerships@rightwayhealthcare.com or info@hbgnow.com.

The Great Resignation?

The Great Resignation was a rumbling that began amid the pandemic and has grown exponentially. With millions of people resigning from their jobs and opting into the gig economy, where they can work from home, have more say over their worth, and be in control of their work-life balance. I sat with our co-founder Christian Stearns to discuss this phenomenon and what it means for business owners and employers.

Christian explained that he considers the great resignation a misnomer and that he feels this phenomenon should be called the Great Realignment, as it’s more than people just leaving their jobs. Its employees realizing and acting upon what they need to have a high quality of life. Amidst the pandemic, we as a society discovered we can measurably work from home, and in eliminating the time of a commute and the physical distance between the office and your family, it’s not surprising many do not want to go back to the old way of business, in the office, 9-5. Thus employees left in search of employers willing to provide them with the lifestyles they became accustomed to during the pandemic. 

Many of you experienced this first hand, so I asked Christian how we could take this sour realignment and make sweet lemonade. His response was for business owners and employers to take a step back, recognize the need to give to get, the need for flexibility and that employment is not the one-way street it may have once been. More than flexibility, employers need to provide value to their employees. In this new wave with a booming gig economy where many work multiple part-time gigs or freelance for many companies providing access to benefits can be the differentiator. 

As much as the move to the gig economy has given employees a new kind of freedom, in many ways, it has also created a massive vulnerability as part-time, and contract workers seldom qualify for benefits and insurance coverage. Filling this gap and covering this vulnerability can make all the difference when retaining talent, whether in the form of contract workers or even your full-time staff. The workforce is full of under-benefitted, and downright un benefited workers. The truth is that health workers lead to a healthy business, and we help make employees HealthEE.