The importance of health benefits employees actually use

Employers want to be known for offering the best health insurance. But there’s a catch: even the most generous plan fails when employees don’t use it.

Every year, companies invest millions in healthcare benefits. Yet disengaged employees, clunky care pathways, and outdated delivery models mean usage often falls far short of what’s needed to deliver ROI. The result is often wasted dollars, hidden productivity losses, and frustration on both sides.

In 2026 and beyond, the employers with the best health insurance will be those who design benefits that employees actually use. Engagement and usage is what transforms benefits investment into measurable value. This is the true hallmark of an effective modern health benefits plan.

The silent problem: unused or underused health benefits

At first glance, your benefits package might look strong. Comprehensive coverage, multiple vendors, wellness programs, it checks all the boxes. But the true test is usage. Too often, employers discover that their teams are skipping preventive care, ignoring chronic pain, or turning to costly interventions when first-line solutions could have prevented escalation.

Musculoskeletal (MSK) care is a prime example. Nearly half of all adults live with MSK pain. This is the single biggest healthcare spend area in the U.S.¹ But studies show up to 36% of MSK surgeries are unnecessary or unsupported by evidence.² Much of this cost comes from employees not using physical therapy early enough, or not at all. This underutilization drives up downstream claims costs, absenteeism, and presenteeism.

The barriers are real. When accessing care means driving to clinics, rearranging work, or waiting weeks for appointments, usage drops. Employees delay treatment, their condition worsens, and ultimately the employer foots the bill for avoidable surgeries or long-term disability claims.

These missed opportunities highlight why proactive and accessible care options are crucial. But how do we close the gap between what’s offered and what’s used? The answer lies in employee engagement.

Why employee engagement with health benefits matters

Benefits are only as valuable as the engagement they generate. A robust health plan without usage is like a gym membership that no one shows up for: all cost, no gain. Engagement is the engine of ROI. Without it, your benefits plan is just an expense line.

Sword Health’s digital-first MSK care flips that dynamic. Instead of traditional in-person PT with its high dropout rates (more than 50% of patients quit after just four sessions³), Sword’s members complete their care at an 81% rate.⁴ That’s nearly double the industry average.

This translates into real impact:

• $3,177 saved per member per year on average⁵
• $2,916 in recovered productivity per member per year⁶
• Faster return to work, fewer surgeries, and fewer avoidable claims

By increasing adherence and removing friction, digital-first care not only improves individual outcomes but also enhances organizational performance. Employers get healthier employees and a better return on every benefits dollar spent.

And this is just the beginning. To build real engagement, you also need to understand what today’s employees expect from their benefits experience.

What employees want from a modern health benefit

Today’s workforce is digital, diverse, and demanding. They’re no longer willing to settle for legacy care experiences that require commutes, coordination, and compromise. They want health benefits to match how they live and work.

They want care that is:

• Accessible anytime, anywhere. No lost hours commuting to clinics.
• Flexible. Sessions before work, after dinner, or on weekends.
• Outcome-driven. Clear, personalized care that works, not just a promise.

Sword Health’s data shows what this looks like in practice: 42% of sessions happen outside the standard workday, and 23% on weekends.⁷ Employees engage because they can fit care into their real lives.

These expectations aren’t just about convenience. They’re about empowerment. When people feel like their employer supports them in a way that fits their reality, they’re more likely to trust, engage, and stay.

When benefits remove friction, they get used. And when they get used, your business gets stronger. Let’s explore how virtual-first care takes this even further.

Virtual-first care closes the usage gap

The biggest reason people avoid care isn’t cost. It’s complexity. Between time constraints, referral requirements, and inaccessible locations, even the best-intentioned employees can fall through the cracks. Virtual care removes these barriers.

Digital MSK care offers a better way to solve a big problem. By identifying high-risk members early with predictive analytics, Sword’s Predict tool can engage people six to eight months before they’d likely end up in surgery.

The payoff is significant. Employees recover faster, avoid unnecessary procedures, and stay productive. Virtual care helps bridge gaps in access for underserved or remote populations, and gives HR teams data-rich insights to monitor usage, satisfaction, and outcomes.

This proactive approach turns your benefits plan from reactive (paying for big claims after the fact) to preventative (solving problems before they become expensive).

Increasing employee awareness and engagement with benefits

Even the most innovative health benefits will underperform if employees don’t know about them or understand how to use them. One of the most overlooked contributors to poor usage is simply a lack of effective communication. If your people don’t know what’s available, or if the signup process feels complicated or buried, engagement stalls before it begins.

5-step overhaul to increase benefits engagement communication

• start by treating benefits communication like a marketing campaign
• use multiple channels like email, intranet, text alerts, in-person or virtual Q&As
• deliver clear, compelling messages about what’s available and how it can help
• tailor the message to different employee personas
• share success stories that show the real-world impact of your offerings.

5 practical tactics you can implement for stronger engagement

• Host onboarding and quarterly refresh sessions focused on available benefits
• Make information accessible via an easy-to-navigate employee benefits portal
• Provide opt-in nudges and automated reminders for underused programs
• Equip managers and team leads to serve as benefit ambassadors
• Partner with vendors to create custom engagement materials and explainer videos

Tracking which benefits employees engage with (and why) can help you continuously refine messaging and delivery. Consider conducting quick pulse surveys to uncover confusion, barriers, or new needs.

Engagement isn't just about awareness. It’s about building trust, reducing friction, and showing employees that these benefits exist for them. When you make your benefits feel approachable and easy to use, you help employees take control of their health. And when they do that, outcomes improve, both clinically and organizationally.

Let’s now explore how to design benefits with high usability and lasting impact.

How to design health benefits your employees will actually use

Design is everything. If your plan is cumbersome, confusing, or full of fine print, usage will stall. But when you design with simplicity and outcomes in mind, you create a system that works for everyone.

Here’s how top employers keep usage high:

• Make it accessible: Offer digital-first options for care that can happen anywhere.
• Proactively engage: Use predictive tools and reminders to catch issues early.
• Align incentives: Pay vendors for outcomes, not just sign-ups.
• Measure the right metrics: Don’t just track enrollment. Measure completion rates, ROI, and member satisfaction.

Sword’s Outcome Pricing model means you only pay when your people get better — a clear win for employers and HR leaders looking to show CFOs the true value.

A well-designed plan not only delivers better outcomes, it also drives loyalty. Employees notice when a benefit works well and feels personalized. They tell their peers, they stay longer, and they show up more fully.

And for HR and finance leaders, the numbers speak for themselves.

Business impact: usage drives ROI

Unused benefits are a drain. They inflate your budget without delivering returns. Benefits employees use deliver measurable value:

• Real ROI with a $3,177 average saving per member per year⁵
• 50% reduction in the rate of costly surgeries⁵ 
• Higher productivity as 68% of Sword members recover lost performance⁶

By tying outcomes to engagement, you maximize every dollar spent. This shift is more efficient and more equitable. When care is easier to access and more effective, everyone benefits, including underserved populations who may face higher barriers to traditional care.

That’s the difference between a plan that looks good on paper and one that truly drives business performance. And that’s the kind of plan today’s competitive landscape demands.

So what does the future look like for high-usage, high-impact benefits plans?

Build a benefits plan that your employees will use and value

In a world of rising costs, tighter labor markets, and increased employee expectations, a benefits plan must be comprehensive, compelling, and convenient. Usage will become the real benchmark of a benefits plan’s success.

A modern plan must prioritize:

• Ease of access
• Proactive care
• Proven outcomes
• Equity and inclusivity

Sword Health’s digital-first MSK solution delivers on all fronts by removing barriers, boosting engagement, and driving ROI that benefits teams can stand behind. As more organizations embrace outcome-based pricing, predictive analytics, and integrated digital care, the standard for health benefits will continue to rise.

Employees don’t just want better benefits. They want better access to care that works.

Sword Health helps you bridge the gap between what’s offered and what’s used. Implement the Sword suite of solutions and you get the confidence of guaranteed return on your benefits investment in the form of healthier employees, lower costs, and a future-proof benefits strategy.