About Portico
Built for people who don't stop
Portico Benefit Services exists to support those who serve. ELCA Health Plan members — pastors, rostered ministers, and church staff across hundreds of ELCA-affiliated organizations — are the first call when something breaks and the steady presence in ordinary moments. They show up for the sick, the grieving, the celebrating, and everyone in between.
Their health isn’t theirs alone. When a pastor is well, the people depending on them feel it. When they are not, those communities feel that too.
Portico has always understood the weight of that. Their mission is to make sure those who care for everyone else are genuinely cared for too.
the decision
Care that goes where clinics won't
For some, the barriers to care were not complicated — they were constant. Many live in rural communities with no specialists nearby. Their schedules were built around other people's needs. Asking a pastor with chronic pain to schedule regular appointments often meant asking them to choose between getting care and meeting the needs of their congregation. Most chose their work.
Portico understood the cost of that. Someone who could not access care could not heal, which challenged their ability to show up the way their congregation needed. Portico needed to find a way to reach its members where they were.
So they chose Sword.
With care available from home and on demand, the barriers to access fell away. Sword members in remote communities could start a session between services. They could complete a full program without leaving home. They could recover without rearranging their lives. Portico saw 9.5 percent of their eligible population enroll, with members averaging more than 30 sessions each. Eighty-four percent reported meaningful clinical improvement. Surgical intent dropped by nearly half.
These were people who had been pushing through pain for years. When care finally reached them, they stayed with it.
People are leveraging the technology in very remote areas of the world. High engagement is critical. But what's also important is how satisfied they are. And we consistently see top-box satisfaction scores.
member story
From the mailbox to the mountains
Pastor Janell Monk has answered the call for 25 years. On Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, and at 11:30 pm when someone's world is falling apart. She is the person people lean on.
In 2014, a car accident took that away. A concussion. A neck injury. Years of recovery measured in careful, incremental progress. The day she made it to the mailbox. The day she made it to the end of the block. She was not sure she would ever stand at a pulpit again.
She recovered. The pain stayed.
Through her ELCA-Primary health benefits from Portico, she found Sword. She started with neck and shoulder pain. What she got back was more than she had let herself hope for. Strength she had written off. Stamina she thought was gone. The particular freedom of a body that can do what it is asked. She gardens now. She hikes. She snowshoes. And she still answers that 11:30 pm call, because she can, and because she needs to, and because that is who she is.
When Portico chose to offer Sword, this is what they were choosing. Not just better benefits outcomes. A pastor returned to her congregation.
It's changed my life. It has given me new hope to keep going forward when life gets tough. It means the world to me.
2025 results
By the numbers
Portico's members had been pushing through pain for years. These are the results when access stopped being the barrier.
9.5%
of eligible population enrolled
30.2
average sessions per member
84%
reported meaningful clinical improvement
48%
reduction in surgical intent
31%
improvement in overall work impairment
4.6/5
average session satisfaction
The numbers on this page are one story. There are 15,000 more like it.
I can see the impact of the work that I do in the communities that we serve. And I will never get over that. I mean, it's the honor of my life, truly.
