Improve Sword's ROI by reaching high-cost members earlier

Many care programs show ROI in aggregate, but fail to reach the members most likely to drive near-term costs. Musculoskeletal care is one of the largest healthcare expenses for employers — but up to half of all surgeries may be unnecessary. Sword Health’s new AI-powered solution, Predict, identifies members at risk and redirects them to proven, lower-cost care. The result? Massive savings, better outcomes, and a smarter approach to MSK treatment. Validated by matched control studies and third-party research, this white paper reveals how Sword Predict slashes MSK costs and delivers a category-leading 3.7x return on investment.

This Fortune 100 company is a global leader in engineering, construction, and project management. With over 50,000 employees working in diverse and physically demanding roles, the organization sought to improve care access and reduce costs tied to musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, one of its largest healthcare cost drivers. With a workforce exposed to physically demanding tasks and tight deadlines, the organization faced unique challenges in managing MSK risk at scale. Too often, employees received care only after symptoms had progressed. By the time they engaged, their only options were imaging, injections, or surgery. Traditional models failed to identify MSK risk early, leading to expensive and often avoidable interventions that affected productivity and financial performance. The company needed a better way to flag MSK risk early and reach employees before costs escalated. For a national employer with high-cost members spread across lines of business, these gaps quickly added up.

Joel had been struggling with low back pain for years and couldn’t find relief. He went to a chiropractor, but the relief he got was temporary, at best. His family doctor prescribed physical therapy, but he wasn’t doing his exercises between sessions, so it didn’t do much to ease the pain. He was also relying on medication to give him some reprieve. Things got so bad for Joel that he started considering surgery. He didn’t want to go under the knife, but felt he was out of options. If you or someone you love is in the same boat as Joel, you’re not alone. One in every two Americans struggles with musculoskeletal (MSK) pain, and low back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. Costs for treating MSK conditions in the United States total almost $200 billion dollars1 - more money is spent treating MSK than on cancer and mental health combined. The large majority of the cost associated with MSK conditions comes from orthopedic surgeries. The cost of a single spinal surgery, the most common orthopedic surgery in the U.S., averages out at $50,000, and the sobering truth is that between 20 and 40 percent of all spinal surgeries fail.