Many care programs show ROI in aggregate, but fail to engage the members most likely to drive near-term MSK costs. Musculoskeletal care is one of the largest healthcare expenses for employers and health plans alike.¹ ² A significant share of that spend is driven by avoidable escalation into costly imaging, injections, and surgery.³ ⁴ Sword Health’s AI-powered solution, Predict, identifies members at elevated risk of near-term high-cost MSK events and prioritizes them for early, conservative care. The result is measurable savings, better outcomes, and a more disciplined approach to MSK cost control. Validated through a matched control study, this whitepaper reveals how Sword Predict reduces low-value MSK care and delivers a claims-validated 5x return on investment.

Nebraska Medicine is a nationally recognized academic health system with more than 10,000 employees, including over 1,000 physicians. It provides world-class care, research, and education throughout the region while also offering a competitive health and wellness program for its own workforce. The organization is committed to high standards in everything it delivers, including employee benefits. While Nebraska Medicine had an established in-person physical therapy program, many employees struggled to get care when they needed it. Clinic hours, shift-work, and limited availability made it difficult to book or attend traditional appointments. These challenges left many team members living with preventable MSK pain. The organization needed a way to complement its in-house offering with something more flexible, accessible, and scalable across its large and diverse workforce.

Across large populations, unnecessary MSK surgery often results from identifying high-risk members too late in the care journey. When average employee tenure is less than a year, savings that take multiple years to materialize are difficult to rely on. MSK is different. Surgical escalation can happen quickly, and procedures like injections and surgery are among the largest drivers of near-term MSK spend. This whitepaper explains how Sword's AI Care reduces unnecessary surgery within the plan year by combining evidence-based digital physical therapy with proactive identification of members at risk of escalation. The result is earlier access to conservative care, fewer low-value procedures, and more reliable near-term cost impact.