In 2012, the founders of Harry’s decided to reinvent an entire industry. Years later, they would discover Eden Health — a company doing exactly the same thing. “We got our start as a direct-to-consumer men’s shaving products company,” explains Kathleen Davin, People Operations Specialist at Harry’s.
“To create products that people like more, we’re always looking for inefficiencies in the current system. We realized that men didn’t like the process of buying shaving products, so we fixed it. In the same way, Eden Health has taken an incredibly complex system and made it easier to navigate. They’re turning the healthcare industry upside down — in a good way — by filling in all the gaps in the current system. Because we try to do that with all our products, Eden falls nicely in line with our overall philosophy.”
NAVIGATING A BROKEN SYSTEM
“We have a very young population — mostly under age 40 — that appreciates tech-friendly benefits and things that are easy to navigate,” Davin says. “But healthcare is not easy to navigate. We found that our people were frustrated trying to get transparency around pricing and coverage options and whether certain doctors were in- or out-of-network. They felt like they were living in the Stone Age a little bit. It was hugely important for us to fill in those gaps and create a more user-friendly experience for our team.”
Employee confusion led to challenges for our people operations team as well, says Davin. “To our workforce, healthcare had become this black box where there was limited access to information, lots of complex lingo, and confusion about where to find answers they needed. So my team would spend easily 4-6 hours a week, and even more during open enrollment, helping employees navigate plans and answering questions. But even then, for legal and ethical reasons, we couldn’t tell them what plan to choose or which doctor to go to. It’s challenging to get involved in someone’s individual healthcare situation. We wanted a neutral resource that employees could build trust with and we wanted Eden to be that resource.”
AN ALL-IN-ONE CARE SOLUTION
The answer wasn’t far away. “In 2018, my colleague Jessica Feldman met the Eden Health team at an event. To show what Eden could do for Harry’s, they actually let Jessica use the platform for a little bit. She had an employee medical bill that she couldn’t get resolved for months on our old plan. She gave it to the Eden team and they got it taken care of within a couple of weeks. This helped us demonstrate that added value and get buy-in from leadership so that we could launch Eden.”
Eden providers prioritize preventative physical care, which will reduce costs, according to Davin. “Employees are finding that primary care through Eden is easier to access and they’re actually getting their health questions answered. Our people feel like they have a trusted source to bring those concerns to early on, and then Eden helps support them with addressing it. We don’t catch these things too late because we have Eden there as a resource. By reducing ER visits and expensive procedures, we expect that Eden’s preventative care will really reduce our insurance costs going forward.”
AN EASIER ROUTE TO GREAT CARE
To say Eden Health has been popular at Harry’s is an understatement. “Eden is far and away the most utilized opt-in benefit that we offer. Utilization is at around 75%, which is incredible — three out of four employees use Eden. That’s so much higher than any other telehealth solution out there, so it’s worth it for us from a utilization standpoint alone.”
“We also get great anecdotal feedback. New hires will say, ‘This is a totally new platform for me. I’ve never seen anything like this, and this is going to make navigating my health plan and my health so much easier.’ We also get consistently positive reactions from employees who have been with us from the beginning. Eden has quickly become that ever present, go-to resource when anyone has an issue.”
As the young workforce at Harry’s matures, Eden becomes even more useful. “Those people who joined us at an early stage are older and getting married and starting families. And as our population changes in that way, they tend to have more healthcare needs. So when employees have an unusual medical bill or they’re looking at hospitals to deliver in or they’re dealing with a diagnosis, Eden is always our first go-to resource for them.”
INSURANCE EXPERTS AT THE READY
As part of its integrated 360 scope of care, Eden Health offers Benefits Navigators. These trained insurance and benefits experts are there to answer employee questions, resolve billing claims, and provide referrals. “Ninety-five percent of the time that we get a healthcare-related question or billing issue, I direct employees to Eden, and they take care of it. I told a new hire who had a claims problem, ‘Hey, Eden is our resource and they can get this fixed for you, so you don’t have to worry about it.’ She came back and said, ‘Eden is amazing. I didn’t know that this was something that my providers should have been taking care of, but they resolved it all. And now I know what to do going forward.’
“What’s amazing about Benefits Navigators is that not only do they take care of issues, but they also educate employees on the best way to resolve them going forward. They’re really good at walking employees through what they’re doing, what a deductible means, and what they said when they got on the phone with the provider or insurance company. That gives employees more insight into how to better use the healthcare system and navigate their health in general.”
GUIDANCE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
Like all businesses, Harry’s has needed to limit the impact of COVID-19 on day-to-day operations. Since the start of the pandemic, Eden provided instant support via its Active Daily Monitoring screening program, that employees use to check temperatures and symptoms before leaving home each morning. “If someone reports symptoms via the screener, they’re immediately directed to the Eden team for a virtual consultation and direction for further care. Right now, we have five to ten employees going into the office each week. Not only does Active Daily Monitoring ensure that we’re compliant with state laws, it also makes our employees feel a lot safer coming into the office.”
Eden has also helped Harry’s by sharing useful knowledge during uncertain times. “Back in March 2020, when New York City was under lockdown, we leaned really heavily on Eden to get advice: What can we communicate to our team? How should we best support this person? Through all of the ups and downs, Eden served as our subject matter expert. In a world where things were incredibly chaotic and stressful, they’ve been a really integral resource for putting our people at ease.”
As 2021 and a nationwide vaccine rollout is underway, Eden will continue to provide steady support and current knowledge. “We’re already getting questions like, ‘how is the rollout working?’ and ‘when can I get mine?’ There is a lot of eagerness for that. So far, Eden has been an incredibly useful fount of information regarding when employees will have access to the vaccines in all of the states we’re in. They’ve been very communicative about timelines and when Eden expects to have these available. As we get further into the rollout, they’ll be a really incredible resource.”
COMMITTED TO MENTAL HEALTH
“Mental health is important to Harry’s as a brand, and throughout COVID the need for it became even more urgent. When the pandemic started, we launched a mental health guide to offer our team a go-to resource with tips, benefits, and advice for navigating the overwhelming world of mental health. To make things as easy as possible, we promoted Eden’s app as an easy way to find access to an in-network therapist. Eden is one of those core mental health offerings for us because they actually offer therapist support. Of course, if employees want to see someone outside Eden or even outside our insurance network, we remind them that Eden can help them submit their insurance claims.”
Harry’s commitment to mental health had been a core mission since their inception. The company donates one percent of its sales to nonprofits that deliver access to therapy and other resources to men, a group typically less willing to reach out for help. Eden helps Harry’s embody that philosophy throughout the organization. “When we talk about mental health externally, we need to make sure we’re promoting that culture of mental health and wellbeing internally. When we look at our benefits, it’s really important that they play into that.”
“For us, mental health is just as important as physical health,” Davin says. “So we like that Eden doctors give our people a quick mental health checkup at every appointment. It’s good to know that employees are talking with someone who can flag any issues early on and get employees the support that they need.”
HIGH TECH MEETS HIGH TOUCH
“I see Eden as a perfect combination of using modern technology to make things easier, while also providing a white glove level of service. It was really important for us to have a highly personalized healthcare team that our employees could lean on heavily. With any other service, you don’t feel as connected to your healthcare team, even when you visit a doctor or specialist.”
Kathleen Davin wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Eden Health to people operations or HR teams at other companies. “It’s truly one of the most comprehensive concierge healthcare platforms that you could possibly find. It provides us with a huge return on investment and will lead to savings on our healthcare plans. Our employees engage with it consistently, which translates to a much more productive team — they’re not spending all of their time dealing with health insurance issues. Our employees are actually enjoying using their benefits and have more overall satisfaction. We’ve seen the return in so many ways and it’s been incredibly valuable for our team.”
