Bend the Trend: Lower Healthcare Costs with Preventive Care

What if improving your employees’ health today through preventive care could meaningfully reduce your healthcare costs tomorrow?

Too often, preventable conditions go undetected until they require expensive, complex treatment, driving costs for employers, and disrupting employees’ lives. A condition that could have been managed early becomes a catastrophic claim. A routine screening that never happened turns into time away from work, long-term treatment, and avoidable stress for employees and their families.

The good news? You don’t have to overhaul your health plan to make a meaningful impact. Even small, targeted actions, like promoting preventive screenings, can lead to measurable savings and better health outcomes. By starting with low-risk pilot programs, employers can reduce uncertainty, test what works, and build momentum without adding complexity.

The Alliance’s most recent webinar featured a panel of employers, sharing what they’ve tried, what worked, and the real-world results they’re seeing. Their message was clear: prevention doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. Watch the full webinar to hear directly from employers putting prevention into practice.

Below are practical, proven strategies to lower healthcare costs while helping employees stay healthier.

What is Preventive Care and Why It Matters

Preventive care includes services designed to catch health issues early or prevent them altogether. This includes annual physicals, routine blood work, cancer screenings, mental health check-ins, vaccinations, and chronic condition monitoring.

These services are offered no-or-low cost, compared to what happens when care is delayed. High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and mental health conditions rarely appear overnight. They develop gradually, often with warning signs that routine screenings are designed to catch.

From an employer perspective, preventive care matters because it helps avoid:

• High-cost claims tied to late-stage diagnoses
• Long-term disability or extended leave
• Lost productivity and staffing challenges
• Increased stress and financial strain for employees

The Hidden Costs of Delayed or Missed Screenings

One of the most compelling examples shared during The Alliance webinar came from Michelle Golden at the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District. After noticing a higher-than-average rate of heart attacks among bus drivers, the district implemented preventive screenings to identify artery blockages.

In a role where a medical emergency behind the wheel could put children’s lives at risk, early detection was critical. By catching artery blockages before they became life-threatening, the district not only avoided costly medical claims, but more importantly, helped protect their drivers, their students, and their community, truly changing lives in the process.

As Michelle put it, it’s about “spending money on the small things that will help prevent the bigger things.”

When screenings are missed or delayed, the consequences ripple outward:

• Conditions are diagnosed later, when they are more complex and expensive to treat
• Employees miss more work due to illness, recovery, or ongoing treatment
• Stress increases for employees and their families, often alongside financial strain
• Employers see higher claims and operational disruption

Preventive screenings like colonoscopies, breast cancer screenings, mental health check-ins, cholesterol checks, blood panels, and routine lab work catch issues early, when they’re easier and less expensive to address.

What Employers are Doing

The employer panel shared several strategies that are making preventive care more accessible and more effective.

Consistent, Year-Round Messaging

Education is essential to getting employees to use preventive services. Instead of limiting the conversation to open enrollment, successful employers keep preventive care front and center year-round. Employers with engaged employees don’t just teach employees what to do; they get them to understand why it matters.

Employers of engaged employees also ask thoughtful questions rather than issuing directives. For example: What would happen to your family if you became seriously ill? Or How would it impact you if you broke your arm today? Now what if that was a problem with your heart or liver? This encourages reflection without being prescriptive because people are more likely to act when they feel it is their idea.

And for the “I feel fine, I don’t need to go in” mindset; leaders can use relatable analogies. For example, you wouldn’t ignore a check engine light. You don’t skip oil changes just because your car seems fine. Your body deserves the same maintenance.

Often, the most powerful messengers aren’t from HR; they’re coworkers. Employees who’ve had positive preventive care experiences become natural advocates. When someone catches a condition early or avoids a serious diagnosis altogether, the story is personal, relatable, and far more impactful than any flyer or email could ever be.

Health Fairs That Go Deeper

Brain Cornell, plant manager at Wissota Tool, shared that health fairs aren’t just about giving employees pamphlets. The organization includes blood panels that go beyond a typical annual physical at their health fairs. In one case, an employee’s spouse discovered a blood disorder that had gone undetected despite regular checkups. Another employee learned they were pre-diabetic and, through lifestyle changes, avoided becoming fully diabetic.

Incentives and Barrier Removal

Gamber-Johnson encourages employees to complete screenings and physicals with monetary incentives, but the real impact comes from removing the barriers that often keep people from seeking care in the first place. Philip Blair, Vice President of Human Resources at Gamber-Johnson shared that by talking directly with employees, they learned that cost and time were the biggest obstacles. Their no-cost onsite clinic eliminates both. By using the onsite clinic, employees don’t have to clock out, travel to appointments, or worry about out-of-pocket expenses.

To further build trust, Renee, the onsite nurse from Anovia Health, regularly walks the production floor, making herself and the clinic a familiar and approachable presence. That visibility helps employees feel comfortable accessing care.

The Alliance: What We Do and What We’ve Learned

When we asked ourselves how we support preventive care at The Alliance, the honest answer is that our approach has evolved. Years ago, we had a strong push around preventive care, including incentives for biometric screenings. Over time, we realized that approach felt transactional and didn’t always lead to lasting behavior change. Today, prevention is part of our culture, and it didn’t require new software, complicated tracking, or major incentives. It started with a conversation.

During an all-staff meeting, a leader casually mentioned going in for a routine colonoscopy and talked about it like it was just another part of taking care of yourself. That opened the door. Another employee shared how they used our health plan to get their colonoscopy at a Preferred-Value Provider at no cost and joked about finding a great restaurant on the drive home.

That lighthearted moment made the procedure feel less scary and more approachable. Soon after, more employees scheduled overdue screenings and the cost to our health plan was minimal compared to what delayed care would have cost later.

Since then, we’ve focused on removing barriers and building prevention directly into our benefit design through no-cost Tier 1 care. For example:

• Dermatology is included in Tier 1, so employees can address skin concerns early
• Colonoscopy options are promoted with Preferred-Value Providers, protecting employees from out-of-pocket costs even if screenings become diagnostic
• Mental health providers are part of Tier 1, with coordinated care through primary care when appropriate
• Physical therapy and sports therapy are available in Tier 1 to support early intervention

Start Small for a Big Impact

You don’t need an onsite clinic or a major plan overhaul to make a meaningful difference. Small, intentional steps, like promoting a single screening or removing one barrier to care, can have a significant impact. As Philip Blair put it, the biggest risk isn’t trying something new, it’s doing nothing at all.

When preventive care is easy, accessible, and consistently reinforced, it becomes part of everyday behavior. The goal is simple; make prevention the norm, not the exception.

Connect with The Alliance to explore how your benefit plan can make preventive care easier, more accessible, and more cost-effective for your employees