WELL & Company partners with Agaard to reduce healthcare costs

ALEXANDRIA — Aagard and WELL & Company of Alexandria are partnering to provide employees an innovative solution to rising healthcare costs.

It’s called Direct Primary Care and it’s based on a monthly membership fee per individual. Included in the membership are unlimited office visits, after-hour availability for urgent care needs, wholesale pricing on labs, decreased medication costs, and the option of pairing monthly membership with catastrophic insurance coverage or cost sharing plans for unforeseen medical events.

“Year after year, we experienced increases to our health insurance premiums,” said Sharlo Meyer, HR director at Aagard. ”This year we were looking at a 25% increase and we knew we had to do something different.”

As a business owner and family nurse practitioner, Saundra Lauer, owner and founder of WELL & Company, said the expense of healthcare is unjustly one of the greatest business expenses. “Insurance premiums have historically been rising by double digits annually, leading to financial strain on businesses,” Lauer said.

Lauer set out to create a healthcare model specifically for businesses to be able to actually consider offering benefits to their employees.

The leadership team at Aagard was introduced to this new concept in healthcare where wellness and a healthy lifestyle is the primary focus.

“One of the deciding factors of offering this partnership with WELL & Company to our employees was their commitment to helping our team members and families stay healthy; bringing healthcare back to prevention,” said Meyer.

Aagard team members and their families have unlimited access to the clinic, with affordable as well as personalized healthcare.

“We have many young families at Aagard and felt that WELL & Company would be a good fit as they offer unlimited visits, well-child care, same day or next day appointments, 24/7 access to a provider and much more,” Meyer said.

Meyer added that WELL & Company took the initiative to speak to Aagard team members in group sessions and individual sessions several months before it officially started on the new program.

“They offered an open house so team members and their families could see the clinic, understand the services offered, and visit with the health care providers,” Meyer said. “In the first two months of beginning the partnership, already 20% of our families have utilized the clinic.”