District's "Healthiest You" virtual-care benefit credited with nearly $100,000 in avoided charges and expanded mental-health access

Jamie Brown, identified to the committee as the presenter on benefits, told the Janesville School District Policy & Curriculum Committee that Healthiest You was made available to employees and enrolled dependents on Jan. 1, 2026 and is free at point of use for participants. "It is free to all of our employees. They have access to virtual care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Brown said.

Brown reported utilization through July 31: 282 visits in total, and detailed estimated avoided charges to the district's health plan of roughly $63,000 for general medical care, about $19,000 for mental health and $7,000 for dermatology. Brown described the aggregate figure as "almost $100,000" in avoided cost and said survey respondents indicated 77% would otherwise have used urgent care or an emergency room.

The presentation underscored a mental-health access effect: Brown said 20 employees are on a regular cadence for mental-health care through the program and that 53% of those who sought mental-health services reported they would have foregone treatment without the benefit. "Out of all of the employees who have sought care, 53% said that they would have foregone treatment entirely," Brown said, emphasizing the program's role in reducing barriers to care.

Brown also highlighted service-specific performance: an average 7-minute wait for on-demand general medical visits, and an average 3.9 hours from dermatology request to response (with 71% of dermatology requests receiving a response in under an hour), compared with typical in-person dermatology waits of 4550 to 90 days.

Committee members asked for clarification about the savings figures. Brown said the avoided-cost numbers represent charges that did not get billed to the district's insurance plan and that individual employee out-of-pocket impacts would vary by deductible and other factors. Carrie Mickelson, who participated in the discussion about benefits, stated the district pays about $120,000 annually for the program.

Brown identified operational issues for follow-up, including platform timeouts, a few canceled or rescheduled appointments, and complications for prescriptions when a provider is out of state. She said brokers are collecting outstanding physical-therapy utilization data and that benefits staff will step up communications and outreach to unregistered employees, with another update expected in February.