How one of the largest not-for-profit health insurers exceeded costs savings’ goals by 12%

One of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health insurers serves more than 3 million people across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. With a family of companies including leading health plans, primary and specialty care practices and a digital wellness company, the organization is committed to creating healthier futures for its communities.

To expand upon its long history of taking care of people, the health group sought a facilities management solution that would drive a consistent, high-end human experience across all its facilities—for the benefit of patients, physicians and administrative staff alike.

Like many healthcare organizations, however, this health group needed to fulfill this mission without adding financial pressure. In fact, its aim was to improve facility performance and quality while achieving operational cost savings at the same time.

These factors created a strong business case for bringing in a trusted facilities management partner, so the health group’s leaders turned to JLL for its trusted expertise, industry-leading technology and innovation. The partnering team would need to enhance facilities management, while minimizing disruption, adding value and supporting financial prudence across 61 locations.

“Healthcare organizations have been working tirelessly to meet the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19. To achieve continual, high-quality care amidst disruption, partner with data-driven experts who can optimize facilities–and save in-house teams’ attention for the essential work of saving lives.”

JLL spokesperson

And while no one could have foreseen it when the partnership began at the start of 2020, the JLL team would also need to help the health group sustain operations through the many disruptions that followed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the project team’s first efforts was to right-size the number of third-party vendors engaged at the various facilities so the health group could benefit from volume pricing—but ensure quality of service. Many of the health group’s sites had been managing vendor relationships independently, which led to inconsistencies in service and diminished opportunities for volume pricing. Through strategic sourcing, the team trimmed the vendor pool by 35%, reducing administrative overhead and improving the consistency of support services across the organization.

The team also leveraged advanced data and analytics to scrutinize the largest facilities-related expenditures. In addition to janitorial services—one of the biggest spend areas for any healthcare organization—biomedical equipment presented an opportunity for savings. The project team reduced preventive maintenance costs for equipment that was no longer in use and also achieved a more attractive pricing structure, thanks to JLL’s industry relationships.

Using data to align janitorial and other key operations became critically important when New York emerged as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Working in close partnership with the health group personnel, JLL helped keep facilities up and running through those first demanding months of the pandemic and beyond. Key actions included executing a full terminal clean of not only individual spaces, but sometimes entire physician practices whenever someone on the premises was suspected of having the virus. At the height of the pandemic, the facilities team managed 40 to 60 terminal cleans each day—a mammoth undertaking. To help manage the costs of the additional cleaning, the team deployed a new program using ultraviolet light, uncovering $500,000 in savings.

The project team also navigated other challenges unique to 2020, including the citywide shutdown that began a mere 45 days after program launch. The sourcing team helped a number of the health group’s facilities safely serve as testing centers for the public. Amid the social unrest that occurred in summer of 2020, JLL took proactive and swift steps to ramp up security in and around the health group’s facilities, ensuring staff and patients alike were safe even in areas surrounded by vandalism and arson.