This as-told-to is based on a conversation with Roger Shedlin, founder and CEO of WIN, a Greenwich, Connecticut, family-building benefits management company that operates in all 50 states and several countries. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WIN has been around for about 30 years.
We partner with companies to provide their employees access to family-building and well-being services. We manage these benefits by guiding members through the entire process. We have a team of nurse care advocates who help the employees understand their options, connect them with doctors and other providers, track benefit usage, and navigate their healthcare journeys.
Initially, our focus was on fertility. Companies signed on with us to offer IVF, intrauterine insemination, and egg and sperm freezing benefits to their employees. Our name used to be WIN Fertility.
Then, customers asked us to offer adjacent services.
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By adding new services and attracting new companies, we’ve grown our business over the past five years.
Today, we partner with employers, health plans, and government entities to offer benefits from preconception through fertility (including surrogacy and adoption) as well as services for maternity, parenting, healthy aging, and caregiving.
About two years ago, we dropped “fertility” from our name to reflect the broader scope of services that we provide. As a physician, I’m proud to say we’ve helped over 900,000 families on their family-building and fertility journeys.
We expanded our product line to meet changing needs
When we started, fertility benefits were rarely offered. Employers were slowly realizing, over time — and then the pandemic catalyzed this — how important family-building and well-being benefits are for their workforce, in terms of recruitment, retention, productivity, and employee satisfaction.
Regulatory changes have been another catalyst. New state laws, such as those in Colorado and California, require insurers to cover fertility treatments. We’ve seen demographic changes as intended parents delay childbearing. All of that means these benefits become increasingly important to employers.
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We’ve expanded our products to meet those needs. It became more inclusive, allowing same-sex couples and single-by-choice parents to participate.
Over the last few years, we’ve built a continuum that allows employers to offer benefits for every stage of their employees’ and dependents’ lives.
Some services we’ve added include a maternity program that encompasses doula support, maternity education, lactation support, return-to-work support, and more. We provide surrogacy and adoption benefits, too.
We launched WINkid, a combination of parenting support and virtual pediatrics care, and WINPowerPause, which is support for healthy aging, specifically perimenopause, menopause, and andropause, and WINCares for child and elder caregiving support.
We entered new industries and embraced technology
Over the past five years, we’ve attracted many new clients, and existing clients have added benefits. As a result, the number of our clients offering fertility benefits has grown by 153%. Additionally, the number of our clients offering surrogacy and adoption benefits has increased by 76%, and those offering egg freezing benefits have risen by 80%.
During this time, 80% of contracts were with new clients.
Marissa Alper for BI
We’ve also expanded into new industries and companies of all sizes. Initially, we focused on financial services and technology companies. Now, it’s pretty universal — we’ve seen huge growth across education, energy, and retail.
Today, we work with organizations including Hertz, Disney, Becton Dickinson, and the Seattle Fire Department.
We have a national network of reproductive endocrinologists, nurse advocates, urologists, doulas, child development coaches, and more. We focus on the idea that the best quality of care leads to the best outcomes.
We’re also using data and artificial intelligence to make personalized care recommendations for patients and improve clinical outcomes and patient experience.
We’ll continue to ride the market demand and adopt the most advanced technologies. We’ll harness data science as it advances alongside AI. We’ll continue expanding our product line.
This is a very exciting space to be in. It’s gratifying to be in a space that is clinically advancing and has such a positive impact on those that we serve. It’s great to see that our industry and our company, in particular, have evolved and grown to meet these important needs.
