Medically guided · Year-long · Backed by a 2nd-year guarantee
The clinical support your workforce already needs.
17% of your workforce is already living with an alcohol or substance use disorder, and most are hiding it. Traditional treatment fails them: 86% return to use within six months of a 28-day rehab. NorthStar is the first fully virtual, year-long medical program for AUD and SUD, genomic-guided, nutrient-restoring, psychiatrically integrated, and the only national addiction treatment provider that carries a contractual performance guarantee.
Your employees stay at work. Your healthcare spend drops. And the outcomes hold.
What AUD/SUD costs your organization
Sources: National Safety Council; U.S. Department of Labor. For a 20,000-employee organization, this translates to roughly $10,500 in additional annual healthcare cost per affected employee, a $51M+ total addressable cost from a single underlying condition.
What the claims data can't see
Most employer claims data shows AUD/SUD prevalence of 1-2%. That reflects only patients who entered rehab; clinicians are trained to avoid the primary diagnosis to protect a patient's record.
NorthStar's proprietary methodology, built from a review of all 75,000 CPT codes, identifies the hidden population using definitive secondary diagnoses (alcoholic pancreatitis, encephalopathy, opioid overdose, and others). Findings track with National Safety Council benchmarks: ~17% of an employer workforce lives with AUD or SUD, with a ~300% cost-of-care differential for stage 3 and 4 patients.
An upstate New York employer with 20,000 covered teachers ran the NorthStar methodology against their claims:
Traditional treatment doesn't hold
A study of nearly 6,000 inpatient rehab patients measured the percentage who returned to use after discharge, by time since leaving treatment.
86% of inpatient rehab patients return to use within six months of discharge, and the comorbid diseases untreated AUD drives (depression +583%, atrial fibrillation +507%, acute pancreatitis +420%) keep multiplying in your claims.
The five-pillar clinical model
Created by a board-certified addiction specialist. Covers employees and their dependents, with goals from moderation to abstinence, treatment adapts to the person, not the other way around.
DNA-guided prescribing
Genomic sequencing guides selection across a 40+ medication formulary, eliminates trial-and-error.
Nutrient repletion
20+ targeted nutrients restore brain biochemistry damaged by chronic substance use.
Nine-person care team
Physicians, Psych NPs, APCs, nurses, therapists, peer guides and navigators, 7 days/week, full year.
Anonymous VR groups
Customizable avatars and voice masking dismantle the stigma barrier to seeking care.
365-day continuity
A full year at home, no work, family, or life disruption. Continuous monitoring.
The only addiction provider that stands behind its outcomes
Addiction is a chronic condition, and a return to use is a clinical event, not a failure. So NorthStar does what no traditional rehab will: we put the outcome in the contract. If an employee needs more support after their first year of care, they re-enter the full program, at no additional cost.
of coverage for less than the cost of a single 28-day rehab stay. If a return to use occurs, NorthStar re-stabilizes the patient at no additional charge for up to one additional year.
Contractually guaranteed
A written performance guarantee, not a marketing promise. No other national addiction treatment provider offers one.
Aligned to your outcomes
~$40K per year of care vs. $55-62K per traditional rehab episode, and we only succeed when the employee stays well.
Outcomes that show up at work
Recovery shows up across the whole person, and across every dimension employers care about: presence, performance, and persistence. NorthStar tracks all of it, and reports outcomes to a level no traditional rehab or behavioral health vendor can match.
Compared with ~13% for traditional 28-day inpatient rehab, a 6.6x improvement in lasting recovery.
Year-long medical engagement, not 30 days and discharge. Net Promoter Score 88.2 (typical healthcare NPS ~37), among the highest in chronic-disease care.
Validated improvements in depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7) measured across the year (p < .001).
Of patients with clinical PTSD move to non-clinical (PCL-C, p < .001), co-occurring conditions treated from day one.
Patients moving from low resilience to normal-high resilience (Brief Resilience Scale). Whole-person recovery, measured.
Rapid symptomatic improvement from onset. Employees stabilize quickly.
Not the same category of care
The light-touch vendors most employers offer today were built for early-stage or mild use. NorthStar is the only solution built as a medical program capable of treating moderate-to-severe AUD and SUD, and the only one that contractually stands behind its outcomes.
Light-touch vendors serve early-stage and mild cases, and refer the moderate-to-severe population back to the $55,000 rehab cycle. That population is precisely the hidden cohort driving the cost.
Low lift for HR. High impact for employees.
HR shouldn't have to navigate clinical conversations, manage outreach, or track treatment progress. That's NorthStar's job. Your team just opens the door.
Less absenteeism
Employees stay at work, no 30-day disappearance. The program is built around their schedule, not the other way around.
Lower healthcare costs
Treating AUD/SUD directly cuts the 300% multiplier on comorbid disease, depression, atrial fibrillation, pancreatitis, and breast cancer among them.
Productivity restored
People who feel better cognitively work more productively. Brain function measurably recovers across the year (40.3% cognition gain).
Outcomes you can measure
Aggregate, de-identified reporting shows NorthStar's results without revealing a single patient's identity.
