A primary care benefit your employees will actually use

Small businesses in the Hickory area face the same problem most small employers face: traditional group health insurance costs more each year, causing employers to shift more and more of that cost onto employees, and neither option gives employees easy access to a doctor for the things they actually need day to day.

Emerald Health's Small Business Direct Care Access is built around that gap.

What Small Business Direct Care Access covers

Small Business Direct Care Access is a flat-rate primary care benefit for your team, offered in two tiers.

• Gold ($65 per employee per month) covers annual physicals, all acute and sick visits (colds, UTIs, minor infections, and similar issues), in office and telehealth visits, and discounted labs, including a full annual panel for $50 or less.

• Platinum ($85 per employee per month) includes everything in Gold, plus chronic disease management, direct after-hours messaging with their provider, and extended telehealth.

Every enrolled employee gets same-day or next-day access when scheduling permits. That means an employee who wakes up sick on Monday can generally be seen that day or the next, in person or over telehealth, without going to urgent care, waiting hours to be seen, and paying $150 to $250 out of pocket.

How the benefit is structured

You pay a one-time $85 enrollment fee per participating employee, then the monthly fee for their tier. After that, the cost is fixed. No claims processing, no billing surprises, no paperwork to manage on your end each month.

Every employee starts on Gold, with Platinum available for those who need or want more. You're billed one flat monthly fee per employee, whichever tier they're on.

What this costs compared to the alternative

For a group of 10 employees, Small Business Direct Care Access runs $650 a month, or $7,800 a year. Replacing a single employee who leaves typically costs more than that in recruiting, training, and lost productivity. This plan covers same-day access, physicals, and acute visits for your whole team, all year.

Getting started

Employer enrollment starts with a conversation. If this sounds like a good fit for your business, we can walk through how the benefit fits your team size, what onboarding looks like, and how to structure it for your employees. It applies to any business enrolling at least two employees.

Book a strategy planning session with us to see how Small Business Direct Care Access works for your team. Call us at 828-544-1018 or go to our Employers page.