One employer in Philadelphia has a lot to be grateful for this year. By partnering with R-Health to provide Direct Primary Care as part of their benefits package, they were able to keep their employee healthcare costs flat for the first time in years. Their employees have much to be thankful for too, as a large portion of the costs would have been shouldered by them.

The back story: The employer was facing a 40% increase in their group health insurance premiums for 2015. They felt like they had no choice but to shift more costs on to employee’s and their families by increasing employee contributions and raising the deductibles.

Sound like a familiar story? Well, this savvy employer realized this approach was unsustainable and that they couldn’t just keep doing the same old thing any longer.

So, in comes R-Health to help them create a smarter benefit design. By combining R-Health Direct Primary Care with a Bronze PPO plan they were offering, their employees will now have outstanding, unrestricted access to their own personal physician (no co-pays or deductibles!) and the financial backstop of a broad PPO network for any major medical issues that may arise.

And best of all, this strategic benefit design allowed the employer to avoid increasing the monthly premium paid by employees for their healthcare.  Now that’s something to be thankful for.