Employer Letter to Congress:
Pass The Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act
As a vital employer in your state and Congressional district, we need your help to send a message to your Congressmen:
We need you to pass S.2999 and H.R.3708, the Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act
During these challenging and uncertain times--for both businesses and their employees--we must be able to offer our employees better access to high quality healthcare, without sacrificing benefits, salaries, or jobs.
Passing the Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act as part of any future COVID-19 relief package would do exactly that. By allowing Americans with HSAs to participate in Direct Primary Care arrangements, employers can cut healthcare costs while their employees gain access to higher quality care.
To this end, we are inviting thousands of employers just like you to sign the letter below in support of the Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act. After you--and every business-owner in your state and Congressional district--have signed, we will be sending this letter, along with your signatures, to your U.S. Senators and House Representative.
Please read this letter below and complete the short form that follows to add your signature.
We write to you with an urgent request for relief from the current prohibition on paying for Direct Primary Care from a Health Savings Account.
For employers and their employees, both active and recently terminated due to the economic crisis from the pandemic, we see an urgent need to help all Americans save money on health care expenses.
Today, HSA-qualified employee benefit plans are offered by the majority of employers, often as an option alongside other medical plans that do not allow an HSA. Employers offer these plans to reduce costs and help employees save on healthcare expenses now and save for future healthcare expenses. It is estimated that one out of five working employees – 30 million workers according to Devenir Research - have an HSA. Unfortunately, this leaves 80% of employees - nearly 120 million Americans - unable to access the many benefits HSAs provide.
Direct Primary Care agreements add an additional 20% savings for employers when taking into account the insurance premium reduction per employee, and their lower cost of care. That is not counting the productivity gains and reduced down time for hourly workers who can be seen quickly and their issue addressed in real-time, so they can return to work – allowing them to earn money and work the hours they need to as well as benefiting the employer.
If all employers could provide Direct Primary Care to their employees and allow them to have a Health Savings Account to cover their pandemic-related expenses, it would help save lives and strengthen our response to the crisis. By helping people obtain and pay for the care they need now, we protect those most at risk.
Brave and hard-working employees are putting their health at risk for the greater good of our country. These front line providers are ensuring that quarantined Americans have access to healthcare, food, and other essentials. It is our obligation to ensure these essential employees are provided the means to safeguard their financial security.
But ironically, the call to shut down all elective surgeries or routine procedures has had the effect of a grim reaper throughout the primary care community, many, many physicians have closed their offices.
Direct primary care practices are thriving though, with their practice built around their patients being able to contact them 24/7, they had remote capabilities as part of their infrastructure, built from the ground up.
Their monthly fee payment model is not subject to the disruption of traditional physicians during a pandemic, or the need to actually see a patient in person to receive payment from an insurer.
Including the Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act would allow employees and others with a Health Savings Account to have a Direct Primary Care relationship with a financially sound physician whose business model can withstand the economic storm of this pandemic. Most of us know someone whose primary care physician is shuttering their offices or closing down their practice as a result of the pandemic and halting of all non-emergency health services.
Passage of the Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act will financially shore up our nation’s primary care doctor infrastructure, while providing other primary care doctors who have had to close their practices an operational business model they can pivot into.
We businesses need ways to save money on benefits without cutting them during this extremely challenging pandemic economy. Allowing direct primary care with a Health Savings Account will give employers like us one more tool in the tool box to try and survive without cutting benefits or salaries or reductions in force.
Your action will go a long way to help Americans save money in these uncertain times.
Therefore, we ask that you include in the next pandemic-related legislation, the Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.