Skip to content
‹ Back to IndustriesHealthcare

Cutting Costs, Boosting Care: Why Employers Are Turning to Direct Primary Care for a Healthier, More Engaged Workforce

Rising healthcare costs continue to strain employers and employees alike — and with the average annual premium for family coverage nearing $27,000, benefits leaders are searching for new models that deliver both affordability and accessibility. At the same time, workplace well-being has expanded beyond basic coverage to include mental health, telemedicine, and preventive care,…

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Healthcare teams put it to work with Executive Thought Leadership.

By Daniel Litwin · · Direct Primary CareEmployee BenefitsHealthcare InnovationHr Strategy
Share

Key takeaways

01

Rising healthcare costs continue to strain employers and employees alike — and with the average annual premium for family coverage nearing $27,000, benefits leaders are searching for new models that deliver both affordability and accessibility.

02

At the same time, workplace well-being has expanded beyond basic coverage to include mental health, telemedicine, and preventive care,…

Free workspace

Turn your Healthcare expertise into content.

Record interviews, organize footage, and write with AI on a free trial of the MarketScale platform for qualifying companies. No demo required, no credit card.

Try it Free

Rising healthcare costs continue to strain employers and employees alike — and with the average annual premium for family coverage nearing $27,000, benefits leaders are searching for new models that deliver both affordability and accessibility. At the same time, workplace well-being has expanded beyond basic coverage to include mental health, telemedicine, and preventive care, reflecting the broader cultural and technological shifts transforming healthcare delivery.

How can HR leaders make smarter, more human-centered decisions about benefits in this evolving healthcare landscape — and what does a truly “future-ready” benefits strategy look like?

HRSouthwest Conference 2025 recently brought together HR innovators and business leaders to explore the evolving landscape of employee well-being. At the event, Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B at MarketScale, caught up with Kyle Sheehan, VP of Strategic Growth at MaxHealth Direct Primary Care, to explore how direct primary care is helping companies balance cost control with genuine care access. Together, they explored how membership-based healthcare models are offering employers predictability, better utilization, and a renewed focus on employee wellness.

What you’ll learn…

  • Predictability Over Premiums: Direct primary care (DPC) provides a more stable cost model for employers, helping offset rising insurance premiums while improving access to care.
  • Access and Engagement: With 24/7 telemedicine and membership-based care, employees are more likely to use their benefits appropriately — reducing absenteeism and unnecessary ER visits.
  • Mental Health as a Core Benefit: Remote work and social disconnection have heightened the need for mental health support; employers are rethinking benefit structures to include accessible, stigma-free options.

Kyle Sheehan is a seasoned healthcare growth executive with over a decade of experience driving business development across imaging, mental health, and direct primary care sectors. He has led high-performing sales and marketing teams, built strategic provider partnerships, and expanded service offerings for companies such as MaxHealth DPC, Elevate Health Clinics, and Gateway Diagnostic Imaging. Known for his consultative sales acumen and adaptability across Texas and other markets, Sheehan specializes in scaling patient access solutions that merge fiscal responsibility with improved care delivery.

Article written by MarketScale.

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Healthcare starts with a company putting its clinicians, service-line leaders, and field engineers on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Service-line buyers vet vendors quietly, and your clinicians become the proof they find while doing it.

Book DemoSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.

About the author

Daniel Litwin
Daniel LitwinEditor, B2B Media, MarketScale

Daniel Litwin is a journalist of multiple disciplines focused on finding and telling engaging stories for B2B communities. He has interviewed executives from Fortune 500 companies including Honeywell, Microsoft, John Deere, and Chipotle, and leads editorial direction at MarketScale. Litwin hosts weekly shows and podcasts while helping develop new content approaches across the MarketScale platform. He holds a B.J. in Radio/Television Reporting/Anchoring and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

B2B Weekly

The week in Healthcare, and sixteen other industries, every Monday.

Ten stories, one-line takes, five minutes. Free.

Healthcare: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Healthcare buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free Trial

You just read one Healthcare expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your clinicians, service-line leaders, and field engineers into the articles, video, and social content Healthcare buyers are searching for. Start a free trial and see it with your own people. For qualifying companies, no credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What your free trial includes

Hands-on access to the MarketScale platform
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
No demo required. No credit card.
For qualifying companies. Company confirmation required.

More Healthcare Insights

Medicus report projects 24% more surgery center cases and 2027 anesthesiology, GI shortages

Medicus report projects 24% more surgery center cases and 2027 anesthesiology, GI shortages

Ambulatory surgery center volumes are projected to rise 24% over the next decade, with anesthesiology and gastroenterology shortages projected for 2027. That puts potential staffing constraints early in the growth period, so operators planning coverage may find the nearer 2027 date sets the pace.

  • 01A 24% ten-year forecast and a 9% forecast for 2023 to 2028 measure different windows; check the time frame and start year before putting either in a budget.
  • 02With about nine in ten ASCs at least partly physician-owned, a staffing gap could hit physician owners directly as clinicians and investors.

Oct 30, 2026

TheraPanacea's CEO says software, not hardware, will scale radiotherapy

TheraPanacea's CEO says software, not hardware, will scale radiotherapy

TheraPanacea CEO Nikos Paragios said at ASTRO 2026 in Boston that vendor-agnostic AI software like ART-Plan can raise radiotherapy throughput on existing machines. A February 2025 Lancet Oncology study puts the global linac shortfall at 30%, with 36 of 181 countries owning no linac, limiting how far software alone can go.

  • 01A February 2025 Lancet Oncology study found a global median Linac Shortage Index of 130, a 30% capacity shortfall, and 36 of 181 countries with no linac at all.
  • 02Bundled adaptive systems already exist: Varian’s Ethos won FDA clearance in February 2020 and RaySearch demoed automated replanning at ASTRO, but buyers still need to validate acceptability and sign-off workflows.

Oct 29, 2026

Berg Insight expects 160 million home medical monitors in care programs by 2030

Berg Insight expects 160 million home medical monitors in care programs by 2030

Prescribed connected home medical monitors are forecast to grow from 92.7 million in 2025 to 159.7 million by 2030. Fastest growth is in diabetes, remote ECG and medication compliance, spread across many suppliers. Berg and IoT Business News argue value depends on integrating data into workflows.

  • 01159.7 million prescribed home medical monitors expected by 2030, growing at 11.5 percent annually from 92.7 million in 2025.
  • 02Sleep therapy is the largest connected segment, followed by diabetes with 19.5 million connections at end of 2025, with fastest future growth in diabetes, remote ECG and medication compliance monitoring.
  • 03Clinical value increasingly depends on integrating data across devices into workflows: vendors combine hardware, software, analytics and interoperability with existing healthcare systems.

Oct 26, 2026

Explore More Healthcare Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Healthcare.

Browse Healthcare Hub

About the Expert

Daniel Litwin
Daniel Litwin

Editor, B2B Media

MarketScale

Daniel Litwin is a journalist of multiple disciplines focused on finding and telling engaging stories for B2B communities. He has interviewed executives from Fortune 500 companies including Honeywell, Microsoft, John Deere, and Chipotle, and leads editorial direction at MarketScale. Litwin hosts weekly shows and podcasts while helping develop new content approaches across the MarketScale platform. He holds a B.J. in Radio/Television Reporting/Anchoring and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Healthcare and beyond.

Book a Demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512