Written for the person who signs the checks. Real numbers on caregiver turnover, what benefits actually cost an agency, and how Section 125 changes the math.
Almost everything published about employee benefits assumes a salaried office with an HR department.
Home care does not look like that. Caregivers work 24 or 30 or 38 hours depending on the week, wages cluster in the high teens, and roughly three quarters of the roster turns over in a year. Advice built for a 200-person software company falls apart the moment an owner tries to apply it to a scheduling board and a roster of part-time aides.
Everything here is written for that reality. Every dollar figure is worked out on caregiver wages and part-time hours rather than borrowed from a national average, every statistic names its source, and anything we cannot stand behind gets cut before publishing.
We sell something. Home Care Wellness helps agencies fund caregiver benefits with payroll taxes they already pay. That is worth knowing while you read, and it is also why the pages here name the objections to this category rather than hide them.
What the mechanism is, what a two-dollar raise really costs across 40 caregivers, why part-time staff are not disqualified, and how the four options actually compare side by side. Includes what the plan does not do.
Everything published here belongs to one of these. Each one is a running thread rather than a one-off article.
Why caregivers leave, what it costs to replace one, and which levers move retention without moving payroll. The wage-band data is the part most owners have never seen.
Section 125, WIMPER, SIMRP, nondiscrimination testing with a mostly part-time roster, and how to tell a defensible plan design from one that is not.
Margins, payroll taxes and the arithmetic underneath every staffing decision. Where the money goes, and which line items are actually negotiable.
Twenty-four pieces so far, three a week. Newest first inside each thread.
The tax provisions date to 1978 and are used by a large share of American employers. The category has attracted operators selling designs regulators objected to, particularly ones pairing a fixed indemnity policy with a reimbursement arrangement so the same dollars returned twice. The full answer is here, including which third parties reviewed this plan.
The 30-hour threshold that blocks part-time staff from most group plans is a carrier rule, not tax law. A Section 125 election is open to W-2 employees regardless of hours. What varies is how much each person gains, which depends on wages, filing status and existing withholding.
The structure is designed to net to zero, because it works on FICA the agency is already paying rather than new money. UnifyWell's own published example nets an employer roughly $640 per participating employee per year on a $44,000 earner, after the plan's administration fee. Caregiver wages sit below that, so the honest answer is a range. The estimator will show you where your agency lands.
No. It sits alongside whatever you already offer, and agencies that have a group plan keep it and keep their broker. It is not insurance and should never be described to a caregiver as insurance.
Our estimator takes three numbers you already know and shows what your agency currently sends to the IRS, what turnover is costing you, and what could be redirected into caregiver benefits instead.
Open the estimatorFree, no signup, nothing stored.
Home Care Wellness provides marketing and enrollment support and does not provide legal, tax, accounting or health advice. The Unify Wellness Plan is administered by UnifyWell. Savings figures in any proposal are estimates based on the payroll information provided and are not guaranteed. Federal and state tax laws change. Consult your own CPA or attorney before enrolling.