For your caregivers

What a caregiver actually receives

The employer side is the tax mechanics. This is the part that shows up in your caregiver's life, which is the part that affects whether they stay.

The benefits

Delivered through UnifyWell. Everything below comes from the member benefits booklet, not from us. The employer side of the same plan is covered in our Section 125 guide.

Telemedicine, 24/7

Virtual urgent care, primary care and counseling from home, around the clock. No visit cost.

Pharmacy

Generic medications at no cost. Up to 80 percent off everything else, including brand-name drugs. Members search a medication and see the options.

Dental

Up to 60 percent off dental procedures through a nationwide network.

Mental health and wellness

Unlimited access to educational, experiential and therapeutic support groups. Coaching sessions. Yoga. HIPAA privacy applies.

Discounted labs, imaging and vision

The everyday costs that land on a self-pay household, at negotiated rates.

One dashboard and an app

The WoW Health Dashboard holds everything in one place. iOS and Android.

Why this matters more than it sounds

UnifyWell's own framing is the useful one here: 91 percent of healthcare events happen outside the four walls of a hospital. Doctor visits, imaging, dental, medications, labs, vision.

Those are the costs a caregiver pays out of pocket even when they do have insurance, because of co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance. For a caregiver earning around $16.78 an hour, a $180 dental bill is not an inconvenience. It is a decision about whether to go.

The benefit that changes behavior is the one that covers the thing they were already going to skip.

PHI's Key Facts 2025 puts it plainly: 11 percent of home care workers have no health insurance at all, 59 percent receive some form of public assistance, and 15 percent live below the federal poverty line.

What the caregiver has to do

Participation is not automatic and it is not a paperwork exercise. Each month a participating caregiver completes a health risk assessment and a qualifying wellness activity.

That requirement is deliberate. The plan designs that drew regulatory objection were the ones where employees never actually received or used a benefit. Real engagement is what separates a defensible structure from the ones that were sold badly.

It also means the benefit gets used, which is the only version of this that improves retention.

What happens to their paycheck

The employee pre-tax deduction is paired with a matching post-tax reward in the same paycheck. Most caregivers see the same or a slightly larger net paycheck than before.

Not every caregiver qualifies. It depends on wages, filing status and pay schedule, and the proposal shows exactly who does and who does not before anyone signs anything.

An honest limitation. This is not a replacement for major medical coverage. It sits alongside whatever you already offer, and for an agency offering nothing today it is a first real benefit rather than a complete one. A no-cost MEC plan is available where one is needed.

What changes for your recruiting

Go read the caregiver job ads in your area this week. Most name zero benefits, and many of the same companies are posting roles at $16.00 an hour on the same page.

That is not sloppy writing. There is usually nothing to name. At most agencies the only person with health coverage is the owner.

An agency that can name specific benefits in a recruiting ad is competing in a different market than one that cannot. Owners tell us the retention effect shows up before the enrollment numbers do.

See what this costs your agency

Spoiler: it is built to run at zero net cost. The estimator shows where the money comes from.

Open the estimator
About thirty seconds. No signup to see your numbers.