Total cost of care is the sum of every dollar a health event produces across the full episode, not just the line-item cost of the first visit. A single unresolved encounter rarely stays a single line item: a deferred visit becomes an ED trip, an ED trip becomes a specialist referral, and a missed day of work becomes lost productivity stacked on top of the claim itself. Employer premiums are projected to rise approximately 9% in 2026, the highest single-year forecast in over a decade, according to Business Group on Health CEO Ellen Kelsay, and the traditional employer response to that trend rarely bends total cost of care because none of those levers change how quickly an employee can get a condition resolved.
Deferred primary care reliably generates a larger downstream cost once a condition escalates, a pattern that compounds every time a condition is caught later rather than earlier. KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey puts this cost pressure in concrete terms: average employer-sponsored premiums reached $26,993 for family coverage in 2025, with family premiums up 6% from 2024, a rate of increase that has outpaced wage growth.
The OnMed CareStation™ is built around resolution, not access, precisely because of this math: 86% of visits are resolved on-site without a referral. Total cost of care is also the more defensible metric to bring to a CFO than premium alone, because premium reflects only what an employer pays into the plan, it says nothing about the absenteeism, presenteeism, and downstream claims a poorly resolved encounter generates afterward.
The return on on-site healthcare investment is measurable per patient, per encounter. Every dollar not spent on accessible primary care generates approximately $4–7 in downstream costs. For self-insured employers, 58% ER diversion from a CareStation deployment is a direct claims reduction. Chronic conditions caught earlier cost a fraction of what they cost when they escalate to acute or emergency settings. Reduced absenteeism, lower presenteeism, and improved medication adherence all compound the financial case. The return shows up in the premium renewal—on-site access infrastructure is a claims management strategy, not a wellness perk.
Average family premiums for employer-sponsored coverage rose 6% higher than 2024, according to KFF's 2025 survey, reaching $26,993 on average, a rate that has outpaced wage growth.
Premium only reflects what an employer pays into the plan; it says nothing about the absenteeism, productivity loss, and downstream claims a poorly-resolved encounter generates afterward.
Every term here points to the same gap in healthcare access. See how the CareStation closes it.
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