Making Preventive Healthcare Work for Your Clients

Quick look: Preventive healthcare is one of the most effective and underutilized ways to improve employee health and manage long-term benefits costs. In this blog, we explore why prevention matters, where small and mid-sized business (SMB) face barriers, and how brokers can expand access to better health coverage through a professional employer organization (PEO).

When employees stay healthy, businesses stay strong. However, rising premiums, limited carrier access, and confusion around what’s covered means that preventive healthcare often takes a back seat to more immediate priorities. This can lead to employees delaying or skipping the care they need, and health concerns that could have been caught early can become expensive and disruptive.

For benefits brokers, this creates an opportunity. SMBs need guidance navigating these challenges, and you can help deliver something that makes a real difference for your clients and their people.

What’s considered preventive care?

In the U.S., most health care plans must cover a group of preventive services at no cost to the patient. When delivered by an in-network provider, these services must be provided without charging a copayment or coinsurance, even if the patient hasn’t met their yearly deductible.

Preventive care includes far more than just a yearly physical. For example, some preventive services include:

• Blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol tests
• Cancer screenings, including mammograms and colonoscopies
• Counseling on topics like smoking cessation, weight management, mental health, and substance use
• Well-baby and well-child visits, from birth to age 21, as well as behavioral assessments and screening for autism, hearing, vision, and more
• Routine immunizations against diseases such as measles, polio, or meningitis, as well as flu shots and other vaccines
• A range of pregnancy and postpartum services, including counseling, screening, vaccines, breastfeeding support, etc.

Despite this broad coverage, utilization remains low, often due to plan design barriers or lack of employee awareness.

The case for prevention (and why it gets overlooked)

The most significant benefit of preventive care is that it’s proactive. By catching problems early and managing conditions before they escalate, employees can show up as their healthiest selves.

On a financial front, preventive care plays a key role in cost containment. Hospital care is very expensive, comprising approximately one-third of national health care costs, and preventive care can avoid or treat conditions before they require a visit to the emergency room. Further, according to Gallup, 75% of medical costs are accrued primarily due to preventable conditions, and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that staff wellness can:

• Reduce absenteeism,
• Increase productivity,
• Strengthen morale, and
• Decrease injuries and workers’ compensation and disability-related costs.

And yet, just 8% of U.S. adults receive all their recommended high-priority preventive services, and approximately 75% have been diagnosed with a chronic disease that may have been preventable.

High deductibles, confusing plan structures, and limited in-network provider access can all create barriers, even when preventive services are technically covered. Employees may simply not know what’s available to them, or their employer may not be able to afford the coverage depth that makes preventive care truly accessible.

This is where brokers can step in, and where the right benefits infrastructure becomes critical.

Expanding access through a PEO model

From deeper plan coverage to helping employees better understand what’s available to them, connecting SMB clients to a professional employer organization (PEO) can enable them to better take advantage of preventive services. Because PEOs aggregate employees across many client companies, they can negotiate with major carriers and unlock access to Fortune 500-level benefits at rates smaller companies couldn’t secure on their own.

For preventive healthcare specifically, this matters a lot. PEO-sponsored health plans often include richer coverage options (i.e., lower deductibles, broader networks, mental health benefits, and wellness programs) that encourage workers to book those preventive appointments.

Further, some PEOs also share benefits communication throughout the year to educate workforces on the availability and importance of these services.

Choosing the right PEO partner

PEOs can open the door to more robust healthcare, but not all PEOs deliver the same level of value.

When evaluating a PEO to bring to your SMB clients, here are some key criteria to look for:

• Flexible, competitive benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans that can flex to meet individual companies’ needs, along with supplemental options that round out the package.
• Credibility: Fundamental industry certifications, such as IRS Certified PEO (CPEO), Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC), and SOC 1 Type 2, that signal financial and compliance integrity.
• Customer support: Dedicated support for both HR teams and employees, where clients actually have access to a real person, not just a ticketing system. For example, ExtensisHR customers receive a designated Account Manager, HR Business Partner, and Payroll Specialist, and worksite employees can turn to an Employee Solution Center that responds in seconds and resolves 90% of inquiries the same day.
• Compliance expertise: A team of compliance professionals who help clients navigate the complexity of HR, from ACA requirements to state-specific mandates.
• Additional HR services: Benefits are important, but PEOs can add even more value through their full range of HR solutions. For instance, ExtensisHR includes recruiting services for PEO customers at no additional cost.
• A broker-friendly partnership: Choose a PEO that is built to work with brokers, not around them. Ideally, the team should be collaborative, responsive, and committed to helping you bring more value to every client relationship.

If your SMB clients are leaving better benefits on the table, a PEO partnership might be exactly what the doctor ordered. ExtensisHR is here to help you strengthen people’s health and your book of business.

Ready to give your clients the power of prevention? Connect with the ExtensisHR team today to learn more about what a partnership could look like.