In This Post:
Presenters:
Nancy Fantuzzi
VP of Solutions Consulting
Cole Barfield
Chief Medical Officer
Healthcare benefits have transformed into a vital part of the employee experience, moving beyond mere budget entries. Yet for many employers, healthcare still feels misaligned, expensive, and frustratingly complex. This challenge raises solutions like First Stop Health, which are gaining momentum. Virtual Direct Primary Care is increasingly becoming an essential component of modern benefits strategies and has emerged as a non-negotiable must-have for employee health. Every employer, benefits consultant, or broker knows the choices can feel endless.
In our recent webinar, we had the honour of hosting Nancy Fantuzzi, VP of Solutions Consulting, and Cole Barfield, Chief Medical Officer, both dedicated experts from First Stop Health. They shared how direct virtual primary care realigns healthcare, what First Stop Health can offer, and how it works. Overall, what it truly means to be a client and patient with First Stop Health.
About First Stop Health
First Stop Health provides Virtual Urgent Care (Telemedicine), Virtual Primary Care, and Virtual Mental Health to help keep people safe, healthy, and productive. Using the app, website, or with a phone call, patients avoid waiting rooms and paperwork, getting the care they deserve.
The Core Problem
There are core problems throughout the country, and a lot of these come out with this misalignment:
- Access to care.130 million people live in areas with a primary care shortage. About 150 million people live in mental health shortage areas. Um, and then also you think about cost.
- Cost continues to rise. It is obviously a huge issue for employers and for patients themselves. A large portion of people, even with commercial insurance, still have medical debt because of copays and those types of things.
- Clinical outcomes. How can a system be built to deliver accessible, delightful, and engaging care that drives clinical outcomes?
Traditional healthcare is built on conflicting incentives, leading to delayed care, poor adherence, unnecessary emergency room visits, and avoidable claims.
When people delay care, minor issues become major expenses. And employers pay the price.
Virtual Direct Primary Care as a “Triage Layer”
The First Stop Health model is simple for patients and employers. There are two fundamental principles:
- Connect in virtual care. The main goal is to provide easy access to care and 24/7 access to urgent care providers in primary care. People can access a primary care doctor, a health coach, a dietitian, and a diabetes educator within 3 days. Therapies for mental health can be accessed in under two to three days. What is more important, in an emergency, people can do it the same day. There are no waiting rooms, no travel, and no time off from work. First Stop Health aims to be highly utilized because it offers three core modalities that provide comprehensive, whole-person care.
- A direct care model. The employers pay a per-employee per-month fee. The performance is around utilization. Engagement is key because it leads to outcomes. Instead of acting as another point solution layered onto an already complex plan, it becomes the front door to care, a centralized, accountable, accessible care home. It’s often one of the first ways people use the First Stop Health service.
Virtual Direct Primary Care acts as a triage layer. It keeps small issues small and ensures bigger issues are managed correctly from the beginning. Instead of generating unnecessary claims, it diverts them:
- 86% of virtual visits are cost-diverting
- Average avoided cost per diverted visit is $279
- Optimized referrals can save approximately $1,500 each
- Overall impact can reduce the total cost of care by 3–5%
Removing Friction at Every Step Makes Better Experiences for Everyone
What makes this model powerful is that it removes friction at three critical points:
- Managing When and What Care Happens
- Managing Where Care Happens
- Managing Who Delivers Care
Providers are rewarded for quality and outcomes, which improves their experience. They operate within integrated teams and manage care beyond a single appointment.
Patient Experience $0 unlimited visits, continuity with providers and personalized care. Employees no longer feel “lost in the sea of care confusion.”
What truly differentiates First Stop Health is its 100% fees-at-risk model. Employers pay only if utilization meets the agreed guarantees. This performance-based structure makes the decision financially risk-free.
In an environment where many point solutions promise engagement but underdeliver, this guaranteed model stands out.
Driving Engagement That Actually Matters
One of the biggest challenges in benefits design is underutilization. Employers often invest in tools that employees never use. With First Stop Health virtual direct care, engagement metrics tell a different story:
- 62% overall combined utilization
- 60% of patients are new to primary care
- 1 in 4 visits completed by family members
- ~1,000 employee hours saved annually (in one case study)
By meeting employees where they are via mobile, web, or phone, virtual care eliminates logistical barriers.
Consider a construction client with over 800 enrolled employees, many living in Primary Care Provider Shortage Areas (HPSAs). The organization’s goals were to:
- Expand access to care
- Improve engagement in a hard-to-reach population
- Reduce avoidable urgent care utilization
Through targeted demographic outreach and behavior-triggered communications, utilization climbed to 63%, and 83% of visits were cost-diverting. The client saved $230,000 in healthcare costs.
When urgent care savings became clear, the employer expanded into Primary Care and Mental Health services.
Cost savings are important, but health outcomes are even more vital. Imagine a person battling diabetes (with an A1c of 11.8), hypertension, and moderate anxiety (GAD-7 score of 12). Through 12 coordinated touchpoints involving primary care, mental health support, and diabetes education, remarkable changes can occur:
- A1c improvement from 11.8 to 6.1 in just three months.
- GAD-7 score can fall from 12 (moderate anxiety) to 4 (minimal anxiety).
Evidence from multidisciplinary intervention studies shows that similar programs can reduce hospitalization rates by 11%, reduce diabetes-related emergency visits, and yield net savings of thousands of dollars per patient over five years.
This is the power of proactive care transforming lives for the better.
Strategic Advantages for Employers
The First Stop Health Virtual Direct Primary Care supports broader employer strategies:
- Stabilizing rising renewals and stop-loss volatility
- Strengthening full-to-self-funded transitions
- Supporting HDHP adoption
- Providing equitable wellness access
- Offering benefits to part-time or non-benefit-eligible populations
- Reducing dependence on fragmented point solutions
Instead of “taking benefits away” through plan design complexity, employers can give employees meaningful access to care.
Get in touch with First Stop Health today!
Today, Virtual care functions as a structural safeguard for health plans. It reduces unnecessary claims and improves chronic condition management. It increases employee satisfaction and creates predictable, performance-based cost control.
In short, it realigns healthcare incentives.
Virtual Direct Primary Care protects insurance, ensuring that catastrophic coverage is reserved for true catastrophic events. Everything else is handled efficiently, affordably, and proactively.
For employers navigating 2026 and beyond, the question is whether they can afford not to make it a priority.
For more information, contact:
Amy Utterback – autterback@fshealth.com
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