We understand the environment you’re operating in.
- Across small and mid-sized businesses, healthcare costs are no longer a background expense. They’ve become a structural pressure on the business itself—affecting payroll, pricing, hiring, and retention.
- Annual premium increases continue — regardless of claims experience
- Payroll taxes scale automatically as wages rise
- Employees feel the impact through higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs
- Leaders are expected to “do more” without additional margin to work with
- This isn’t a planning problem. It’s a system problem.
Authorized Savings Consultant
The problem isn’t just higher costs —it’s where money quietly leaks
Most SMBs assume payroll taxes and healthcare costs have already been optimized — or that there’s nothing meaningful left to adjust without changing plans, brokers, or benefits.
As a result, money continues to move through the system in inefficient ways.
But nothing is optimized either.
Increased spending
Healthcare spend rises without improving access to care or health outcomes
Lost purchasing power
Employees lose purchasing power — even while benefits get “richer on paper”
Taxable wages
Certain medical expenses continue flowing through payroll by default as taxable wages
Avoidable payroll taxes
Employers pay avoidable payroll taxes every pay period
Nothing is “broken.”
What happens if nothing changes?
When healthcare and payroll costs rise faster than revenue, the impact doesn’t show up all at once — it compounds quietly:
And every payroll cycle you wait, the system continues doing what it’s designed to do:
extract more cash than necessary, by default.
Benefits decisions become reactive instead of strategic — driven by cost spikes, not outcomes
For many SMBs, the difference between a 5–7% margin and a 2–3% margin is not sales — it’s fixed overhead that keeps growing.
Raises feel harder than they should
Hiring gets delayed — or roles stay unfilled longer than planned
Margins compress — or disappear entirely
What if the same dollars worked harder — for you and your employees?
What if you could reallocate existing dollars to do more?
Reduce payroll tax drag on dollars you’re already spending without changing your medical plan
Improve employee access to everyday care without increasing employer cost
Capture savings automatically — built into every pay period
Do it in a way that’s IRS-compliant, auditable, and sustainable
That’s the specific gap the Essentials Health Plan (EHP) was designed to address.
How EHP works (at a high level)
EHP is a compliant employer health strategy that allows certain qualifying medical expenses to be handled outside of taxable payroll, instead of automatically being treated as wages.
With EHP + Revive Health
Employers reduce unnecessary payroll taxes on dollars already being spent
Employees gain tax-advantaged healthcare purchasing power they can actually use
Total benefits spend becomes more efficient — not larger
What EHP does not do:
❌ It doesn’t replace your medical plan
❌ It doesn’t disrupt broker relationships
❌ It doesn’t cost the organization anything to implement on an ongoing basis
❌ It doesn’t require employee participation
Estimates are conservative and based on current IRS guidance.
What this creates for employers and employees
For Employers
Predictable, recurring savings
Reduced pressure on margins
A benefits strategy that scales as the business grows
No plan disruption or vendor churn required
For Employees
Better access to everyday care
Less reliance on post-tax dollars
A tangible benefit they can actually use
Increased trust that leadership is advocating for them
See how it works
A smarter way to handle healthcare costs already in your system
- This isn’t about adding another benefit.
- It’s about using the benefits dollars you already spend more intentionally.
- It’s about stopping unnecessary leakage from benefits dollars that are already flowing through payroll.
- Most conversations start with a simple question:
“Are payroll taxes and healthcare dollars already optimized — or just assumed to be?”
John Sheppard
Authorized Savings Consultant