State review confirms Parkview's direct-to-employer rates are 57 percentage points below the legal cap — the lowest of any nonprofit health system in Fort Wayne.
Affordability // Accountability
For years, healthcare has been the fastest-rising line item on Indiana corporate spreadsheets. Employers have watched premiums climb faster than wages, faster than inflation, faster than almost any other cost of doing business. The conventional commercial insurance model has offered them reduced benefits, higher deductibles and thinner margins to negotiate.
Parkview Health decided the answer wasn't a better version of that model. It was a different model entirely.
Through Parkview Employer Solutions, the health system bypasses conventional commercial insurance networks and contracts directly with employers across northern Indiana and northwest Ohio. The flagship product is Signature Care EPO+, a direct-to-employer health plan that routinely saves participating companies more than 25% compared to conventional commercial networks.
The savings aren't self-reported. In April 2026, the Indiana Department of Health released its inaugural review of direct-to-employer arrangements under Indiana's 2023 healthcare affordability law. Parkview's rate came back at 203% of Medicare — 57 percentage points below the state's 260% statutory threshold, and the lowest of any nonprofit health system operating in Fort Wayne.
“Employers have been carrying the weight of healthcare costs for a long time, and the traditional insurance model isn't built for the pressure they're under,” said Dr. Jason Row, president of Parkview Physicians Group and chief value transformation officer for Parkview Health. “We built Signature Care EPO+ because employers deserved a partner willing to work directly with them on cost. The state's review confirmed what our employer partners already knew: this model works.”
Parkview Employer Solutions offers significant financial savings to businesses and their employees.
At 203% of Medicare, our direct-to-employer rate is 57 percentage points below the state's statutory threshold, and the lowest of any nonprofit health system operating in Fort Wayne.
Six services, one integrated approach
Parkview Employer Solutions is now the direct healthcare partner for more than 4,800 employers across 15 counties, serving more than 65,000 employees. The program traces its roots back more than 30 years, when Parkview first began delivering occupational health services to regional employers.
The scale matters because affordability at 100 employees looks different than affordability at 10,000. Parkview's model is designed to flex.
“Our job is to sit down with a broker or a CFO, understand the specific pressures they're facing, and build a plan around them,” said Lainie Dean, chief of commercial partnerships at Parkview Health. “The traditional model asks the employer to fit into the plan. We flip that. The plan fits the employer.”
Clinical outcomes that show up in claims data
The financial numbers are the headline, but they aren't the whole story. Employers care about outcomes because outcomes drive future costs.
In Parkview's employer clinic partnerships, 87% of patients with hypertension achieved successful blood pressure control, above the national benchmark of 85%. Employees in the clinics who had uncontrolled blood pressure one year brought it under control the next at a 71% rate. Coaching participants achieved medically significant weight loss at rates between 14% and 18%. Most notably, the total healthcare cost for clinic participants living with diabetes ran 25% lower than for non-participating employees with the same condition.
Those numbers show up in claims data within a year. They're the reason clinical outcomes and cost outcomes aren't two different conversations at Parkview Employer Solutions. They're the same one.
What employers are saying
Three Rivers Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Fort Wayne with more than 500 employees across offices from Angola to Richmond, is one of the region's named Signature Care EPO+ customers.
“Our team members appreciate the convenience of a one-stop location to see a provider, get any necessary labs, screenings, or medications, and be on their way,” said Tim Sheppard, chief financial officer at Three Rivers Federal Credit Union. “For us as an employer, we're getting real financial predictability we weren't getting before, and our people are getting better care. That combination is rare.”
“Rural and community healthcare in this country is losing a race against retirements and burnout,” Dr. Dusman said. “The only way to win that race is to run it — to train more doctors, more nurses, more clinicians, in the places we need them most.”
Parkview Employer Solutions is continuing to expand. Rates were further reduced in 2026, and new employer partners are joining across Indiana and Ohio. For a region where healthcare costs have squeezed employer budgets for a decade, the alternative is finally here — verified by the state, backed by outcomes, and built specifically for the businesses that keep this region working.
