Stride Partners with Homebase to Increase Access to Individual Health Insurance for Small Business Owners and Workers
San Francisco, CA, September 5, 2024 – Stride, the pioneer in portable benefits technology, today is teaming up with Homebase, the all-in-one team management app for small businesses. The collaboration will enable Homebase business owners to better support their employees’ well-being, retention, and satisfaction with access to essential health, dental, and vision coverage through Stride's one-of-a-kind portable benefits platform.
The current benefits system does not support small businesses, especially those with under 50 employees. Businesses this size want to be able to provide access to health benefits, but rising premium costs have impacted their ability to afford it, especially those with revenues under $600k. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, 39 percent of the smallest-sized firms (three to nine workers) are least likely to offer any coverage, while only 50 percent of firms with three to 49 workers offer health benefits to at least some of their employees. This leaves many hourly workers and part-time staff without essential coverage.
"We're excited to team up with Stride and continue on our mission of providing small business teams with resources that let them focus on attracting and retaining workers, and growing their businesses,” said John Waldmann, founder and CEO of Homebase. "This partnership will help ensure small businesses of any size can give their hourly workers the vital benefits they need to stay happy and healthy."
Through Stride’s easy-to-use portable benefits platform, Homebase’s more than 100,000 small business owners will be able to provide access to individual insurance options. The offering includes:
Health premium tax credit eligibility tool: embedded in the Homebase app, owners and employees can use this tool to determine their eligibility for premium tax credits, potentially lowering their health insurance premiums.
Individual benefits portal: direct access to a tailored individual health insurance enrollment experience for employees as well as access to dental and vision coverage options.
“Homebase integrating individual benefits directly in their customers’ existing experience creates newfound flexibility for small businesses and their employees,” said Stride co-founder and CEO Noah Lang. “We’re excited to make it easy to check for tax credit eligibility that helps employees lower the cost of coverage while providing the personalized guidance they need to access and select affordable health benefits.”
About Stride
Stride simplifies the complexities of being an independent worker by creating a modern benefits system for individuals — regardless of their employment status — that they can take with them and to which companies can contribute but do not control. Stride is the first portable benefits platform specifically designed for the nearly 60 million American independent workers who do not receive employer-based benefits. The Stride platform offers access to insurance — health, dental, vision, life, and other supplemental insurance — as well as financial tools to track income, mileage, and other deductible expenses to manage their tax obligations, all via a single app. Since launching in 2014, Stride has helped more than 4.2 million workers save more than $7.2 billion on their taxes and monthly health insurance premiums.
About Homebase
Our mission is to make small business teams unstoppable.
Homebase is the everything app for hourly teams, with employee scheduling, time clocks, payroll, team communication, HR, and more. More than 100,000 small (but mighty) businesses rely on Homebase to make work radically easy and give their teams superpowers. As the leader in small business team management, Homebase tracked 1+ billion hours for 2.5+ million workers last year.
Homebase is based in San Francisco, Houston, Denver, and Toronto. We are backed by leading venture investors L Catterton Growth, Emerson Collective, Notable Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Bedrock Capital, and PLUS Capital.
Media Contacts:
Stride
Emily Forrest
Homebase