Healthcare leaders across the country are facing a painful reality: turnover is draining budgets, burning out teams, and disrupting patient care.
For urgent care networks and independent clinics, the numbers are especially stark. Recruiting and credentialing a new provider can cost more than $15,000. That’s not including the time lost to training or the hit to morale when yet another teammate leaves.
One regional urgent care group decided to try something different. Rather than throwing money at short-term incentives, they invested in their employees’ long-term financial wellbeing.
Six months later, they saw provider turnover drop nearly 50%.
The Challenge: A Costly Cycle of Turnover
At baseline, the urgent care group was losing about 60 providers per year – a turnover rate nearing 76%. The constant churn meant more than financial strain. It disrupted continuity of care, hurt team morale, and even forced occasional clinic closures.
The leadership team knew something had to change.
With most of their providers carrying significant student loan debt (and few having access to meaningful repayment support) the group HR leaders saw an opportunity to turn a known pain point into a retention advantage.
The Solution: Education-Focused Financial Wellness
In early 2025, the urgent care group partnered with SavvyFi, a financial wellness platform designed to help employees manage student debt, plan for forgiveness, and save for future education, all through one secure system.
The group offered Student Loan Repayment Contributions to providers who had at least 6 months of service.
Setup took less than two weeks. Employees could enroll in minutes, connect their loan servicers, and immediately see their progress toward financial goals.
The goal was to reduce turnover to at least under 51 providers per year (meaningful decrease) and hopefully under 32 per year (impactful decrease in turnover).
The Results: Turnover Cut Nearly in Half
After six months, the impact was undeniable.
The urgent care group is on pace to reduce turnover by nearly 50% within one year.
Other highlights:
More than half of eligible providers enrolled in the SavvyFi benefit.
35 participants received contributions totaling over $10,000 in six months.
Engagement was strongest among nurse practitioners and physician assistants – exactly the roles that had been hardest to retain.
One participant opened two 529 plans, signaling long-term trust and engagement.
Financially, the ROI was clear. Retaining just five additional providers saves over $75,000 in direct costs, not counting gains in stability, morale, and patient satisfaction.
Why It Worked
The healthcare group’s leadership credits the success to two key factors: relevance and simplicity.
First, the benefit addressed a real, felt problem: the stress of student debt. It wasn’t another generic perk or bonus; it was a meaningful show of support for providers’ financial futures. The benefit sticks around longer than a traditional sign on bonus.
Second, the rollout was turnkey. SavvyFi handled onboarding, payroll coordination, and communications, requiring minimal lift from HR.
The Bigger Picture: What Healthcare Can Learn
Rock Oak’s experience mirrors a broader truth across healthcare: burnout and financial stress are deeply linked.
Nearly 73% of healthcare workers report moderate to high financial stress.
Providers with significant student debt are more likely to leave within three years.
Yet only 1 in 4 healthcare employers currently offer any kind of student loan or education savings benefit.
By addressing financial wellbeing directly, healthcare organizations can drive measurable improvements in retention, engagement, and patient care quality.
These programs aren’t just feel-good perks. They’re strategic investments in workforce stability.
A Smarter Way to Support Healthcare Teams
As this case study shows, supporting your team’s financial wellbeing can have an immediate and measurable impact. These remarkable results were gathered only six months into the program. Spoiler alert – our most recent data at 10 months looks even better. Stay tuned for an exciting update this winter!
SavvyFi helps healthcare employers offer:
Student loan repayment and forgiveness support
529 savings plans for lifelong learning
Turnkey implementation with zero added admin burden
It’s a simple, data-backed way to strengthen culture, improve retention, and keep great providers where they belong—caring for patients.
Learn how SavvyFi can help your healthcare organization reduce turnover and support your team’s future.
About SavvyFi: SavvyFi is a user-friendly fintech platform that makes it easy for employers to provide college savings and student loan benefits to their employees. Because the company’s platform is “zero-touch” to HR — without any complicated systems, integrations, or paperwork — SavvyFi unlocks education financing capabilities to even the smallest employers that would not otherwise be able to offer these benefits.
Disclosure: Third-party quotes shown may not be representative of the experience of all SavvyFi customers and do not represent a guarantee of future performance or success.
