An Iowa Credit Union Added Hy-Vee's DPC Clinics as a Member Benefit. The Discount Isn't the Same for Every Member.
An Iowa credit union has added direct primary care to its list of member benefits. As of October 5, members of Community Choice Credit Union can enroll in Hy-Vee Health Exemplar Care’s primary care membership for $75 a month.
That’s a new door into DPC. This one arrives through a financial cooperative, priced as a member benefit.
What members get, and what they pay
The plan is Exemplar Complete, the clinic chain’s primary care tier. The press release describes unlimited access to primary and urgent care with same-day and next-day appointments. Exemplar’s member page for Community Choice adds 24/7 provider access by text, phone or telehealth, common lab tests and “more than 40 generic medications.” It states plainly that Exemplar “is not health insurance,” and that specialty care and hospitalization fall outside the membership. The page also calls the $75 rate “not a temporary promotional offer.”
There’s a second piece of money in the deal. The Community Choice Foundation receives $5 a month for each qualifying adult membership, which the release says will support Iowa nonprofits.
“We’re excited to partner with Community Choice because we share a common belief that organizations should exist to serve their members,” said Jon Van Der Veer, DO, MBA, Exemplar Care’s founder and CEO. Josh Cook, the credit union’s president and CEO, called it “an UNcomplicated approach to everyday healthcare.” The odd capitals echo what the release calls the credit union’s “UNbanking philosophy.”
Read the rate sheet line by line
The headline number is $75 against a public adult rate of $89. That’s a $14 discount. But the two price lists, both published by Exemplar, don’t move in step.
| Membership | Public rate | Credit union rate | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| One adult | $89 | $75 | $14 |
| Two adults | $158 | $150 | $8 |
| Two adults, two or more children | $216 | $200 | $16 |
| Adult 65+ with Medicare | $75 | $75 | $0 |
Public rates come from Exemplar’s pricing page. Credit union rates come from the member page.
Two rows stand out. A couple saves $8 a month, roughly half what a single adult saves. And a Medicare-age member gets no discount at all, because the public price for that group is already $75.
Single parents are harder to compare. The member page lists one adult plus one child at $100 and one adult plus children at $125. Exemplar’s public page has no single-parent tier. It lists a $29-a-month charge per child and stops there, so a parent shopping the public rates can’t see a published total to hold against the member price.
So the discount has a shape. In dollars, the family tier saves the most, at $16. Per person, the single adult comes out ahead: the family’s $16 is spread across at least four people, which is $4 a head or less, against $14 for one adult. Couples get about half the single adult’s saving. Medicare-age members get none.
For context, the AAFP says DPC membership fees “generally range from $50 to $100” a month. Exemplar’s rates sit inside that range for single adults. Pricing varies by practice and by location, and a chain with urgent care built in isn’t directly comparable to a solo physician’s panel.
The grocery chain behind it
Hy-Vee became a joint owner of Exemplar Care in January 2024. At the time, Exemplar ran two clinics, in West Des Moines and Ankeny, with a third planned for Bondurant. Hy-Vee’s president, Aaron Wiese, said the combination would “reduce the cost of health care for patients and employers.”
The chain has grown fast since. Exemplar’s pricing page now lists 17 locations across Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota.
The homepage says memberships start at $49 a month. You might read that as the entry price for primary care. The $49 plan, Exemplar Access, covers minor illnesses and injuries but not unlimited primary care visits. It also carries a six-month minimum commitment. The primary care plan behind the credit union’s rate is the $89 tier, with a three-month minimum.
That gap matters if you run an independent DPC practice in Des Moines or Omaha. A shopper who sees “$49” on a grocery-backed brand and then sees your $85 may be comparing two different products without knowing it.
Why a credit union
Credit unions and DPC have a structural fit. Both are membership organizations. Both sell on predictability. And a credit union already has what a DPC clinic spends heavily to acquire: a list of local adults who trust the institution and open its emails.
For Exemplar, the partnership is a patient acquisition channel that doesn’t require an HR department to sign off. For the credit union, it’s a member perk that also sends money to its own foundation.
The release doesn’t say how many credit union members are eligible or whether Exemplar plans the same arrangement with other cooperatives. It does say who carries the cost of a visit: members pay one monthly price “rather than paying a copay each time they visit.” Enrollment runs through the member page.