Covenant HealthCare Joins Nomi Health's Direct Network for Michigan Employers

Covenant HealthCare has joined Nomi Health's direct-contracting network for self-funded employers in Michigan, adding a major Great Lakes Bay Region health system to an expanding alternative to conventional carrier-mediated provider contracting.

Nomi announced the arrangement on October 27, 2026. Its release describes a direct employer purchasing channel through which employees and families enrolled with participating employers can receive eligible care at $0 out of pocket. Covenant's chief financial officer also commented in the announcement, providing first-party confirmation of the health system's participation.

This is a documented health-system-to-employer-network arrangement. It is not a disclosed agreement with a named individual employer, nor evidence that every Nomi client has activated Covenant access.

What the agreement adds

Covenant is based in Saginaw and serves Michigan's Great Lakes Bay Region. According to the partners, the new network arrangement covers access across:

• More than 20 inpatient and outpatient facilities and a network of over 600 physicians.
• Services spanning emergency and trauma care, cardiovascular medicine, oncology, orthopedics, neurosciences, maternity care and other specialties.
• An employer benefit design described as $0 out-of-pocket care for employees and families covered by participating employers, subject to the applicable employer program.

Nomi says its Michigan direct network also includes Trinity Health Michigan, Henry Ford Health and ProMedica. Covenant therefore adds a regional system to a broader provider purchasing infrastructure rather than launching a standalone national benefit.

The announcement does not disclose whether Covenant's services are available to every employer participating in the wider Nomi network, or whether specific service categories, facilities or plan eligibility conditions differ by employer.

Contract and adoption evidence

Measure	Public evidence
Provider	Covenant HealthCare, Saginaw, Michigan
Employer purchasing channel	Nomi Health direct-contracting network for self-funded employers
Announcement	October 27, 2026
Geography	Michigan, especially the Great Lakes Bay Region
Provider footprint	More than 20 facilities and over 600 physicians
Member cost-sharing	$0 out of pocket for eligible employees and families through participating employers, as described by the partners
Named employers electing this arrangement	Not disclosed
Incremental members covered	Not disclosed
Negotiated employer rates, fee schedule or contract duration	Not disclosed
Covenant-specific realized savings	Not disclosed

Nomi reports 2,500 customers and more than 20 million lives impacted across its nationwide business. These are company-wide figures, not Covenant partnership enrollment, and should not be added to a deal-level covered-lives total.

What the savings claim establishes—and what it does not

Nomi describes its direct-contracting model as removing traditional intermediaries, reducing administrative complexity and creating savings for employers without shifting costs to members.

Those are company descriptions of the model, not a quantified, independently verified savings study for the Covenant arrangement. The October announcement provides no negotiated price schedule, claims comparison, utilization denominator, matched benchmark, program fees or actual employer savings calculation.

Likewise, a $0 member out-of-pocket design describes the employee-facing benefit; it does not establish the employer's net price or the total cost of care.

Accordingly, the DirectContract Deal Tracker records no Covenant-specific realized savings percentage or covered-lives count.

Why this matters

Michigan is becoming a useful test of whether self-funded employers can purchase comprehensive regional health-system access through a direct network instead of negotiating separate contracts with each provider. Covenant expands Nomi's network in the Great Lakes Bay Region and adds substantial hospital, specialty and emergency-care capacity.

The next material evidence will be named employer elections, confirmed activation dates, actual employee eligibility, service-specific prices, and measured employer spending after the arrangement goes live. Until then, this is a verified provider-network expansion, not a demonstrated savings outcome.

For context, see the DirectContract tracker for other employer-to-provider network arrangements and the direct contracting methodology for how we classify evidence and savings.

Primary source

• Nomi Health and Covenant HealthCare, October 27, 2026 — official partnership announcement