Small-company occupational healthcare: setup in Finland
Editorial update 27.10.2026
Authors: Valtteri Järvenpää, physician and Jussi Kurikka, physician · StartHealth
Small-company occupational healthcare starts with describing the work, buying preventive care and separately deciding on optional general medical care. An employer in Finland must arrange preventive care even for one employee; this guide covers the first purchase, contract, launch and responsibilities as a 5–50-person knowledge-work team grows. Office or remote work does not remove the obligation: start planning before the first employee starts.
What occupational health means in Finland
Occupational health in Finland connects employees’ health and ability to work with the conditions and demands of their jobs. For an employer, occupational health care is an organised preventive service, not simply private medical insurance or access to a doctor when someone becomes ill. The Finnish term is työterveyshuolto.
Employers must arrange preventive occupational health care even for one employee; medical treatment is an optional addition. Occupational health care in Finland requires a written agreement, workplace assessment and action plan. Read the statutory occupational health care guide before choosing optional benefits.
Occupational health services: prevention, treatment and workplace support
Occupational health services include workplace assessment, advice on work-related risks and workload, and planned support for work ability. Health examinations depend on risks and professional assessment; office employees do not have an automatic annual examination entitlement. Optional medical care may add consultations and agreed tests, but its boundaries must be confirmed in the contract.
Agree how employees report sickness absence and what evidence the employer accepts. A remote consultation does not guarantee a certificate; see the sick-leave certificate guide. Occupational health also supports workplace cooperation, but it does not replace management’s responsibility for workable workloads and everyday practices. The workplace wellbeing guide explains that distinction.
Illustrative example: a five-person remote team
A five-person office team can start by describing screen work, remote locations, workload and service languages to the provider. The provider assesses preventive needs; the employer separately decides whether to add medical care. Give employees clear booking, absence-reporting and certificate instructions rather than assuming a healthcare subscription establishes those workplace rules.
1. Describe the work, not the employee’s health
Prepare the company name, employee count, work tasks, working locations, working hours and any known exposure or workload factors. Explain office and remote-working arrangements and the languages needed for service and instructions. Do not collect diagnoses or treatment histories in a procurement worksheet.
The provider uses the work context to assess the appropriate service. A workplace assessment and action plan are not replaced by simply buying access to a video appointment.
2. Separate prevention from optional medical care
Preventive occupational healthcare is based on workplace needs. It includes the workplace assessment and planned preventive activity, advice, monitoring and examinations where the work and professional assessment require them. Do not assume an automatic health examination for every office recruit.
If you also buy general medical care, agree its scope separately: remote consultations, physical access, tests, referrals and limits. Kela’s reimbursable employer medical care is purchased from the same provider as preventive care; specialist consultations are subject to relevant conditions, not an unlimited specialist-care entitlement.
Compare StartHealth’s packages. Minimum is preventive care without medical treatment; Basic adds remote medical services; Support adds agreed physical access and tests. Basic + Omply is a separate quote-based device package.
3. Compare gross costs before signing
Ask for setup, workplace-assessment, device and usage costs as well as recurring monthly fees. An unknown fee is not zero. Annual recurring cost means 12 × monthly, not necessarily the full first-year bill. The pricing page uses actual package rates and explains billable employees versus founders.
For example, five billable people on Basic cost €179.60/month, €35.92/person/month, or €2,155.20 in annual recurring fees, before Kela, 0% VAT. This is a five-person budget example, not a one-employee quote. With at least five employees founders are free; below five, founders count with employees, capped at five billable people. Your quote confirms applicability, boundaries and extras.
Basic + Omply is quoted separately: €499 setup, device fees and approximately €47/person/month. Do not assume devices or setup fees are reimbursable.
4. Understand Kela without a flat refund estimate
The latest employer eligible-cost ceilings stated on Kela’s organising page, checked 26 October 2026, concern 2025, not 2026. For an employer with no more than nine employees across all locations, the common eligible-cost ceiling is €4,925/employer/year and the medical eligible-cost ceiling is €1,970. For at least ten employees, the corresponding figures are €492.50 and €197 per employee/year.
These are ceilings on eligible costs, not cash reimbursement. Eligible prevention is reimbursed at 60% and eligible medical care at 50%, subject to conditions. Prevention has priority within the common cap; medical costs use only the remaining cap and no more than 40% of it. Never multiply the entire subscription by one refund percentage. A provider quote does not guarantee Kela approval.
Kela’s organising guidance (Finnish) is the source for the figures. Entrepreneur reimbursement is a separate process, not the employer ceiling reused for a founder.
5. Make the arrangement usable
Sign the written agreement, confirm coverage and kickoff, prepare the workplace assessment and agree the action plan. A workplace assessment usually includes a workplace visit; part can be remote for office work, depending on professional assessment.
StartHealth typically starts service in 1–7 days depending on the kickoff meeting date. A responsible physician is named in the agreement. The action plan is completed within two weeks of the workplace assessment. These are StartHealth operating facts, not exceptions to the employer’s obligation or promises about every provider.
Share the official employee booking link, portal instructions, service boundaries and language-specific guidance. StartHealth has no app of its own and no automatic examination invitations. Chat and messages use the service portal; employees book through the site’s employee booking button.
A first-employer handover checklist
- Assign an employer contact and backup.
- Confirm who is covered and when the service starts.
- Agree workplace-assessment arrangements and action-plan responsibilities.
- Share booking and portal instructions in the required languages.
- Record how employee changes and billing are handled.
- Confirm annual employer reporting and the documents needed for Kela.
Open the printable setup checklist and offer comparison worksheet. They contain business fields only and do not replace professional assessment. If you already have a provider, use the switching guide.
After launch, check ongoing service boundaries and workload and everyday practices. These follow-up decisions are separate from the first purchase and launch covered here.
Next step
Request an employer quote with company, headcount, work context and preferred language. Do not include employee health details. The StartHealth team reviews your company’s needs and prepares an offer. The offer confirms scope and costs.
For the detailed rules, read is occupational healthcare mandatory in Finland?, Kela reimbursement and eligible-cost ceilings and what occupational healthcare includes.
Small-company occupational health: decisions as the team grows
A small company buys work-based preventive care and separately decides on optional general medical care. It must confirm founder coverage, package boundaries and gross budget, not simply copy a benefit list. This guide covers the first recruit and continuing setup for a 5–50-person knowledge-work employer.
| Stage | Employer role | Evidence of readiness |
|---|---|---|
| Offer | Procurement owner | Same work brief, languages and scope |
| Contract | Signing management | Coverage, exclusions, charges and start confirmed |
| Assessment and plan | Company contact | Background document reference and agreed provider schedule |
| Staff use | Onboarding owner | Booking, portal and boundary instructions in FI/EN |
| Growth | People-operations role | Addition channel and work-change review agreed |
Fictitious rollout: five employees growing to ten
A five-person software company plans five recruits. At current gross rates, Basic recurring annual fees are €2,155.20 for five and €3,876 for ten billable people. Actual part-year budgeting depends on confirmed addition dates; the ten-person annual total is not automatically the first-year invoice. The contact also asks the provider whether workplace changes require reassessment. This is an illustrative decision, not evidence of growth or health outcomes.
Package and founder boundaries
Minimum is prevention without medical care. Basic adds remote medical appointments and assessed remote psychologist/physiotherapy support. Support adds agreed physical access and limited tests based on need and referral. Basic + Omply is quote-based, not a calculator package. Check exclusions and setup, usage and device costs in services and gross pricing.
Founders are free with at least five employees in StartHealth billing; below five, employees and founders count together up to five billable people. Entrepreneur coverage and reimbursement are separate from the employee obligation. Use the founder guide rather than reusing employer caps.
Leave, layoff and post-employment access are not automatic medical benefits: check the contract and the specific leave guide. Keep sickness-allowance questions separate from occupational-health cost reimbursement.
Use contract review and annual action-plan preparation. Their downloads complement the setup checklist; they do not replace professional assessment.
Frequently asked questions
Where does small-company setup begin?
Describe work and conditions, choose preventive care and decide on medical care separately. Confirm the contract, assessment, plan and staff instructions.
Does every office recruit need an examination?
Not automatically. Examinations depend on work-related need and the occupational-health professional’s assessment.
Is a growing team’s annual price its first-year invoice?
Not necessarily. Recruitment dates, the addition billing rule and setup, assessment and usage items affect actual total costs.
How are founders counted?
In StartHealth billing, founders are free with at least five employees; below five they count with employees up to five billable people. Confirm entrepreneur reimbursement separately.
What should staff receive at launch?
Booking and portal instructions, agreed service boundaries and required languages, plus the company’s own absence-reporting and evidence procedures.
Sources and editorial status
- Kela — organising occupational healthcare.
- Kela — reimbursable occupational healthcare, source updated 21 October 2026.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration — organising care.
- Workplace assessment guidance.
Official sources checked 26 October 2026. This new editorial guide awaits clinical review; no medical review or review date is claimed. Expanded to cover small-company procurement and growth as the genuine counterpart of the Finnish small-business guide; the original first-employee URL is retained.
Checked in this update on 27 October 2026: Kela organising and reimbursable-activity pages and TTL planning and procurement guidance. Other existing sources retain their earlier 26 October check date.