Employers who can’t afford to offer their workers health insurance might benefit from a $1 million Riverside Health System Foundation grant.

The grant sets up a new Riverside Share program. It’s designed to pay for about a third of the monthly premium for an average Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield HMO contract, Riverside officials said this week.

More than 1 million Virginians don’t have health insurance. Two-thirds of them are in working families, employed by small businesses that can’t afford health insurance for employees.

“There are huge gaps with access to health care provided to different people, and the uninsured are often forgotten,” Rick Pearce, Riverside Health System’s president, said in a press release. “We have developed a voluntary, market-based solution that does not cost the Commonwealth anything. The idea is to make available to those employees of small businesses earning less than the federal poverty level the same benefits as those who are fortunate to have health insurance.”

Riverside officials originally offered $1 million to match $1 million from the state to help the uninsured. That proposal failed to pass the House of Delegates. Riverside officials decided to try out the two-year pilot program, anyway.

To be eligible, companies must have between two and 50 employees in the Riverside service area. That includes Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, Tappahannock, Smithfield, West Point, Williamsburg, Yorktown and portions of Chesapeake and Suffolk, and the counties of Essex, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, King and Queen, King William, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, New Kent, Northumberland, Richmond and Surry.

Businesses must not have offered health insurance to employees in the last six months, and 75 percent of eligible employees must enroll. Employee eligibility is based on the family size and household income. For example, a family of four must make no more than $42,400 to be eligible, Riverside said.