Quest to rein in health care costs gives momentum to on-site clinics [Indianapolis Business Journal (IN)]
By Wall, J K | |
Proquest LLC |
These companies - such as
In February,
Also this spring,
And in April, RepuCare - which is better known for its medical staffing business - announced that it expects to add more than 80 employees over the next three years, with roughly half working in its on-site-clinic business. RepuCare currently operates four on-site
clinics and hopes to win commitments for 10 more in the next 18 months.
On top of those companies, all four major hospital systems in the
"We've seen more rapid adoption from a marketplace perspective," Dr.
"It went from a portion of people talking about it and very few people doing it, to a lot of people talking about it and a handful of people doing it, to what we see now - which is almost everybody talking about it and a lot of people doing it."
Benefits brokers have noticed the trend, and frequently pitch employers on the idea of opening an on-site clinic.
Employers are willing to at least consider getting into the health care game because tinkering with their health plans rarely has been enough to lessen the pain of annual hikes in health benefits.
The average cost for a family health insurance policy rose 9.5 percent in 2011 to more than
On-site clinics certainly require substantial spending by employers before they realize any savings. Upfront costs range from
Clinic vendors typically charge employers a monthly fee per employee in their health plan, ranging from as low as
In spite of those costs, the high cost of health benefits has made it worth considering for more and more employers.
"Among progressive employers, I would say it's a much easier presentation than it was three or four years ago," said Dunn, who partnered with
"When you think about it," Dunn added, "what's the alternative? You can either keep taking it on the chin or you can try and do something."
On-site clinics have been around for decades, but they typically focused on providing occupational health care for workers injured or at risk of injury on the job.
The recent clinic trend is to staff the clinics with primary care physicians and nurse practitioners to help coach the patients to live healthier lives and, when they need specialized medical care, to guide them to the best providers.
In that way, employers see the clinics as a way not only to change employees' behavior, but to change the behavior of medical professionals as well.
By providing easy access to generic drugs, blood testing and longer times with a physician, Geihsler said, the clinics are designed to deal with and prevent chronic diseases in a far better way than the rest of the U.S. health care system, which was designed to treat specific episodes of acute medical need.
Activate's first clinic and biggest success story serves
That success was vital in Activate's ability to raise its additional funding this year, Dunn said.
One year after OurHealth launched a clinic at
OneAmerica also paired its clinic with a wellness program that includes many education programs, weight-loss challenges and in-person health care coaching by nurses.
"I'm absolutely amazed, honestly, on the adoption this has gotten into the culture of our organization," she said. "It's very difficult to get a culture to move, especially in a large company. I've really seen a lot of people embracing this culture."
Now, the numbers of both vendors and employers participating are increasing rapidly, said Milus, who formerly worked for Community's Infinity on-site-clinic program.
"This is a fun time and this is a fun industry to be in," she said.
A case study
15% more primary care visits
9% fewer inpatient visits
2% slower health cost growth
Sources:
Copyright: | (c) 2012 IBJ Corporation |
Wordcount: | 1101 |
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