The Herman Trend Alert

August 29, 2018

Onsite Medical Clinics Revisited

In the past, we have discussed the value of locating medical clinics onsite at companies. There is a definite ROI---a significant reduction in medical costs. Now, the industry has discovered that locating corporate medical clinics next to exercise facilities increases the value of each. This co-location works because it links prevention, treatment, and employee wellness. Though these savings are greater in the United States, global employers realize benefits from reduced absenteeism and higher productivity, too.

Most medium to large employers are self-insured

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, in the US, more than 80 percent of companies with 500 or more employees have self-insured plans. Having workplace health clinics is a good way for self-insured employers to not only control costs, but also clinical outcomes as well.

Adding onsite fitness facilities is the icing on the cake

Ernie Clevenger, co-founder and CEO of CareHere, LLC, which provides patient-centered care and wellness centers says that the fitness facilities serve to delay or avoid these conditions that require treatment at the onsite medical centers. These fitness facilities can offer much more than just trainers and equipment, they may also deliver physical therapy for existing conditions; it seems like it would be a natural combination of approaches to help employees achieve and maintain their own health.

Case studies and analyses detail savings

Whatever an employer does to support their workers in staying healthy will have a beneficial effect to decrease its self-insured costs. There are numerous cases and analyses that demonstrate a range of 5 to 14 percent "savings from care management and coordination of primary and secondary care."

Which companies have embraced this concept?

Through the service provider Crossover Health, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Intuit, Symantec and others have enjoyed these kinds of savings. Using their approach called Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO), Crossover Health's physical medicine service tracks and measures therapy outcomes. Their customers average four fewer visits per physical medicine problem, compared to the community at large. Crossover Health uses FOTO to determine the most effective therapies for each patient, by analyzing data from 21 million clinical outcomes. Talk about impressive results: using this data-driven approach, Crossover Heath's clients have seen a 30 percent reduction in their medical spending, 35 percent decrease in pharmacy costs, and a massive 187 percent fewer opioid prescriptions. 

What is next for the self-funded community?

This saving from using a global data-driven approach is only the beginning. We expect more solution providers to use Big Data to generate substantial savings. We are also seeing another trend (to be addressed in a subsequent Herman Trend Alert, including covering the new company PTX Therapy) towards using postural and physio therapies to eliminate pain and avoid opioid use. Even in countries with universal healthcare, there will be substantial benefits from embracing this approach.

Special thanks to freelance writer Bruce Shutan for his article about this important employee benefits topic in the, The Self-Insurer, August 2018.

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