Archive for the ‘CHD Meridian’ Category:
HMOs and Population Health Management
I can recall, though somewhat incompletely after forty years, when I worked for Dr. Paul Ellwood, first at the Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, then at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, the name adopted by Kenny’s research arm after it split from the hospital arm. After I left the research arm, it became “InterStudy”, and Dr. Ellwood created the name “Health Maintenance Organization”, as a last-minute substitute for “Health Management Organization”, which was deemed politically incorrect by leaders in Washington, D.C.
The model for the HMO originally was prepaid group practice organizations that combined healthcare delivery with insurance, and therefore had the best reasons for striving to “maintain” the health of populations for which they are financially responsible. Such organizations had become popular in the Depression and World War II, when obtaining a steady stream of revenue for physician groups and an organized source of medical care for war workers were popular ideas, and before the major push in developing hospitals came in the Hill-Burton legislation after the war.
On-Site Medical Clinics: A Win-Win Idea
One of the hottest trends in health care is on-site clinics to handle routine medical needs. Companies that set up facilities at the workplace find that workers take less time off, get more of the screenings and coaching they need to avoid costly illnesses and save lots of money. The services often are free to employees and sometimes are offered to spouses and dependents as well. When clinics do charge, the fee is below the rate for the same service at a doctor’s office.
On-site clinics are generally staffed by physicians and nurses, who usually treat minor injuries and illnesses, such as the flu, earaches, minor cuts, etc. The clinics also provide X-ray and pharmaceutical services.
Most employers use outside contractors to run these facilities. The big three providers are Comprehensive Health Services, CHD Meridian and Whole Health Management. Comprehensive Health Services says clients usually see a positive return on their investments within two years, ranging as high as $4 for every $1 a company spends. The largest savings come from avoiding emergency room visits.
The Doctor Is In-House
Tom Hopkins was at work when he felt the pain in his chest and abdomen. It seemed minor, but the health professionals at his company’s on-site wellness center urged him to go to the hospital, where doctors found problems with his heart.
Two days later, Hopkins underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. Now enjoying a healthy recovery, he credits the worksite clinic with saving his life.
“If it wasn’t for the clinic, I probably would not have gone to the doctor right away, and who knows what would have happened,” says Hopkins, manager of the Central Florida Market Unit of the Pepsi Bottling Group, in Orlando, Fla.
Stories like Hopkins’ are becoming more common as businesses increasingly adopt a new approach to the old model of employer-sponsored health benefits. Reminiscent of the “company doctor” of years past, today’s trend of providing on-site medical care is building rapidly, experts say, spurred largely by the fact that these on-site facilities enable employers to better manage—and even scale back the growth rate of—their health care expenses.
“I think it’s a modern model that is indeed proving to be cost-effective,” says Sean Sullivan, president, CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Health and Productivity Management, a nonprofit corporation in Scottsdale, Ariz., that works to link employee health to corporate performance. “Not only does it pick up health issues earlier, but it doesn’t require time away from work and at the same time creates a culture of caring.”
Pharmacy comes onboard
Submarine maker Electric Boat hopes to trim health-care costs for itself and its workers by opening a pharmacy near its Quonset Point production yard.
With prescription drugs accounting for 20 percent of Electric Boat’s health-care costs and increases coming every year, company officials said yesterday that they need to put a lid on that spending. They see the pharmacy as a logical extension of the other health and wellness programs Electric Boat already sponsors.
“This is part of an integrated health-care approach,” said Alvin J. Ayers, director of health, wellness and disability benefits for Electric Boat.
A division of General Dynamics, Electric Boat employs about 2,000 people at the Quonset Point facility. The pharmacy is intended to serve 5,000 EB workers, retirees and their families.
“This availability of health care is an issue of increasing importance to us and our employees,” said John P. Casey, EB’s president. “The cost savings are key to our program.”
The company hired CHD Meridian Healthcare, a unit of I-trax Inc., to run the Electric Boat Family Pharmacy. CHD Meridian operates 230 health-care centers, including 30 pharmacies, for companies around the country.
Company Clinics Cut Health Costs
Frustrated by runaway health costs, the nation’s largest employers are moving rapidly to open more primary care medical centers in their offices and factories as a way to offer convenient service and free or low-cost health care.
Within the last two years, companies including Toyota, Sprint Nextel, Florida Power and Light, Credit Suisse and Pepsi Bottling Group have opened or expanded on-site clinics. And many employers are adding or planning to add even more clinics, which were experimented with about 30 years ago but fell out of favor amid questions about their cost-effectiveness.
Today a new wave of clinics is opening, driven largely by a motive that was less of a factor in the past: employers’ desires to reduce their health insurance premiums by taking care of workers before they need to see outside doctors. More than 100 of the nation’s 1,000 largest employers now offer on-site primary care or preventive health services — a number forecast to exceed 250 by the end of the year, according to David Beech, a health benefits consultant.
Corporate America’s new in-house medical offices go well beyond traditional occupational health clinics that hundreds of factories have long maintained for job-related injuries and worker’s compensation cases. Employees can now stop by for check-ups, allergy and flu shots, pregnancy tests or routine monitoring for chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma.
When prescription drugs are required, some employers arrange for the pills to be delivered the next day at the office or plant, while others even maintain fully stocked pharmacies.
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