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Health-Care Reform, Corporate-Style

July 30th, 2008 No Comments   Posted in CHS, Take Care

When a company unveils a new plan to rein in health-care costs, workers usually groan. Yet Toyota Motor is getting rave reviews for the on-site medical center it built at its truck factory in San Antonio. Ask line worker Louis Aguillon. He went to the clinic in May with nagging back pain, and paid just $5 for the visit. “I saw the doctor for 20 minutes,” Aguillon beams. “You’re not just a number there.”

Toyota isn’t running a charity. The medical center, which cost $9 million to build in 2007, could save the company many millions over the next decade. Managed by Take Care Health Systems, whose business is running medical clinics, the program has helped Toyota slash big-ticket medical items including referrals to highly paid specialists, emergency room visits, and the use of costly brand-name drugs. Plus, there are big productivity gains because workers don’t have to leave the plant and drive to a doctor’s office for routine medical matters.

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