Posts Tagged ‘Take Care’
Disney’s employee health and wellness center to open
Walt Disney World celebrated the completion of its new employee health and wellness center this morning, providing a one-stop medical clinic for up to 41,000 full-time employees and their families.
The center, to be operated by Take Care Health Systems Inc., offers primary doctor care, urgent medical treatment, behavioral health care, preventive health care, a pharmacy, a medical tests lab, and a radiology lab in a 15,000-square foot facility at Walt Disney World.
At right, Peter Hotz of Take Care Health Systems, Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton and Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts President Al Weiss wave to a gathering of employees as streamers mark the gala opening. The center won’t actually be open to treat patients for another week.
Bucyrus International expands workplace health clinic
Bucyrus International, the South Milwaukee manufacturer of mining equipment, has expanded its employee health care center to address more than emergency medical needs.
The center now offers physical exams, influenza shots and help with wellness issues such as quitting smoking.
It’s more than an emergency medical clinic but is not supposed to replace an employee’s primary physician, said Kent Henschen, director of corporate communications.
Take Care Health Employer Solutions, which is owned by Walgreens Co., has been contracted by Bucyrus to run the clinic. Take Care operates 370 workplace health centers and pharmacies for 183 clients in 44 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam, according to its Web site.
Goodyear’s onsite clinic to be closed
Citing rising costs and fewer patients, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is closing the onsite medical center at its corporate headquarters in Akron at the end of the year.
The Goodyear Family Medical Center had been providing primary-care services to employees and retirees at the site on Goodyear Boulevard since 1989. Workers and retirees pay lower co-payments by using the practice.
But the company has removed liabilities for United Steelworkers retiree health-care benefits from its balance sheet by fully funding a $1 billion Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary trust, or VEBA, that will pay for retirees’ health care.
Once the VEBA takes effect, accounting rules prohibit covered retirees from using the onsite clinic, because the company can no longer contribute toward their health care, spokesman Keith Price said.
Health-Care Reform, Corporate-Style
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.
Buying the Farm
It wasn’t so much a sarcastic comment to Jim Carnicella, human resources director for the city of Ocoee, a small town in central Florida. The cost of the city’s health plan that covers 700 employees and their families rose by 20 percent last year — up to $2.4 million — putting a serious dent in tax dollars that could go to other services like police and education.
Carnicella talked the City Council into self-funding its insurance plan, basically paying the full cost of medical claims and carrying stop-loss insurance that kicks in once the city spends $50,000 a year. Based on six months of this already, the move will likely save — “You’re not going to believe this,” he told me — roughly $700,000 in medical costs this year.
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