IN-HOUSE CARE
Major employers across the country are opening their own health centers
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES
Major employers across the country, eager to curb fast-rising health- care costs, are opening their own state-of-the-art health centers where doctors and nurses provide medical care to workers often just steps from their desks.
The cost-cutting strategy has been embraced by dozens of companies — typically large employers that are self-insured and pay their own medical claims, including Walt Disney Co., Qualcomm Inc. and American Express Co.
Many of the health centers are full-service medical offices equipped with exam rooms, X-ray machines and pharmacies. Some provide on-site appointments with dentists, dermatologists, psychiatrists and other specialists who treat life-threatening illnesses.
Executives say providing in-house medical care keeps workers healthy and productive. But the clinics also help the bottom line by reducing absenteeism and slashing employers’ medical bills for outside doctors and emergency rooms.
“Employers are seeing the health centers as a way to get more for their money,” said Helen Darling, president of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit National Business Group on Health.
Skeptics wonder about the quality of the care and worry that workers may be surrendering their medical privacy to employers. Others question the idea that corporate medicine is a big money saver.
In a recent study, the nonprofit Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, D.C., found that health centers hold promise but are unlikely to be cost-cutting game changers, partly because it’s difficult to persuade employees to change unhealthful habits that can lead to expensive medical care.
“There may be some employers with high turnover where a clinic might not end up saving anything,” said Ha Tu, the study’s lead author.
Even so, health-care economists say the strategy makes sense for growing numbers of companies that must keep a vigilant eye on their bottom lines.
“It is in their self-interest to have a healthy work force,” said Gerald F. Kominski, associate director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California-Los Angeles. “There’s a direct economic benefit.”
And that, health-care analysts say, explains why the corporate option is steadily mounting.
Nationally, 15 percent of companies with 500 or more employees had health centers last year, up from 11 percent the year before, according to an employer survey by benefits consulting firm Mercer. Companies with 20,000 or more employees were even more likely to have clinics.
Among the biggest advocates is American Express. Its “wellness centers” in Phoenix, New York and three other cities offer free or low-cost blood tests, physicals, allergy shots, prescriptions and other services to employees and family members. Some sites also provide dental exams, boxing classes, yoga and massage therapy.
“The investment we are making is more than going to pay off in improved health and improved productivity on the job,” said David Kasiarz, who oversees global compensation and benefits for the company. “We have begun to bend the trend of bad health.”
American Express and others are expanding beyond urgent care, emphasizing preventive services such as mammograms to keep employees from getting sick and running up big medical bills.
NBCUniversal, for one, is gearing up to provide workers with free screenings for prostate and skin cancer at its clinic on the back lot of Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. It also plans to introduce an electrocardiogram machine to detect heart irregularities.
“We want to take every opportunity for prevention,” said Dr. Tanya Benenson, the company’s chief medical officer, who oversees its six medical clinics in New York; Universal City; Burbank, Calif.; and Orlando, Fla. “If we can keep people healthier and get to illnesses earlier, they won’t be away from work as long.”
Whereas NBCUniversal uses its own medical staff, other companies rely on outside medical professionals, fueling the expansion of an industry that supplies doctors, nurses, lab technicians and other personnel. About 30 firms now offer package deals with options for various medical and pharmacy services, according to industry executives.
One of those firms, Comprehensive Health Services of Reston, Va., has seen its clinic business double in the past three years, to more than 100 in 23 states. And company executives forecast continued growth in the next year as companies look to cut costs.
“They have an aging population that is increasingly expensive,” Executive Vice President Stuart Clark said. “The human resources people are under charge to get this under control.”
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