Cooper Johnson: SVP Employee Benefits, S.S. Nesbitt & Co.
Presenting: Shared Wellness Clinics
Cooper is a student of employee benefits. Having spent his entire career consulting in this space, he has also worked at the forefront of moving S.S. Nesbitt & Co’s benefits practice from a brokerage-only focus in the early 2000s to a post-ACA, “beyond benefits” and holistic health plan design consulting practice.
3. THE CARE MODEL
• Primary Care
• Urgent Care
• Telemedicine
• Biometric
Screens/HRAs
• Workers
Compensation
• Annual Physical
• Pre-Employment
Physicals
• Drug Screenings
9. WILL IT LOWER PRIMARY CARE
COSTS?
Increase primary care spend to:
– Reduce ER, urgent care spend
– Drive referrals to high-value providers
– Reduce gaps in care - identify and treat chronic conditions
sooner
– Reduce absenteeism
– Increase adherence to treatment – Rx on site
10. BIRMINGHAM MODEL
• Two locations
– City Federal Building - Downtown
– Chase Lake - Hoover
• More as program grows
• Could add mental health, physical therapy in the
future
• Long-term goal is higher value relationships with
local providers
11. PRICING & COMMITMENT
• One year commitment
from each employer.
• Cost is $75 PEPM
– Marginal cost less as
you are eliminating
most of existing PCP,
Urgent Care and some
ER visits.
• Labs, vaccines, and Rx
pass through basis
14. LONG TERM GOALS
• Reduce Costs
• Early, low hanging fruit:
• ER visits
• Physicals
• Referrals
• Longer term fruit:
• Engaging more of the population
• Managing chronic conditions
• Avoiding catastrophic claims
• Goal is 0-3% overall trend within 3-5 years
• Provide better employee experience
• Attract, recruit, and retain employees
Editor's Notes
We in general don’t love our doctors the way we used to.
It is open to employees, spouses, and dependents over 10 (over 2 for acute issues).
Hours vary but will typically include at least one early morning, one evening, and some Saturday hours.
This is the Huntsville model.
Discuss how this could be adapted to serve a full-time clinic and a satellite clinic.
Discuss scaling – as clinic utilization/size grows, staffing grows with it.
This is the Huntsville model.
Discuss how this could be adapted to serve a full-time clinic and a satellite clinic.
Discuss scaling – as clinic utilization/size grows, staffing grows with it.
Accessibility
Completely voluntary
No requirement that they give up their current PCP (although we hope to design an experience that will make them want to)
Open to employees, spouses, dependents
Children – age limitations
Children 10 and over can establish with the Health Center for routine visits
Children ages from birth to 9 years should have routine care provided by their pediatrician
Children ages 2- 9 years will be seen for urgent/acute care
Children under 2 will be referred to their pediatrician for all care
Little to no cost
Making an appointment (phone, web, walk-in)
Appointments available same day, walk-ins as able
No long wait
Experience with doctor
Length of visit
Build relationship – encourage this to become PC home
Other convenience factors
Fill Rx on site
Increases compliance
Not a pharmacy – must see doc to get Rx
Location convenient to work, home
Flexible hours
Services provided – PC, wellness/preventative, nutrition, flu shots, etc.
Medical records – confidential
EMR, can facilitate information exchange between PCP, specialists, etc. – just as any other health center
Integration with Springbuk
The goal is to double the amount of money you spend on primary care. Primary care is cheap and efficient and every extra dollar you spend you will take $2-3 out of hospitals, rx, and specialists.
Today, an employee has to wait 1-3 weeks to get an appointment, 30 minutes in the waiting room, and then 10 minutes in the exam room – all for the privilege of spending 5-7 minutes with the doctor before getting a prescription or referral. And increasingly, the PCP is an employee of the hospital. In the PHWC model, the employee gets an appointment within 48 hours, waits less than five minutes, and then spends 20-25 minutes with the physician. This is a return to actual care and away from the reactive launch pad of Rx and hospitals.
We want to push as much into primary care as possible
Everything that happens in PCP instead of elsewhere saves money
Accessible by employees, spouses, and dependents
This is the Huntsville model.
Discuss how this could be adapted to serve a full-time clinic and a satellite clinic.
Discuss scaling – as clinic utilization/size grows, staffing grows with it.
This is the Huntsville model.
Discuss how this could be adapted to serve a full-time clinic and a satellite clinic.
Discuss scaling – as clinic utilization/size grows, staffing grows with it.