In this economy, a vast number of people are uninsured. Low income families don’t have access to care due to finances. It is not just the homeless, or those living in poverty. The problem afflicts middle class America, too. The existence of more affordable alternative health care is on the upswing. Many companies are opening employee clinics, and retailers like Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreen’s are opening onsite clinics for the public.
Who are They? What do They Offer?
These clinics allow affordable access to care, often with less waiting for minor maladies. Corporate clinics provide services ranging from checkups, flu shots, and monitoring illnesses like diabetes to treatment for minor illness/injury. A few of the companies that provide clinics include Credit Suisse, Toyota, Sprint-Nextel, and Pepsi Bottling Company. Currently, about 10 percent of the nation’s top 1000 employers offer clinics, and that number should climb to 25% by year’s end if expectations are met.
What about families that don’t work for America’s largest employers? Check local chain drug stores. Companies like Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreen’s are opening clinics around the country. The cost is about 40% less than what urgent care clinics or family doctors charge, which makes them more accessible for those with a thin wallet.
What’s in it for Them?
Companies with many employees generally provide health insurance to their employees. The use of these clinics, staffed by nurse practitioners, nurses, and part-time doctors, cuts down on payment amounts for health insurance outlays. These clinics have shown a reduction in referrals to emergency rooms and urgent care for minor ailments, which costs hundreds of dollars for simple treatments. If minor accidents aren’t referred to emergency rooms, worker’s compensation costs are cut. Proper monitoring of chronic conditions promotes a healthier lifestyle, which results in fewer sick days. Healthier employees are more productive employees. One New York Times article states that a clinic that serves 2,000 patients can probably save between one and two million dollars per year on worker productivity and health insurance costs due to these clinics .
Retailers provide a product consumers desperately need and want at a more affordable cost, making health care more accessible to many. Further, when a prescription is written twenty feet from Walgreen’s, how many people really drive across town and fill it at another pharmacy? More patients equals more prescription sales.
What’s in it for Consumers?
Consumers have less wait time, less time off of work, and less out of pocket expense for the uninsured. The convenience of stopping by the clinic on the way home to seek treatment for an infection decreases the chance that the illness will become an absence-causing illness. For the uninsured, missed work makes things worse after paying a doctor bill, and then buying a prescription or two. The smaller paycheck, and unplanned medical expenses require the belt to be tightened elsewhere.
Concerns
Opponents worry about patients’ privacy, that company paid providers might divulge sensitive information to employers or employees. Worries about quality care and sound advice most beneficial to the patient versus the company shake some. These concerns are addressed by outsourcing management to private firms. Will pharmacy clinics overprescribe to boost sales for the pharmacy? Will people with serious ailments be properly referred, and have access to needed urgent care? The answers will likely emerge soon, as new clinics are opening quickly. Hopefully, the clinics will offer hope to struggling American families and better accessibility to care. Time will tell.
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