Community Health Partnerships Improve Employee Lives

Our community healthcare partnerships with local doctors and specialists help surround employees with the best care to improve their health and wellness throughout their life.

Employers exploring the possibility of onsite or near-site Network health services often ask what impact an employee health center will have on local healthcare providers.

In some cases, where access to care is an issue, employers are interested in collaborating with the health systems for improving care across the continuum. In other cases, where there is readily accessible primary care, employers want to ensure that employee health services supplement and support the primary care relationship.

Our goal is to partner with the employers, employees and the local community to ensure we’re working together to provide the best patient care experience. “We care about the communities we serve and collaborate with local health providers, including local primary care physicians and specialists, so patients have a team surrounding them throughout their life and healthcare journey,” says Jeff Wells, CEO and co-founder of Marathon Health.

Marathon Health member Ron Boyd, for example, says he was overweight, tired and in constant pain. He needed knee replacement surgery but says he weighed too much to qualify for the procedure. With the help of his Marathon Health care team and exercise specialist, he was able to lose 185 pounds through low-impact exercise and healthy eating habits.

“Since losing weight, I had a total knee replacement and started hiking, resumed walking 3- to 5-miles per day and even plan to pick up tennis again,” says Ron, who’s thankful for his entire care team for helping him to get back to a better quality of life.

A Seamless Community Patient Experience

How does Marathon Health help ensure a seamless patient experience from the onsite or near-site Network health center to the community providers? We use proven methods to build and maintain strong, productive and ongoing relationships between Marathon Health and local providers. Our methods include:

Provider Summits

We invite community providers and administrators to meet with us and learn about our model and methods of facilitating collaborative care.

One-on-One Meetings

We reach out to interested providers in the healthcare community to answer any questions and resolve any concerns.

Collaborative Programs

We can facilitate bringing in services from the local health system — such as mobile mammography, dermatology clinics, and health screenings.

These added services increase awareness and engagement with local providers and help to increase patient compliance with screenings and other treatments. These services also help to identify undetected health issues that could lead to future costs.

Patient Care Roadmap

We provide a healthcare decision tree flyer for eligible participants that helps them make appropriate care choices throughout the local health system. The benefits to this approach are significant to the patient, the employer and the community providers.

Healthcare Referrals

Our referral coordinator team offers a personalized, high-touch approach to help employees find the best community doctors, specialists and procedures at the best price. And because our coordinators schedule the appointment, 60% of our patients complete their referrals.

We’ve partnered with Garner Health to leverage their data-driving physician analytics to help guide patient choice.

Community Health Partnerships Improve Lives, Lowers Costs

Some patients who visit Marathon Health report that they haven’t seen a primary care provider or doctor in years ever (or never!). And many delayed care during the pandemic and haven’t been back since. Worksite and near-site Network healthcare for employees has been able to detect conditions and get patients into the care of community doctors and specialists.

“In the old days, I would give a referral to the patient, and I wouldn’t necessarily know whether or not they went to the specialist or doctor until my next visit,” says William Klein, MD, Regional Medical Director at Marathon Health. “Our referral team stays on top of it, and it really helps with patient follow-up.”

When Craig Borden, a Marathon Health member, started experiencing numbness in his cheek, hand and foot, he visited the Tyson Bright Blue Health Center offered by Marathon Health. The nurse practitioner helped to get Craig into a local neurologist for a second option, and then later a cardiologist who discovered he had four major coronary artery blockages that needed immediate attention.

“Since my surgery… I changed my eating habits and am doing rehab to improve my stamina. My health is great now and I’m thankful,” Craig says.

The patient is always at the center of the care we provide, and by working with local doctors and specialists only helps to improve the health of the community overall. By taking a health risk management approach, we also identify health concerns that could otherwise lead to a debilitating or costly condition.

Our system of collaboration promotes finding the right provider at the right time for the right reason – leading to healthier patients and lowering the cost of care for everyone involved. When we work together, we provide better health for everyone throughout the communities we all serve.