In previous blog posts, we’ve explored the numerous benefits that employers receive from implementing onsite or near-site health and wellness clinics–but what do their employees feel about them?
In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of an onsite clinic from an employee’s standpoint, which include cost savings, better health for themselves and their families…and in a few cases, even life-changing (or life-saving) experiences.
Three Benefits of an Onsite Clinic you Shouldn’t Ignore
Benefit #1: Cost Savings
Employers are not alone in feeling the pinch from rapidly escalating healthcare costs across the United States. Workers and their families are paying more out-of-pocket costs for their care, yet their co-pays and deductibles continue to rise.
One of the greatest benefits of an onsite clinic is that services and programs (from acute care to health coaching and even medications and labs) are often provided for free to employees and spouses/dependents. When employers provide onsite health center services at no cost to employees and their families, they encourage a workplace culture of health while also ensuring that the health center has maximum utilization and ROI. In addition to saving money on co-pays or deductibles, employees also save on gasoline costs or wear-and-tear to their vehicles driving back and forth from the doctor’s office, or from having to take unpaid time off if the employer mandates it.
In some cases, employees can even make money by using the onsite health clinic. Onsite health vendors such as Marathon Health often work with employers to develop effective incentive plans. These incentives allow employees to receive financial benefits from utilizing the health center services, such as completing a health risk assessment, biometric screening or Comprehensive Health Review. These incentives can range from lower deductibles to cash rewards.
Benefit #2: Healthier Lives
The greatest benefit that any employee can ask for is a healthy, happy life for themselves and their families, and onsite health centers provide the clinical support and self-education tools that people need to take control of their own health. This includes not only acute and primary care services, but also health coaching (for weight loss, stress reduction, smoking cessation, chronic illnesses and more), disease management programs, lunch-and-learn sessions, health education courses and challenges, and online evidence-based self-learning .
Since many health centers are open to not just employees, but their spouses and/or dependents as well, it allows families to get healthy together, and create an established culture of health and wellness in their homes.
Benefit #3: A New Life
Employees often cite an onsite health center as one of the best benefits that their employers provide, and this is because for some employees and their families, an onsite health center is more than just a benefit—it’s the place where their lives made a drastic change for the better.
Our “Healthy Like Me” program highlights our members who, with the help of the clinical staff, programs and tools at our health centers, have made drastic improvements in their health and well-being. These improvements range from:
- Weight loss
- Quitting smoking
- Reducing high pressure
In some cases, helping to discover life-threatening illnesses at an early and treatable stage.