Onsite Employee Health Centers Bring Cities Success
City Government Clients of CareHere Crowne LLC Cut Costs While Improving Care.
April 12, 2017 (Ocoee, Fla.) – The benefits planning team at Crowne Consulting Group reports enhanced care and lower medical costs for city governments providing onsite and near-site health and wellness centers for employees, retirees, and dependents.
Employers had faced relentless increases in healthcare expenditures for years. In an effort to control budgets and save taxpayer dollars, many Florida cities turned to self-funding and worksite healthcare models as a way to control medical costs, while preventing and managing chronic conditions.
“On average, the operation and administration costs for onsite health centers are 30 to 70 percent less than what employers are paying under the fee-for-service model,” said Ray Tomlinson, president of Crowne Consulting Group.
Onsite health centers provide plan members with cost-free access to primary care clinic services, chronic care, screenings, lab work, X-rays, EKG, generic prescriptions, and wellness programs including exercise, nutrition, and smoking cessation. Florida cities opting for worksite care include Ocala, Ocoee, Apopka, Sanford, Kissimmee, Lake Mary, Sarasota, Leesburg, Mount Dora, Deland, and others.
The City of Oviedo, a CareHere Crowne LLC client, has experienced success with onsite care and wellness programs designed to encourage healthy lifestyles. The city won the 2016 Healthy Weight Community Champion from The Florida Department of Health. Since opening its employee health and wellness center in March 2010, the city reduced medical care costs while improving care.
The Annual Survey on Employer Health Benefits by the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated five percent of employers with at least 50 employees offered health services through an on-site health clinic. The 2016 survey interviewed over 1,000 non-federal public and private firms. Approximately 25 percent of larger firms with at least 1,000 workers offer onsite care benefits.
About Crowne Consulting Group:Crowne Consulting Group, Inc., founded in 1986, provides administrative oversight services for worksite health and wellness centers and is a related company with The Crowne Group, an employee benefits consulting firm specializing in employer solutions and personal lines of insurance. Crowne serves public sector employers such as school boards, city and county government, sheriff offices, as well as private organizations. Solutions for consumer-driven plans include health reimbursement arrangements, self-funded plans, onsite health centers, as well as risk management and human resources consulting.
Crowne Consulting Group was recently featured in American City & County Magazine for its expertise for serving governments and municipalities. See the excerpt below and visit the magazine link to read this entire article.
Excerpt:“…Regardless of the number of employees affected, the ACA has created numerous challenges for Human Resources departments – especially those with constrained budgets. Ray Tomlinson, president of Crowne Consulting Group, an organization helping business and governments set up health clinics, says in this way, local governments are no different than their private sector counterparts. “[Because of the ACA,] employers are experiencing additional oversight, restrictions and costs,” he says. From a local government standpoint, there is now less management discretion at designing benefits packages that would help keep costs low, Tomlinson says.
However, municipalities are increasingly looking to an outside-the-box solution, Tomlinson says, opening onsite or near-site health clinics. These facilities cut down on costs by lowering the number of claims made by covered employees and thus lowering expenses across the board.
“The Affordable Care Act has actually created – even if unintentionally – an opportunity for employers to take a look at the onsite or near-site clinic or heath center as an option to run alongside of their health plan,” says Tomlinson.
Several municipalities have opened health clinics in the past few years, including ….”
GOVERNMENT LEADERS ACROSS CENTRAL FLORIDA GATHER FOR CROWNE’S SUMMIT ON INNOVATIONS FOR ONSITE HEALTHCARE
Cities and school districts met with Crowne Consulting Group for a Summit on Jan. 15 to assess the growing number of employee health and wellness centers.
Jan. 23, 2013 (Ocoee, Fla.) – Central Florida has become a hub of innovation in employee healthcare. Since 2008, onsite employee health and wellness centers have been popping up across Florida and pushing down employer healthcare costs.
Last Tuesday, government representatives met to discuss the benefits they’ve reaped from implementing onsite care centers. They also formed strategies to enhance care by sharing healthcare center access with neighboring municipalities.
Attendees of the 1st Annual Crowne Summit included, the School District of Lake County, City of DeLand, City of Kissimmee, City of Leesburg, City of Lake Mary, City of Mount Dora, City of Ocala, City of Ocoee, City of Oviedo, and City of Sanford. All entities are working with Crowne Consulting Group and CareHere to manage onsite employee health and wellness centers.
Crowne Consulting Group, Inc., an employee benefits consulting firm, is co-administrators of more than 25 health centers throughout Florida, helping Tennessee-based partners CareHere, LLC surpass a milestone of 100 centers nationwide.
Onsite health and wellness centers help employers cut health costs through onsite medical care and wellness programs. Health center services typically include primary care, occupational services, pharmacy, disease management, x-rays, and wellness services along with the employee benefits of zero copays, free screenings, free generic prescriptions, and increased physician face-time.
All centers are staffed by a physician and other supporting medical staff. In addition to providing primary care, chronic disease management and medication, the centers also focus on providing health risk assessments (HRAs), which is a short health examination with blood draw to assess a patient’s risk for diseases and conditions.
Mitigating risks early and keeping employees healthy have prompted positive financial results, including: 10 percent reductions in plan costs, 15 percent decreases in prescription costs, drastic reductions in sick time, and millions of taxpayer dollars saved.
“We’ve saved over $3M since opening our health center,” said Robert Frank, City Manager for Ocoee, which is approaching its five-year anniversary for onsite care for its 350 employees.
Jerry Boop, Finance Director for the City of Oviedo, spoke of similar results. “Crowne has left their footprint on our organization. The City’s healthcare costs are down significantly and are currently trending around 3 percent. We all know that’s a huge accomplishment.”
And they’re not alone. The City of Ocala’s team thanked Crowne for helping them to improve efficiency in a tough economy. The center is one of “our crown jewels,” according to Catherine Cameron, Assistant City Manager. The City saved enough money to go from fully-insured in 2009 to being self-insured within a year of opening its doors.
“Prior to opening the clinics, our premium increases were trending around 10 percent annually. Since we put in the clinics, we’ve been able to keep that down consistently to just 2 percent,” said Jared Sorensen, Director of Human Resources and Risk Management for Ocala.
“We also utilized CareHere’s wellness program last year and tied an incentive program to our premiums so that those completing HRAs and following up with doctor care benefited from lesser premiums. This has provided great success in identifying risks and controlling costs.”
Mark Hayward, Human Resources Director for the City of DeLand, says they’ve seen a $145,000 drop in combined workers’ compensation and medical costs since opening in November of 2010. DeLand also struck a deal with the local hospital to allow employees easier access to specialized medical care.
Collaboration was a running theme at the summit, as most entities remarked that they were open to discussing the idea of access sharing, which would allow their employees an opportunity to visit nearby CareHere health centers operating under neighboring counties and cities.
A partnership example is the City of Ocoee sharing with the City of Apopka to extend the convenience of easy access for employees living in different areas. The Cities of Mount Dora and Leesburg also have an access-sharing agreement for their onsite health centers.
In addition to multi-entity sharing, some have gone the route of opening more than one location, such is the case with Lake Schools, which is in the process of opening their third onsite health center this year for its more than 5,000 employees, dependents, and retirees.
“The centers have been a great success and employees are asking for more locations. Plus, we didn’t have to raise healthcare premiums on our employees this year,” said Carol MacLeod, Chief Financial Officer for Lake Schools, which began working with Crowne and CareHere in 2011.
Attendees of the summit took notes while listening to these exciting results. The Cities of Lake Mary and Sanford, who just launched onsite centers within the past few months, hope for similar results, while the City of Kissimmee is counting the days until their first center opens in April.
“These employers deserve a round of applause for implementing solutions that actually lower health costs while enhancing employee care,” added Dan Ross, president of Med-Vision LLC and Med-View LLC, which provides healthcare data analytics and benefits consulting for Crowne.
Prior to posing for a team photo and pictures with smiling clients and vendors, Ray Tomlinson, president of Crowne Consulting Group gave the following statement: “We are thrilled to hear so much positive feedback from clients who are decreasing healthcare costs and improving quality of care for their employees. The fact that more centers are opening soon means that Florida is on the leading edge of employer-driven healthcare reform. Additionally, this idea of clients sharing access in neighboring areas could extend greater convenience for employees while increasing access to affordable care.”
About Crowne Consulting Group, Inc:Crowne Consulting Group, Inc., founded in 1986, consults and provides administrative oversight services for onsite health and wellness centers to employers and is a related company with The Crowne Group, an employee benefits consulting firm, specializing in employer solutions and personal lines of insurance. Crowne’s experts have a cumulative 100 years of experience in serving public sector employers such as school boards, city and county government, as well as private organizations. The firm’s mission is to bring innovative solutions that meet the fiscal responsibility of employers and maximizes investments. Solutions for consumer-driven plans include health reimbursement arrangements, self-funded plans, onsite health and wellness centers, as well as risk management and human resources consulting.
Call 407-654-5414 to learn more about corporations, school districts, and government agencies implementing on-site health and wellness centers for their employees.
“…Regardless of the number of employees affected, the ACA has created numerous challenges for Human Resources departments – especially those with constrained budgets. Ray Tomlinson, president of Crowne Consulting Group, an organization helping business and governments set up health clinics, says in this way, local governments are no different than their private sector counterparts. “[Because of the ACA,] employers are experiencing additional oversight, restrictions and costs,” he says. From a local government standpoint, there is now less management discretion at designing benefits packages that would help keep costs low, Tomlinson says.