FEATURED
Segmented care
Using technology can be the glue that holds segmented care
management together
BY KATHLEEN KOSTER
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 19)
ALSO INSIDE
Editor’s Desk
Have your cake on National Employee
Benefits Day (and eat it too!)
Employee-Consumer
Calming the health information
Internet chaos
Health Care
Why health risk assessments can be
dangerous
BY THE NUMBERS
23
states now offer
high-deductible/consumer-
driven health plans.
See page 50
APRIL 1, 2011 • VOL 25 NO 4 • EBN.BENEFITNEWS.COM
ONSITE CLINICS
Employers adjust workplace-
clinic models to achieve goals
BY LYDELL C. BRIDGEFORD
understand the business case for opening
an onsite clinic,” Graham says.
Overall, the Oregon model borrows
from the Arizona one, which means it is
staffed with a full-time physician, nurse
practitioners, a physical therapist, regis-
tered nurses, certified medical assistants
and health coaches. The team, however,
did tweak the Oregon model, realizing
that certain services might be in higher
demand for that workforce.
One service that the company knew it
wanted to offer onsite was overseas-im-
munization shots. “Many of our employ-
ees travel overseas to do business. As a
result, they have to obtain a list of immu-
nization shots to enter certain countries,”
says Graham.
In the past, Intel contracted with out-
side vendors to provide the costly immu-
nizations. From a cost and convenience
perspective, getting the shots onsite made
sense, but it also made the process a better
experience for workers. “That is how we
look at what’s in and what’s out regarding
the clinic services — asking ourselves, ‘Can
we do it better and will employees value it
if we put it in?’” Graham explains.
Using those criteria, physical therapy
also made the cut. In the Arizona pilots,
(SEE CLINICS ON PAGE 49)
Intel’s onsite clinic in Hillsboro, Ore., serves 5,700
employees, and offers physical therapy.
Workplace clinics give literal mean-
ing to the phrase “Taking care of our
employees.” However, savvy-think-
ing employers are taking strategic
steps to determine what’s in and
what’s out when it comes to health
services rendered onsite.
“There are multiple models em-
ployers adopt on services and treat-
ment offered by a workplace clinic,”
says Ha T. Tu, a senior researcher
at the Center for Studying Health
System Change and co-author of
the study “Workplace Clinics: A Sign of
Growing Employer Interest in Wellness.”
“Some employers go with a full-service
primary care clinic, while others decide
the clinic will focus exclusively on well-
ness or physical therapy.”
Intel analyzes claims intelligence
Early this year, Intel opened an onsite
clinic in Hillsboro, Ore., the home to its
Jones Farm campus. The new clinic serves
about 5,700 employees and provides pri-
mary care, urgent care, allergy and flu
shots, travel medicine, vaccinations and
physical therapy.
Tami Graham, Intel’s director of global
benefits design, says the Intel team de-
termined the services for their clinics by
analyzing claims, and occupational and
wellness data.
The plan was to figure out “what ser-
vices could we offer, based on the scale
of the worksite, that allowed us to offer
better quality of care that is efficient and
at a lower cost for employees,” explains
Graham.
In 2008, Intel, which employs about
43,000 workers, had launched two pilot
onsite clinics in Arizona. “We conducted
the Arizona pilots for a full year to better
