Looking for alternatives to the standard employee health plan? You’re in the right place, and you’re not alone. Every day, we talk to leaders who want to help their employees live happy, healthy lives but also need to manage the bottom line. Unfortunately, the healthcare industry makes achieving both of those goals challenging.

If you’re feeling discouraged, know that you have alternatives. For example, a center for employee health mitigates rising healthcare costs while improving employee well-being, making it an attractive option for mid-sized companies.

Over the last decade, NeoPath Health has helped dozens of mid-sized companies like yours design and build onsite employee health centers. When we sit down to help companies assess whether an onsite employee health center makes sense, they tend to ask these four questions:

• What are the benefits of a center for employee health?
• How does a center for employee health improve employee well-being and productivity?
• What investment level is required to establish a center for employee health?
• What logistics are involved in the ongoing operation of a center for employee health?

This Ultimate Guide to Building Your Company’s Center for Employee Health answers these questions and shares our tips and best practices.

What are the benefits of a center for employee health?

When you separate your company from healthcare’s traditional payment and delivery systems, you can avoid the practices that drive up costs. Here are a few benefits employers realize with employee health centers:

Lower costs: An onsite health center can help reduce your healthcare costs in several ways. First, preventative care can reduce the need for expensive emergency room visits or specialist care. In addition, repeated clinic use can identify chronic diseases and create ongoing opportunities for support and care, which reduces large complex claims. Finally, an onsite health center can coordinate care referrals as required, ensuring employees stay in-network.

Less absenteeism: In the simplest terms, sick employees miss more work days than healthy ones. According to the CDC, when you provide employees with easy access to healthcare services, you can significantly reduce absenteeism at your company – an issue that costs American businesses more than $225 billion annually.

Higher productivity: No more driving across town, waiting in a doctor's office, and then fighting traffic back to work. When employees visit an onsite or near-site clinic, it takes less time. An employee health center can diagnose injuries and other conditions earlier to keep employees healthy and ready for work.

Talent attraction: Benefits are essential for candidates and current employees considering employment offers. When you provide access to high-quality primary care, you demonstrate how much you care about employee well-being. In turn, when employees are more satisfied with the benefits you offer, they're more likely to recommend you as a place to work.

How does a center for employee health improve employee well-being and productivity?

An onsite employee health center can significantly improve employee productivity and well-being. Here are just a few examples:

Encourages healthy behaviors: An onsite health center can provide education and resources on healthy behaviors, such as exercise, nutrition, and stress management – all of which help employees make positive lifestyle changes. Employees are less likely to need hospital visits or surgery when in tune with their health. They're also less likely to have conditions that go undiagnosed and untreated.

Provides convenient access: Employees are more likely to seek care when convenient – whether for important preventative care, ongoing illness treatment, or prescriptions. 

Delivers more personalized care: When employees use an onsite clinic or health center, medical staff can spend more time with employees and truly get to know them. This makes it easier for medical staff to catch health issues early or help employees successfully manage chronic conditions.

Improves health outcomes: By providing accessible and convenient healthcare services, an onsite health center can help employees better manage chronic conditions and prevent illness, improving overall health outcomes.

Reduces healthcare-related stress: Employees can avoid the stress and inconvenience of scheduling appointments, traveling to off-site facilities, and navigating the healthcare system.

What investment level is required to establish a center for employee health?

We know that building a center for employee health sounds expensive. It may surprise you that the investment needed to establish an employee health center is probably already in your health plan budget. In many cases, you won't need general funds.

Set-up costs: Your initial costs will include the cost of building or leasing a space, purchasing medical equipment, and hiring staff. Our team will help you with the following:

• Determine feasibility
• Find the best space
• Design your facility
• Staff and manage your facility

Operating costs: At NeoPath, we are completely transparent in pricing, and all clinical costs, such as supplies and equipment, are passed through to you with no markup. We also provide direct-to-manufacturer drug pricing.

Management fee: NeoPath charges a flat management fee. Because our incentives align with yours, we operate in a true partnership. That means when your clinic is running well – and your employees have a healthier, happier outlook – you're happily saving money. 

Choose your level of investment: A center for employee health should be modeled and staffed to meet your unique needs to succeed. And it should be flexible enough to grow alongside your company. We can help you choose the right level of investment, whether that means starting small, sharing costs with other local companies, or going all-in.

Costs to employees: Your team will love having no copays, no deductibles, and no-cost basic prescriptions.

Return on investment: Use this step-by-step formula to determine whether your investment will be offset by your cost savings or your company’s potential ROI:

1. Take the overall projected value of the clinic services, using standard CPT rates and the average cost of services
2. Add the medication savings discovered by cutting out the costs of dispensing medications and ordering directly from a distributor
3. Add the potential saving of having the ability to treat your employees in-house and keeping the referral rate to specialists below the 33% industry average
4. By adding these numbers, you now have the overall value of your onsite clinic. Now subtract the actual clinic costs for all operations and supplies. The result is your employee health center’s ROI.

What logistics are involved in the ongoing operation of a center for employee health?

It’s common for employers to shy away from onsite clinics because they worry about the complexity – like rules and regulations, staff privileging and credentialing, liability, and medical equipment. The good news is that NeoPath Health helps you with all of it.

Build logistics: Our team will help you design and build an onsite or near-site employee health center. In some cases, your in-house facilities team can handle everything. 

Staffing and qualifications: We staff and manage your clinic with highly-skilled, board-certified physicians, mid-level practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. Our staff creates genuine relationships with your employees to provide diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and education all in one place—the result- solutions that address employees' underlying issues.

Measurement and evaluation: NeoPath Health provides customized reporting with metrics that are easy to understand. Your monthly dashboard includes the insights you need to make informed decisions, including utilization, costs, and patient survey results.

Good for employees is good for business

At NeoPath Health, we believe there’s a better way to deliver healthcare to your employees and their families. We’ve seen firsthand how companies have leveraged centers for employee health to improve employee well-being, reduce healthcare costs, and distinguish their employer brand. 

To learn more about the feasibility of building a center for employee health at your company, contact us today.