As a self-insured company, InfoCision
Management Corp. realized that
employees’ emergency room visits were really hitting the company in the
pocketbook.
So, with the goal of reducing the number
of hospital visits — along with the associated costs — the Akron teleservices company hired an on-site physician.
Kim Murphy, InfoCision’s vice president
of employee benefits, says that hiring Dr.
James Eley at the beginning of the year has
reduced the number of claims made by
InfoCision employees.
“It was just educating people to call the
nurse hot line,” she says. “It was educating,
if you can wait until the morning, do that,
or go to an urgent care. If we can keep
them out of the ER, that is going to save us
a lot of money. I’m not trying to discourage
them from getting medical help because I
would really rather them get help quicker.”
Employees can reach Eley 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
“We had an employee, and it was Sunday
morning about 9:30,” she says. “They knew
their daughter had been exposed to strep
throat from someone at the day care center, and the daughter woke up ill. They told
the doctor that, and he was able to call in a
prescription for them, and Monday, she
was fine and went back to school. They
didn’t miss work, and she didn’t miss any
school.”
Before implementing the program,
Murphy spent a couple of years researching both the pros and cons of having an on-site physician. Then she asked the company’s health carrier for the names of the 20
doctors employees were seeing most and
reached out to them. But to get a response,
she knew she had to be creative to get past
the doctors’ office managers.
“I knew if I sent them a flier, it’s probably
not going to get their attention,” she says.
So she, with the help of her creative services team, designed a package to get the
doctors’ attention.
“It was a really nice, wrapped green box
with gold ribbon, which is our company
colors,” she says. “Inside, we had a small
cake with our logo on the top, and there
was a recruiting message on the tag. We
hand-delivered all the cakes to the doctors.”
After enticing the doctors to call her, Murphy said it was difficult to find the
right match. She wasn’t interested in
where the doctors received their degrees
or how many degrees they had because if
the employees weren’t comfortable with
the doctor, then they weren’t going to
see that person.
“I really wanted to take them back to
when they first started to practice medicine and to really be concerned about people’s wellness, get to know them and their
family history, and not be so productivity-driven,” she says.
Murphy says InfoCision pays the doctor whether employees use him or not.
“There have been days where he hasn’t
seen anybody, and that’s fine, but I want him
to be there for the employees,” she says.
Eley has been on-site at the company
since the beginning of the year. Murphy
says it will take a year to a year and a
half to see the real impact of the practice, but so far, it has been a great benefit from an employee-convenience standpoint.
“In terms of productivity, they love it
because they are able to walk in, see the
doctor and get back to work,” she says.
“He has tons of samples that he hands
out, so he has enough to get them comfortable.”
HOW TO REACH: InfoCision Management Corp., (330) 670-5190, (330) 668-1400 or www.infocision.com
Medical benefits
While on-site health services were
popular years ago in the manufacturing
industry, some offices are now bringing
the service back — and for good reason.
In 2006, HR Magazine reported on a
study published in the December 2005
issue of the American Journal of
Preventive Medicine, which said
employers could see a return of $3 to $6
for each dollar spent over two to five
years on workplace health strategies.
That includes medical screenings, financial benefits for participation in health
programs, health education classes,
healthier food in the cafeteria and on-site clinics.
Kim Murphy, vice president of employee benefits at InfoCision Management
Corp., says the number of visits to outside doctors by InfoCision employees
has gone down after the company added
an on-site physician in early 2007.
For May, the doctor saw an average of
two people a day, but the number of visits is expected to vary depending on the
season.
The doctor, Dr. James Eley, has hours
at InfoCision’s headquarters from 8 a.m.
to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday and
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays,
along with his own practice. He also has
hours at three other InfoCision locations, and Murphy says she hopes to
expand hours in other offices.
And while Murphy says she recommends that employees make appointments, walk-ins are also accepted.
“I always hear people saying, ‘I love
my doctor, but I can’t get in until a week
or two weeks from now,’ and they have
to wait in the waiting room for an hour,”
she says. “We don’t have that here.”