Is there a doctor at the work place - on premise at work?

This is somewhat of a return from times in the past, but many companies are seeing it as a way to reduce costs and provide medical care to employees at work, not just emergency care, but regular physician care.

Yes there would be privacy concerns here too, as how much of this information could find it's way into the employer's hands too, since they are all wrapped up in contracts with the insurers from the other side of the coin. One thing is has accomplished is to make the physician accessible, next day appointments, regular check ups, pap smears, etc. to name a few. The facilities fall under the same privacy laws as any other medical office, but again, there is still a concern here on what may be anonimized and used for reports and studies, as all it takes is one common identifier from each data base to make a connection and a match, thus the anonymous protection that is promoted so heavily may have real issues the minute a query is run, but no laws have been broken as long as a new data base was not created...still one of those gray areas in healthcare.

The article states at at least 500 on premise employees is somewhat of a starting place to create a cost effective system for this to work. Obviously it is lucrative enough for the retailer Walgreens to get in on the project with the creation of an entire entity that focuses on just this. Also, one other participant mentioned is Johns Hopkins, which in recent past articles I discussed how some of the large medical centers are adding to their bottom line with branding and outside investments and subsidiaries and this appears to be one other methodology being used by large medical institutions.

I guess this could be a real convenience for the busy analysts too on Wall Street to fit in time for their medical care. BD

Like so many other companies, Cardone Industries Inc. in Northeast Philadelphia was struggling with the cost of its workers' health care. Too many of its 4,000 employees, a melting pot of immigrants from dozens of countries, lacked primary-care doctors. Rather than deal with problems early, they'd wait until they were really sick, then head for emergency rooms, the priciest place to get health care. On top of that, a small but growing number of workers was turning down the company's health insurance plan because it was too expensive.

Johns Hopkins runs about 50 clinics, most of them staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, at seven large national companies, including PepsiCo Inc. and Hughes Electronics Inc. "It's a great way to deliver medicine, particularly preventive medicine," said Edward Bernacki, a doctor who runs Hopkins' division of occupational medicine. Pharmacy giant Walgreen Co. has a new division based in Conshohocken that is creating a web of health centers in its drugstores and at work sites. Clients include about 30 financial firms on Wall Street, Harrah's Entertainment Inc., Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and Toyota Motor Corp. Beginning in October, the division will operate a 15,000-square-foot health center for Disney World employees.

The savings come, he said, from the specialty price cuts and from better primary care.

Companies offering on-site health care | Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/03/2008