QuikTrip announced the opening of the Kansas City clinic in late July. The new 1,000-square-foot clinic is located in Belton, Mo., and is free to all Kansas City division employees and their families who participate in QuikTrip's PPO plan. The Kansas [image-nocss] Division consists of 74 stores in the metropolitan Kansas City area.
Chet Cadieux, president and CEO of QuikTrip, said in a statement, "Our first clinic in Tulsa, Okla., has achieved everything we envisioned. Free quality acute medical care, easy access, substantial savings of medical costs and most importantly more healthy, productive employees and employee families. I can't imagine a better scenario."
The Tulsa clinic opened about two years ago. The 1,400-square-foot Belton clinic is open half days, Mondays through Fridays, to provide the same services as a primary care physician's office. It is staffed by a board-certified physician and others who are employees of Care ATC. "As more of QuikTrip's employees and family members utilize the new medical service, the hours will be expanded, especially when they find out QuikTrip also offers them up to 40 free types of prescriptions for common ailments," said Cadieux.
"We're seeing that it is being utilized by folks more and more," company spokesperson Mike Thornbrugh told CSP Daily News. "We're seeing employees who really never went to the doctor are taking the time to do so. We're seeing that by using this preventative medicine, that employees who were having some medical issues and were not even aware of it have been able to be addressed quickly. And they're getting better medical care, and in doing so, their work productivity is greater. And even though they are healthy, sometimes employees take off because they have family members who are sick."
Thornbrugh spelled out the benefits of such a program. "Is it saving money for QuikTrip? Absolutely. It's saving money on the medical side, but it's also saving money on the side of employees not missing work. We don't ask what it costs. I don't even have a clue, except we know what the bottom line iseveryone is healthier, and the cost to us is irrelevant on the back side. There are more pluses than minuses."
He also put the program the context of the larger health cared debate going on nationwide. "No matter what Congress decides, if anything, we're going to do this anyway. No offense to elected officials, but at QuikTrip, we think we know what our employees want and expect, so we're going to go forward with what we're doing, regardless of what they do."
He also said that there will be additional clinics, but the company does not have a timeframe for their rollout yet. "Now that we've had a chance to observe the Tulsa clinic, and now we've got it for the Kansas City area, so now we're looking at where else we can take it."
According to a Watson Wyatt/National Business Group on Health survey, 29% of large U.S. companies this year provide or plan to provide onsite health services for their employees, said a report in the The Kansas City Star.
"The clinics allow us to approach our employees' health proactively to improve it while controlling costs," Walter Smith, benefits and casualty claims manager for QuikTrip, told the newspaper. "The clinics are a win-win for us and for our employees."
Onsite health clinics represent one way that employers are trying to cut health care expenses through wellness initiatives, said the report. "Because the focus is on preventive care, health care costs decrease as employees and their families experience fewer catastrophic health claims," said Paul Keeling, Care ATC's director of sales.
While companies are tightening their belts in response to the downward spiraling economy, some employers are making investments in their employees' health, said the Star. More than half of employers said they will cut their healthcare costs next year by shifting the burden to their employees via increased premiums, deductibles, co-pays or out-of-pocket expenses, according to research released by Mercer Inc. cited in December 2008 by Care ATC, which runs the clinics.
In contrast, QuikTrip is extending the hours of its onsite health clinic by four hours each week. "Extending the amount of time our onsite clinic is open will increase our employees' access to quality medical care," Smith said. "By investing in our employees' health, we invest in the sustainability of our business."
Tulsa-based Care ATC is a national provider of onsite physician clinics. Its main focus is to help employers take control of healthcare by giving patients a shorter path to care. Care ATC clients have seen their health costs reduced by a minimum of $500 per employee per year on average, it said.QuikTrip, also based in Tulsa,currently owns and operatesnearly 550retail outlets in nine states.
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