KTUL Channel 8
QuikTrip to Have On-Site Physician for its Employees
Tulsa - A Tulsa company is changing the healthcare industry by bringing the doctor's office to the office. It's a concept already saving money for the bottom line and saving lives in the process.
It's called Care ATC, and it's a medical model in the spirit of one-stop shopping, convenience that's just been ordered by another convenience company, QuikTrip.
Their goal is to make life easier. They've got food, they've got beer, and coming soon, tongue depressors.
"We don't think its going to cost us anything, we're gonna save money," says QT Executive Mike Thornbrugh on the company's decision to hire an on-site physician for its 13-hundred Tulsa employees.
"It's an answer to healthcare quite frankly," says Ron Woods, founder of Care ATC, the company providing the doctor along with a substantial return on investment.
"In fact, any employer who has one hundred or more employees who has a clinic on site is saving over five-hundred dollars per employee per year by the end of the second year.
The cost is an average 15-thousand dollars per month, but for a company the size of QuikTrip, that's still hundreds of thousands saved. How can that be?
"A lot of people between 20 and 50 have no doctor at all," says Dr. Jim Baker.
Baker says even with health insurance, most people only go to the doctor when sick. With the ease of onsite, Care ATC heads disease and damage to the bottom line, off at the pass.
And it's mainly because if you address the prevention, if you address the chronic disease management, the diabetes, the blood pressure, the cholesterol, take care of these issues, you're going to see a decrease in your catastrophic claims," Baker says.
The concept is spreading quicker than the flu. So far, Care ATC has spread to 31 companies.
"I really do think it's the silver bullet. I think it will revolutionize the way healthcare is provided."
As for an employees' regular health insurance? It is not affected in any way. And every visit to the onsite doctor is covered 100-percent by the company.
QuikTrip hopes to have its clinic up and running later this month. Care ATC meanwhile is launching a national expansion effort.