Using aworksite medical clinic as a primary care provider and even as a“medical home” is a growth trend that fits in with many employers'strategy of leveraging Accountable Care Organizations. (Photo:Shutterstock)

A third of U.S. employers with 5,000 employees or more areoffering general medical clinics at the worksite,according to a Mercer survey, and that's a sizable increasefrom 2012.

Survey data reveal that while in 2017 33 percent of thoseemployers provided general medical clinics, in 2012 just 24 percentdid, while worksite clinics focused on occupational health were more common, at 38percent.

Related: Manufacturers lead pack in offering onsiteclinics

However, those occupational health clinics aren't experiencingthe growth rate that those offering general medical services are.The report says that while only 16 percent of organizations with500–4,999 employees currently provide a general medical clinic,another 8 percent say they will add one by 2019.

“Employers of all sizes and industries are finding they caneffectively address the wide variations in quality and cost fromlocal providers by offering clinics that are easily accessible, lowor no cost to employees, high quality medical services at or nearthe worksite, and that are not driven by the need to generatevolume and fees,” says Larry Boress, executive director, NationalAssociation of Worksite Health Centers.

In fact, the report says that using a worksite medical clinic asa primary care provider and even as a “medical home” is anothergrowth trend that fits in with many employers' strategy ofleveraging Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) and other networkapproaches. A patient-centered medical home, it says, “is a healthcare delivery model whereby patients (often very high risk orchronically ill) have their care coordinated by a primary carephysician, a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant.”

And 35 percent of survey respondents with general medicalclinics say their clinic serves as a patient-centered medical home.That's risen from 26 percent in 2015. In addition, 67 percent allowemployees to opt for the worksite clinic as their primary careprovider; in 2015, just 49 percent allowed them to do so.

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