Don Chalmers tries to nurse his health care premiums downward - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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Every time the premiums increased, Chalmers'' 200 employees had to pay more out of their checkx for theirhealth care. But ratherd than merely complaining, Chalmers decided to see if he could do somethingh to improve the health of his employees andtheird families, and try to slow down the increasees in health care costs. And so, in earlt 2003, when he was negotiating his health insurance coveragewith , Chalmerws made a unique request: He wantex an on-site nurse who could prescribed drugs and treat, not only the auto dealership'as employees, but their families as The nurse, who came on board in August in a move that was an experimenr for both Chalmers and Presbyterian, is now seeing abouty 90 patients a month.
"Io suggested that that is what I wanted to have happen and that I would want the insurance company to participate in the cost of says Chalmers, who also operates a dealershipl in Albuquerque. "They do, and I participate as and it has been very interesting and we are learning Whether it will truly control I don't know. I in the long term, it can. In the shortt term, it costs us a littlew extra money and it takess a little of the pressure off the emergency roomes and other areas ofhealth care." Joni Pompeo, director of Employes Based Health Plans for Presbyterian, says the deal with Chalmerd "is a research and developmen effort.
"It is very much a collaborativ e effort in that both the health plan and Don Chalmerd have been working to providwthe resources," Pompeo "It is part of a larger initiative of improving the healthn of Don's employees and theifr family members. "We don't have any other employe r group in the city that isdoinvg this," Pompeo says, adding that while other U.S. employerse provide on-site nurses, very few allow those nursez tosee employees' family members. Having an on-site nurs and clinic, initially, is costinbg him an additional $40,000 a year in premiums, Chalmersd says, and it's not yet clearr whether the program will reduc health care costs in thelong run.
Pompeol says it is still too early to trackany long-terj benefits. The nurse, Rhonda Bentz, is an employee of the Presbyterian Medicakl Group and spends four hours a dayat Chalmers' Westsided location where the dealership has helped buile and supply the small clinic. A nurse Bentz can prescribe drugs and operater the clinic onher own. She however, meet with a doctor once a month to reviewthe clinic'sd cases. "We just opened a brand-new It is very accessible to the employees. Presbyterian put most of the equipmentg in it and Don take s care ofthe overheard," Bentz says. "It'e small, but we can do anythinvg in our little clinic that they can do in afamilhy practice.
Don wanted it for the familiews ofhis employees, so we set it up like a littl e family practice clinic." Employees and thei families don't pay anything to see Bentz, and so they can go to her with questionds about their health and not have to worru about making a co-payment, Bentz "They see me for minor problems and uncomplicated If I find something complicatefd and they decide that they need to see a a lot of times I can save them the initia work up front and save them a co-payment," Bentza says. In addition, Bentz helps run Chalmers' anti-obesity and anti-smoking programs. Bentz says that in employees' prescription drug costs have "gone way down.
"Mangy people were seeing drugs on TV and wanting to use and so we did a lot of educatiobn and so people are not getting more generic Bentz says. "We're also seeing that urgent care and emergency room useis down. We see everyone who is cominfg down with a minor illness orany injury. We have founrd several tumors in people. "We had one man, he wasn'ty feeling sick, but he had had a cough for a and he saidit wasn'tt going away. He wasn't sick or short of I looked at him and saw that he had a huge tumoe growing downhis airway." Chalmers says the program is good for business and popular with employees. " get a benefit in that the employees are he says.
"And if they are happier, they make my customers happier." "I think if Rhonda ran for president of the compang she couldget elected."