Benefits managers - have you been thinking about offering (or have you already offered) genetic testing to your employees in the hopes that once risk factors are identified, their lifestyle behaviors would change?  If so, here's an interesting article based on research which included an attempt to answer that question.  The results of the study were reported on the Web site of the highly regarded New England Journal of Medicine.

More than 3,600 participants enrolled in the study initially, and more than 2,000 of these responded to follow-up questionnaires within six months of testing.  The results indicated that ". . . such testing did not result in any measurable short-term changes in psychological health, diet or exercise behavior, or use of screening tests."  (Emphasis added). 

Sounds like genetic testing may be interesting, but not particularly helpful in motivating people to change lifestyle behaviors that impact health.

As reported on our Web site in December 2010, Marathon Health is managing a newly opened on-site facility for the largest food wholesaler in the U.S., C&S Wholesale Grocers.  The facility is located at the corporate headquarters for C&S in Keene, New Hampshire and serves employees and their dependents providing primary care, health promotion and coaching, disease management, pharmacy, and access to the eHealth Portal technology that Marathon offers.

Other news from Marathon is pretty interesting, as well.  Also in December, Marathon announced that its health risk assessment and health coaching program achieved a 97% engagement rate for employees of Accellent (employees identified at being at high risk for a chronic condition or who had previously been diagnosed with a chronic condition).  This means that 97% of the employees identified in this category had met with a nurse coach and selected a related goal to work on with health coaching.

We all know that on-site services are comprehensive and composed of many different components.  This is just one of those services that on-site vendors provide, some on an "a la carte" basis.  And the term "engagement" seems to be a huge buzzword over the last year.  It can mean many things, but getting employees actively involved and taking responsibility for their own health is critical to the success of any on-site service.  Sounds like Marathon has one offering that works in this regard.

Another large employer has joined the on-site clinic bandwagon.  Michelin has one site already across the parking lot from its North American headquarters in South Carolina.  This facility has only been open a couple of months and is already seeing 160 patients/week with a physician, two NPs and two physical therapists. 

The second site is under construction; both are being managed by Take Care Health Systems (the Walgreens on-site arm).  It is worth noting that Michelin's employee turnover rate is very low with an average length of service of 24 years.  Corporations with this type of employee loyalty usually find on-site services more quickly accepted since the bond of trust is already pretty well-established.  The Michelin center is open five and half days per week -not just to employees and their dependents, but also to retirees.

The article in which this was reported also referred to comments of George Wright, senior director of site operations for Take Care Health Systems, in which he stated that they are currently working to develop co-ops to provide on-site services for groups of small employers.  Obviously, big vendors are figuring out ways to expand the client base from what has been pretty much only large employers to others who may not have the number of employees necessary to make the service feasible. 

For more on-site clinic news, visit our Web site at www.onsiteclinics.org