In 2009, Ben Evans and Jeff Wells M.D. hatched a business plan at Union Jacks pub in Broad Ripple that would disrupt the broken healthcare system and create a financial relief valve for employers, upon whose backs rested the care and wellbeing of their workforce.

But in order to appreciate the impact of their plan, you first need to understand the three biggest drivers of the broken system—poor access, skyrocketing costs and declining health outcomes.

The US is on track to spend $5 trillion per year on healthcare by 2025, which is more than any developed country in the world. And despite that spend, we’re among the worst in health outcomes and are on track to be 100,000 doctors short of demand in five years. If you think wait times are bad now … just wait.

To make the problem worse, nearly 50% of that annual spend is funded by households and private businesses in the form of employer-sponsored health insurance. Employers spend $19,000 per year to provide health care benefits for a family of four and most employees are on a high deductible health plan with an average out of pocket deductible of $5,000 per year. Those escalating costs have a strangle-hold on the financial advancement of American families and make it extremely difficult for companies to maintain their competitive edge and support their workforce.

A radically simple approach to workplace wellness

OurHealth believes the key to better outcomes and reduced cost is rebuilding a foundation of primary care, which was the anchor of the U.S. healthcare system up until the 1970s. Now in its 10th year, OurHealth has become the category leader in near-site wellness and has attracted marquee employers like Anthem, CNO Financial Group, Genesys, the City of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Airport Authority to its growing list of clients.

They’re doing it by designing primary care clinics for employers either onsite at their headquarters or through its industry-first MyClinic network which positions the clinics in popular shopping centers. The clinics are anchored on a philosophy of prevention and wellness that’s delivered by excellent care teams, a digital wellness platform and a proprietary tech stack, which produced an honorable mention for Corporate Innovator of the Year at the 2018 Mira Awards. The stack integrates Athena EMR, Salesforce CRM & Marketing Cloud with insurance, clinical and pharmacy data into one warehouse.

The result of all that integration is a targeted multi-channel outreach strategy that is years ahead of the competition. Because OurHealth has visibility into so much data—and has the doctors and nurses to do something with it—they can drive very targeted campaigns to engage the people who need care the most. Their hyper-targeted outreach has become a key differentiator because it’s resulting in happier and healthier patients and average healthcare savings of 17% for employers.

“We think the clinic benefit will become as common-place as the 401k match,” said co-founder and CEO Ben Evans. “Employers save a ton of money, and it’s a great way to attract and retain top talent.”

OurHealth clinical care teams provide more than 130 primary care services, including annual physicals, sick visits, chronic condition management and treatment for seasonal allergies.

Today, more than 150,000 patients have access to OurHealth through their employer, so instead of taking a half day off work and driving across town for an appointment—or worse, not going to the doctor at all—they can be seen and back at their desk in less than an hour. And that includes picking up any necessary prescriptions because OurHealth does that onsite too.

OurHealth also has an internal team of care navigators dedicated to helping patients schedule specialty visits when needed. An MRI at loc­­­ation X can cost 200% more than the same MRI at location Y with no difference in quality. That cost avoidance is a big driver of savings for self-insured employers and employees on a high deductible health plan.

$10 million in savings for one of the nation’s largest cities

One of their biggest employer success stories is the City of Indianapolis, which became an OurHealth client in 2015. The City wanted to reduce its medical plan spend for their 7,400 employees and offer a convenient and accessible benefit that would also make them healthier. In the four years since, OurHealth has engaged 65% of its workforce, reverted 37% of diabetics into optimal range and saved the City $10 million against its projected medical trend.

“The savings have been so great, this past December we provided a premium holiday for our employees and waived their contribution for health insurance,” said Fady Qaddoura, controller for the consolidated City of Indianapolis and Marion County. “Even more satisfying than the financial impact, lives have been saved and quality of life has been improved for thousands of the men and women whom Indianapolis depends on every day to keep this city thriving.”

OurHealth conducts an annual patient satisfaction survey, and the results consistently rank the clinic as the employees’ favorite benefit, even beating beer Fridays, indoor rock-climbing walls and generous work from home policies. Across the book of business, OurHealth enjoys a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 86 on clinic visits. NPS is a tool that is used to gauge the loyalty of a company’s customer relationships

Today, OurHealth operates more than 40 clinics in six states and has aggressive growth plans to bring its MyClinic model to more cities. “No one else in the industry delivers employer clinics like we do,” said Jeff Wells, OurHealth co-founder and president. “We employ the best clinical talent, calculate and share financial and health outcomes better than the competition, and we build personal relationships with our patients that keep them coming back.”