In 2021, Stephanie Koch realized that the 300-person workforce at Hendry Marine Industries (HMI) was underutilizing the shipyard's preventive health offerings — and she took it as a cry for help.
"We knew we needed to find convenient care for our employees," says Koch, the company's HR directory. "We wanted to make sure they were taking care of themselves, or else we'd have either catastrophic claims or we'd have fatalities."
In search of new ideas, Koch attended an HR conference in Florida where she was introduced to Walk On Clinic, a hybrid healthcare company that
"Immediately I knew that was what we needed," she says. "I brought them in once a week and started running programs to incentivize employees to use the clinic and get as many people in to get their preventative wellness visits as possible."
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More than 58% of large employers, including Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Tesla, now offer
"We do not make the employees clock out to go to the clinic, because we didn't want to deter them," Koch says. "Employees aren't having to take time off to go to the doctor, because they're able to get the same type of services here now. They can get prescriptions called in and even a diagnosis."
But as HMI offered improved
To do that, HMI enlisted the help of a few employees that had seen beneficial outcomes from their use of the clinic, including an employee that was diagnosed with cancer and another that was treated for stroke prevention. Their testimonials
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"[Employees] were initially looking at it like we just wanted information on them, which was totally not true — we were doing it out of care and concern for them," Koch says. "Employee testimonials became a turning point for us. But we know we're never going to win everybody over, and that's OK."
Smaller businesses are typically
In January of 2024, HMI will expand its coverage to two days a week as well as begin to
"What employers need to realize is that the health care system is broken and employees are continuing to pay more and getting less for health care," Koch says. "So it's incumbent upon every employer to consider options outside of a traditional health care system really for the well being of their employees. It's not a concept that is too good to be true."