Boom in ‘Company Doctors’ Could Be a Boon for Urgent Care/Occ Med Providers

The popularity of workplace medical practices has waxed and waned for ages, but with major employers like Amazon and Apple building actual on-site medical facilities for their workers, the “company doctor” may be entering a new golden age. According to a new report from Mercer, one-third of U.S. businesses with 5,000 or more employees and company-sponsored plans now have a general medical clinic on site. The idea is to lower medical costs and encourage optimal productivity by keeping employees on the job instead of running off to wait in the emergency room or trying to get in to see a primary care provider. As such, the worksite clinics mimic urgent care centers to some extent. While the trend is unlikely to be adopted by smaller employers who lack the economies of scale to make it work to their benefit, it may open the window for urgent care providers who offer occupational medicine to pitch their services as a third-party health provider.