Joe Cardillo
Reporter
A health care management option that came to Albuquerque last year is getting ready to take effect at a popular local car dealer.
The partnership between Don Chalmers Ford and Mayo Clinic will be delivered via Lovelace Health System and is expected to help increase the health and well-being of Chalmers’ employees as well as keep costs down, said Jamie Cox, a managing partner at Axcess Financial Group, which helped secure the coverage.
“Keeping your employee turnover down and keeping your budget reliable is the only way you’re going to help your business stay viable and competitive," said Cox.
The partnership comes as a result of an offering that Lovelace Health System began offering on behalf of the Mayo Clinic last year. It’s available for companies that self-fund their health care plans, and have 50 or more employees.
Perhaps the biggest thing Mayo Clinic brings to the table is a holistic model. In the past that might have sounded like a "nice to have," but the ability to break down health data in rapid fashion can make it easier to examine spending and efficiency on a quarterly or even monthly basis.
Because Mayo does integrated care management — taking care of things like wellness, chronic condition management, acute care and complex care support — they’re also more easily able to drill down and understand what’s happening in order to help patients that need the most care.
Traditionally a small percentage of patients dealing with complex medical conditions often make up the bulk of cost to any health care plan, with some data suggesting that 5 percent of the population may be responsible for up 50 percent of total costs. And the condition of those patients is often worsened by the task of trying to manage multiple priorities: making appointments, balancing nutrition needs and communicating with different doctors and nurses can all add up to an overwhelming amount of stress.
Integrated care also has effects on relatively healthy people, too, mostly in the form of preventive care. That includes benefits like being able to talk to a counselor or other mental health professional to help work through depression or stress, improving diet or putting together and executing on an exercise plan.
Don Chalmers knows its fair share about preventive care. It's had a certified nurse practitioner on-site since 2004, helping employees with everything from questions on their medication schedule to assessing what action to take in an urgent care scenario. She can also give flu shots, draw blood and help with dietary and fitness needs.
The Mayo Clinic contract is expected to cover around 200 Don Chalmers employees and their dependents.
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