Content area
Full Text
Russ Blakely did not set out to disrupt the status quo of health care distribution in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tenn. - the president of Russ Blakely & Associates just wanted the most effective health care for his employer-clients. But that's where he's ended up.
Things were set in motion about 15 years ago when an employer, the City of Chattanooga, first set up an onsite clinic, followed by an onsite pharmacy. The clinic continues to offer a wealth of benefits to the city's 2,300 benefits-eligible employees, but it's the adjacent pharmacy that's proven most popular.
Madeline Green, director of human resources for the City of Chattanooga, reports around 70% of employees and retirees use the pharmacy, which is able to offer lower cost prescriptions by acquiring the drugs at acquisition cost. In fact, many "think it's the best benefit they've ever gotten," she says, crediting Blakely with bringing them the idea. "Russ has been a big part of just about every one of these things that we've implemented."
While plan members enjoy the lower copays through the pharmacy, Blakely notes the real savings for the employer come from the personal interaction those employees have with the same pharmacist, over and over. It allows the pharmacist to develop a relationship with employees, make sure they're using the most cost-effective medication and actually following the prescription as prescribed. "It has made a tremendous difference to the city," Blakely says.
Meanwhile, another employer Blakely works with, Hamilton County government, observed the immediate return on investment that came from the pharmacy in particular and wanted one of its own, followed by a clinic. It was during that RFP process that Russ and his associate Brent Wick came across a local physician's group that submitted a bid for the onsite clinic. They were immediately impressed with the physician group's approach. "It was, 'We're in the community. We know the hospitals. We know the specialists.' ... It just made so much sense to us that they won the bid hands down," says Blakely.
From there, about two years ago at this point, the conversation began between Blakely and Dr. Keith Helton, an internal medicine and pediatrics physician at Galen Medical Group in Chattanooga, about turning Dr. Helton's physician-run onsite...