Onsite Employer Clinics Allow Self-Funded Texas Company to Engage 100% of Employees with Primary Care and Take Control of Healthcare Costs

For more than 80 years and three generations, Texas-based Hardie’s Fresh Foods has been a premier fresh food distributor to hospitals, markets, and restaurants in the Southwest. Through the decades, Hardie’s steadfast and heartfelt commitment to its employees has always been apparent—perhaps never more so than during the past few years. With its workers struggling with costs for and access to preventive healthcare, the company was facing several challenges. 

• As a small, family-run business, Hardie’s was having a difficult time finding affordable health coverage for its employees, who are mostly contract or hourly workers. Health insurance was simply too expensive for many of them.  

• In 2016, Hardie’s transitioned to a self-insured health plan hoping to tailor their offerings to the needs of their workers. “But we found that many of our employees were still not visiting the doctor, even if they had enrolled in our plans,” says Melinda Munoz, Hardie’s Human Resources director. “The co-pays alone felt like too much of a cost burden for them.”  

• As a food distributor, Hardie’s business operates around the clock, with warehouse workers and drivers across separate locations in Dallas, Houston, and Austin. Because of their irregular schedules, employees weren’t seeking treatment during their off-hours or taking time away from work.

Hardie’s began hearing about Hamilton Health Box from similar Texas-based companies. They were immediately interested in their onsite “microclinics” and 24/7 telemedicine that delivers preventive and chronic care services. In fact, when Hardie’s was recruiting workers from one of those businesses—which was closing a division—the interviewees’ biggest concern was whether Hardie’s offered onsite clinics like their former employer did.  

The more they looked into Hamilton Health Box’s solutions, Hardie’s realized that it could provide a convenient way for employees to access healthcare services while also lowering claims costs. Especially for self-insured companies like Hardie’s, onsite healthcare services typically result in lower and more predictable total cost of care, greater employee productivity and decreased absenteeism. Most importantly, onsite care would provide a convenient way to help Hardie’s employees better manage their health. 

After arranging clinic services for an initial six-month contract for the Dallas location, Hardie’s was fully on board. The company later asked to enter into a three-year contract and added the Houston and Austin Hardie’s locations. Furthermore, Hardie’s decided to give clinic access to all employees—not just those on the health plan.

Each of Hardie’s locations—Dallas, Austin, and Houston—was quite different from one another. The flexibility of the Hamilton Health Box approach allowed them to create and implement three different models to meet each location’s unique needs. For example, Hardie’s Dallas facility is located on two floors, with corporate offices situated on the second floor. “We felt it was important to house the clinic on the second floor so that employees, especially in the warehouse, would have easy access to it,” says Austin. “The best spot in terms of location was my office, so I moved to a new one. In a matter of weeks, Hamilton came in and turned it into an actual doctor’s office.” 

At Hardie’s Austin location, which has only 80 workers, Hamilton Health Box established 24/7 telehealth services—which all three locations have access to. Once per month, Hamilton Health Box sends a mobile clinic to provide well checks, chronic condition monitoring, and any services Hardie’s employees there might need. Hardie’s third onsite clinic in Houston is its largest, which Hardie’s Austin says is a “beautiful space that Hamilton was able to get up and rolling quickly.” The ease of implementation meant that Hardie’s was able to see swift results.

Hamilton Health Box relied on its excellent staffing record to provide Hardie’s employees with highly qualified and well-trained onsite clinicians. To encourage worker engagement, Hamilton Health Box met with Hardie’s benefits and human resources staff to review successful strategies and protocols. 

Given the scheduling challenges facing many of Hardie’s employees, Hamilton Health Box also implemented a prescription program to make obtaining needed medications much easier. Regular, monthly prescriptions—say, those for controlling blood pressure or cholesterol—are sent directly to the clinic. The onsite nurse then delivers those medications to the employees, eliminating the need for a trip to the pharmacy. Furthermore, if specialist services or medications are needed, clinic staff will coordinate those to ensure specialists are in-network or that the prescription is filled with less-costly generic medications.  

“This is so helpful for our workers,” says Austin. “Hamilton Health Box doesn’t have to do that for us. But they share our philosophy of putting our employees’ well-being first. They go above and beyond to make sure that our employees have the best possible access to the services they need at a reasonable cost to us.”  

With the implementation of onsite clinics, Hardie’s is experiencing numerous upsides to its healthcare costs. And what the company views as the best outcome is the way its employees have welcomed this new benefit. 

Among the improvements Hardie’s has seen are: 

Hardie’s Austin and Munoz both agree that the most important part of their effort is communication: making sure that workers are aware of the clinic and know how to use it.