OurHealth readies citywide network of employer clinics

In a bid to make employer-sponsored health clinics available to companies of all sizes, Indianapolis-based OurHealth plans to open a network of seven offices around Indianapolis next year.

OurHealth will allow the employees of companies that join its network to use any of the seven clinics, whichever is closest to where they live or work. Patient records will be accessible anywhere in the network.

President Jeff Wells said the network of clinics, called myclinic by OurHealth, will be far cheaper than starting a clinic on-site, so smaller and smaller employers can offer a clinic as part of their health benefits.

“There has been a segment of the market that has not had a really viable solution to date,” said Wells, a physician and former director of the Indiana Medicaid program. “Any employer that provides health benefits for their employees within the Indianapolis MSA would definitely be a good candidate for this model.”

The sweet spot, however, for myclinic will be between 100 and 500 employees, or large organizations with employees distributed across many sites. Retailers, for example, often have lots of employees, but only a handful at any one location.

Until now, OurHealth has focused primarily on larger employers, such as HH Gregg Inc., CNO Financial Group Inc. and OneAmerica Financial Partners Inc. The company runs 12 clinics for a total of 16 employers.

But its clinics are expensive to start—between $150,000 and $250,000. By contrast, myclinic will charge one-time activation fees ranging form $10,000 to $50,000, Wells said. He added the ongoing fees might also be lower, due to economies of scale OurHealth can gain by signing up multiple employers.

Other clinic operators have done more than OurHealth to have multiple employers using the same clinic.

Indianapolis-based Activate Healthcare LLC has done that, for example, in Bloomington, where several employers share the clinic it first started for Monroe County government. Also, Indianapolis-based Novia CareClinics LLC started a clinic downtown in December for itself, a law firm, Harrison College and McFarling Foods Inc.

But OurHealth’s plan is to make clinics accessible to all employers throughout the city all at once. Wells noted that 84 percent of Indianapolis-area residents live within 15 minutes of the seven clinics' future locations.

“I just absolutely believe that the trend toward health care delivery in the work place is going to continue to expand and be sustainable,” said Wells, who reiterated that OurHealth will also continue its work with larger employers to start on-site clinics.

The $4.5 million expansion will prompt OurHealth to hire 75 more people over the next 18 months. The company has grown to nearly 100 people currently since it was founded in 2009 by Wells and Ben Evans, son of Indiana University Health CEO Dan Evans.

Wells said OurHealth would fund the expansion with its own cash and, most likely, debt financing. He said the company could also tap outside investment capital.

OurHealth will open three of the myclinic locations before July 1—at Park 100 on the northwest of the city, at Keystone at the Crossing office park, and downtown. Then in the second half of the year, it will open four other locations in the Fishers-Noblesville area, on the east side of Indianapolis, in Greenwood and in the Plainfield-Avon area.

Wells declined to disclose the exact location for those clinics. He said OurHealth will need about 3,500-square-feet for each clinic.