SALISBURY, N.C. — Wait times in urgent care clinics can be long and costly, and one new health care service is aiming to change that.
What You Need To Know
- EZ Access MD brings urgent care right to a patient's doorstep
- Moose Pharmacy owner Joe Moose decided to provide the service to his employees because he says it’s more cost effective
- The business pays a flat fee for the service
- Employees pay nothing out of pocket for the health service, instead the fee is included in their health care premiums
Pam Brewer has been an administrative specialist at Moose Pharmacy for the last 10 years. She loves her job because she gets to interact with others, but one day she noticed something was off.
“It was a Friday afternoon in January when I went home from work because I wasn’t feeling well,” Brewer said.
By Monday she had a fever, chills and night sweats. She called her boss to say she wasn’t coming in and needed a COVID-19 test. During that time in January, COVID-19 tests were limited, and Brewer was worried about leaving her house because she could spread the virus to someone else. But then her employer told her about a new health care service they were providing, known as EZ Access MD.
“They came out and tested me,” Brewer said. “I didn’t have to worry about getting dressed, or brushing my teeth or driving anywhere.”
The service provides more than just COVID-19 tests. Cristy Gupton is an employee benefits advisor and president of Custom Benefits Solutions. She says the mobile unit can provide most services an urgent care clinic does.
“The mobile unit will come directly to them and, for example, they can do an X-ray right on the kitchen table,” Gupton said.
Gupton says this can save health care costs for the employer, and the employee, because money isn’t wasted in the urgent care facility for minor health services. They also don’t process any claims with EZ Access MD.
“The national average of an emergency room visit, the cost that gets billed to an insurance carrier, is usually in the thousands of dollars,” Gupton said. “We need to do everything we can to preserve the money that is there, while also buying the best health care that money can buy.”
Moose Pharmacy owner, Joe Moose, says his employees don’t pay anything out of pocket when a mobile unit is dispatched. Instead, it’s included in their health care premiums.
“It made nothing but financial sense for me as an owner,” Moose said. “But then, when I look at the way our employees have embraced it, it’s a really good benefit to them.”
Brewer says she thinks more businesses should offer this health care service.
“One time, my daughter and I waited 13 hours at an urgent care facility before she got to see a physician,” Brewer said. “The promptness of this company coming out could save so much time.”