Creepy. Soon you will have no need to interact at all w the rest of society.

Excellent comment, PA

People pay good money to avoid "the rest of society."

PA - not sure why you think it is "creepy" to be able to take care of small illnesses without taking a 1/2 or more off of work. The idea of a walk-in clinic easily accessible during the work day is a great time saver and probably results in people taking care of problems in a timely manner rather than waiting.

Seems simply practical to me.

A concern addressed at the end of the article did mention privacy and employers who contract the service with no inside acess to the medical information other than say what's required for time loss substantiation, would do well to emphasize that fact. Medical records are a highly confidential part of ones life and do need to be guarded.

The comment by "PA" that the concept of corporate health care centers is "creepy" because users will no longer need to interact with the rest of society is both illogical and irrational. "PA" ignores the obvious fact that a corporate user of medical services at such an on-site hospital or clinic will surely have the same or similar interactions with clerical and medical personnel as the 'patient' would have at a non-corporate medical facility. Unless "PA" considers the lost opportunity to leave the work facility, then to drive one's car or to take a bus or taxi to a non-corporate health care provider to be a grievous loss of social contact that will cause severe psychological trauma to the employee, then his cryptic objection lacks any logical meaning.

As to privacy of medical care and records, such business-related medical clinics are subject to the same federal Health Information Privacy Act (HIPA) laws and regulations as are all other health care providing entities, whether private, corporate or public in nature. My experience as regards my own health care, and as regards the health care of my elderly mother whom I assist, is that medical personnel at every level, from clerical personnel to nurses and doctors and their assistants, take the issue of protection of patient confidentiality extremely seriously. One can hardly ask directions to the rest rooms in a medical facility without having to sign a HIPA acknowledgment or release form. Thus, I should think that any medical information would be as secure in the corporate clinic as it would be at a non-business doctor's office or other medical facility.

Maybe as secure as your credit card info.

Now there's a chilling thought from 'musical' in light of the recent Wal-Mart debacle. It does seem, however, that unauthorized access to medical treatment records does not present financial incentives for hackers, etc., to access such data. I thought the concern re business-established medical treatment facilities is that business executives, perhaps even employees' direct supervisors, would want to access such data and use it in ways harmful to the employee, as by terminating an employee who is, or whose family is, medically treated for condition(s) perceived to be detrimental to the business's interests, e.g., limiting employee's abilities, potential long-term and costly treatments, even less direct effects such as increasing the clinic/company's costs for medical malpractice insurance, etc. If--and perhaps it is a hopeful "if"--the medical management team or subcontractor abides by lawful and ethical medical practices as regards confidentiality of patients' records and activities, such on-site medical clinics should have no problems keeping inquiring employers out of the medical data. As someone noted above, medical professionals are generally very protective of their turf, so unethical and unlawful incursions into such data would undoubtedly be rare. And there are legal options for seeking remedies should medical records confidentiality be breached. So the credit card analogy is merely a bugaboo serving no useful purpose.

My dad worked for United Air Lines. When we were growing up we got all our shots at UAL Medical at Midway airport in Chicago. I think it was free. UAL still has a medical department, but employees don't use it much. I think they don't trust the company with confidentiality issues.

The idea has merit, and potentially will offer reasonable solutions to employers and employees. As part of the service, catastrophic care, and other benefits can be added. In essence a real fix at city, county, state, or employer to get the Federal Government out of people' business. John Mackey founder of Whole Foods started looking into this when the Government went "to the dark side"
Web Link

>> Some employers may charge a minimum co-payment for services -- between $10 and $30 at the Facebook health center, for instance, according to its website -- while some, such as Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, charge no fee.

Really incredible, Zuckerschmuck cashes in a billion dollars of this crummy company and nickel and dimes his employees for health care. What a horse's patoot.

Pretty soon these companies will be making a profit off their health care, and cremating you when you die on the job to "streamline" things. Seems like if you make things happen slow enough the naive new kids and foreigners don't even realize how backwards and inhuman this is. This is not capitalism, it's wage slavery for most, with lipstick on it to make it look pretty.

Not to mention when your employer knows too much about your health condition they can be motivated to get rid of you in very sneaky ways. This is a lousy precedent, a lousy way to solve the health care problem, and a lousy way to try to make people more productive.

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