A window screen company in Tuscaloosa, Alabama is trying to help workers stay out of medical debt by opening a clinic where care and prescriptions are free.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
At one company in the South, workers are keeping more money in their pockets thanks to a health care program run by their workplace. Big medical bills are a fact of life for millions of Americans, even if they have insurance, and a big reason why so many people end up with medical debt. Noam Levey, with our partner KFF Health News, reports from Alabama about the way one company is making things better for their workers and their bottom line.
NOAM LEVEY: The Phifercares Clinic sounds a lot like a typical medical office.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes, sir, we have you scheduled today at 2 o’clock with Nurse Practitioner Megan.
LEVEY: Patients come in for bumps and bruises, sore throats and stuffy noses. But there’s one big difference – no one here gets a bill, not even for prescriptions. That’s because this clinic is owned by a manufacturing company down the road, with a very specific agenda.
RUSSELL DUBOSE: We don’t want you to spend money on health care.
LEVEY: That’s Russell DuBose, HR director at Phifer Incorporated. Phifer is a family-owned company that started in the 1950s, making window screens for America’s booming suburbs. Today, the machines are still cranking out screens. Heath Hendrix drove me around the sprawling plant outside Tuscaloosa. It’s loud, and it smells like grease and metal.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY WHIRRING)
HEATH HENDRIX: These are rod mills, where it’s actually drawing the aluminum down, and it’s compressing it thinner and thinner.
LEVEY: Business is good. But a few years ago, the company noticed its workers weren’t saving enough for retirement. The culprit? Bills from hospitals, doctors, pharmacies. Here’s DuBose.
DUBOSE: All these things were taking money away from our plan members.
LEVEY: Health plans often come with a lot of out-of-pocket costs. Nationally, deductibles now average more than $1,500 a year. Hefty cost-sharing helps explain why about 100 million people in the U.S. now have health care debt. The impact on workers worried Phifer executives. They believed happier employees would make more productive workers.
DUBOSE: You have somebody that wants to be here every day and wants to be here every year, they can do some pretty awesome stuff.
LEVEY: The manufacturer landed on a deceptively simple idea – make it easy to see a primary care doctor and fill a prescription, all at no cost. That could make people healthier and control costly complications. Phifer does something else, too. It directs patients to higher-quality specialists in hospitals, which can save money for patients and the company. Ronald Lewis is a patient at the clinic.
RONALD LEWIS: It’s fantastic. I’m saving thousands of dollars, easy $3,000.
LEVEY: The clinic has helped Lewis lose weight and keep his blood pressure in check. It also caught early signs of prostate cancer.
LEWIS: All you got to do is come in, make an appointment, they come in and see you. It is a life-changer.
LEVEY: Why don’t all employers do this? Running a free clinic can be expensive. It can also take a while to reap savings. But in just five years, Phifer’s health care costs have actually declined, according to DuBose. With the savings, Phifer opened a free summer camp for employees’ kids. Looking out for workers has yet another benefit, says Jerry Wheat. He’s been at Phifer for 38 years and runs a production line for fiberglass screens.
JERRY WHEAT: Makes you want to take care of yourself and do better for the company. If somebody’s going to take care of you, don’t you want to take care of them? That’s the way I look at it, but I’m old-school.
LEVEY: Workers are saving more, too. About 90% are hitting their retirement goals, up from around 75% before Phifer opened the clinic. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., I’m Noam Levey.
SUMMERS: Noam is with our partner, KFF Health News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELHAE SONG, “KNOW”)
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
