Cleveland Clinic Adds Two Centers of Excellence to Its Direct-to-Employer Plans

Direct-to-employer health care programs continue to develop as a model to streamline care delivery and reduce costs. Twelve years after rolling out its initial direct-to-employer products, Cleveland Clinic recently launched a Musculoskeletal Center of Excellence and a Bariatric Center of Excellence.

As in previous programs, the new options are designed to help employers manage costs while providing employees and their covered dependents with access to Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The new offerings also will make equitable health care easy to access, making Cleveland Clinic a preferred destination for these services.

Under the center of excellence programs, a Cleveland Clinic surgeon conducts a thorough medical record review. In some cases, the review can avoid surgical procedures — benefiting the patient and lowering costs to the employer. Cleveland Clinic’s group practice physician model ensures that there is no incentive to provide surgical intervention. The organization notes that only one in eight patients at its Center for Spine Health pursues a surgical pathway in the first year.

In addition, depending on the coverage, Cleveland Clinic assists in orchestrating travel arrangements and provides concierge services for program patients. Other benefits include patient navigators who assist in coordinating with home providers and virtual care options.

The Musculoskeletal Center of Excellence also is supported by Cleveland Clinic’s Orthopaedic & Rheumatologic Institute, whose specialists in Ohio and Florida perform more than 8,000 hip- and knee-replacement surgeries annually with outcomes consistently better than the national average, the organization reports.

Meanwhile, Cleveland Clinic’s bariatric surgeons perform more than 95% of procedures with minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques, improving patients’ healing and recovery times.