AnovaWorks PLLC, a Wenatchee-based company that works with larger employers to provide health care services on or near their premises to help them reduce costs, says it’s expanding its services into the Spokane area and North Idaho.

The company has hired Daniel Hansen, former program director of the Spokane-based Eastern Washington Center of Occupational Health & Education (COHE), which is operated by Inland Northwest Health Services, to oversee its expansion efforts throughout Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. 

Since being founded in 1990 by Dr. Jim Johnson, AnovaWorks’ CEO and medical director, the company says it has “embedded” 16 employer-based onsite or shared-site clinics throughout Central Washington, and now is looking to build the same presence here.

Industries that it currently serves include fruit growing and packing, timber, heavy manufacturing, public transportation, and construction, among others. Hansen says it also is in discussions with employers in the light and technical manufacturing sectors.

For a flat fee that’s based on the employer’s needs, AnovaWorks operates the onsite or shared-site clinics, typically staffing them with a physician or mid-level provider — such as a nurse practitioner or physician assistant —  and a medical assistant.

The clinics provide occupational-related health services, with one of the goals being to improve injured worker outcomes, but also can provide first aid, urgent care, and specific primary care to employees to meet the needs of the employer. They also are capable of providing disease management for chronic conditions, evaluation and counseling through wellness and preventive programs, and limited pharmacy and laboratory services to handle the most common health issues.

 “AnovaWorks’ experience with this alternate to providing health care shows that it will save money, improve employee satisfaction in health care, improve their perception of the company as an employer, and increase productivity,” Johnson asserts, in a press release about its expansion here.

As for the size of the employers AnovaWorks is targeting, Hansen says, “A good pencil line to start the discussion is 500 employees. That is a sufficient number that would warrant an onsite facility.”

He notes, though, that AnovaWorks recently opened a shared-site clinic in White Salmon, Wash., across the Columbia River from Hood River, Ore., that serves both a fruit packing plant and a lumber mill, each of which employ about 350 people. One of the employers there wants more primary care health services, while the other is more focused on workers’ compensation-related services, and AnovaWorks is able to provide the services to take care of both needs, he says.

To operate an onsite clinic staffed five days a week by a midlevel provider can cost $17,000 to $22,000 a month, which might sound substantial. 

However, Hansen contends, “We will save them a lot of money, not only in direct medical costs but disability costs.”

He says, “The ultimate goal is we want to keep the employees at a level of optimal health and productivity.”