Onsite Healthcare Teams Go Extra Distance Caring for Duncan Aviation Employees

Similar to many organizations with dispersed employees working across multiple job sites — often in rural areas — Duncan Aviation needed a solution to make healthcare more equitable and accessible.

Employees lacked convenient access to health services and often skipped out on preventive care. The self-insured company saw their claims rise dramatically while employee health declined.

Today, employees and their families can access Duncan Aviation Family Health. The onsite Marathon Health centers offer comprehensive primary care, preventive screenings, health coaching and behavioral health services. Primary care services and behavioral health services cost employees $20 a visit, while preventive screenings and health coaching sessions are free.

Engagement numbers have continuously increased since Duncan opened their health centers nine years ago, says Kristen Fannon, Wellness Specialist at Duncan Aviation. Currently, nearly 70% of Duncan employees engage with Marathon Health services.

But Duncan’s high engagement and employee satisfaction didn’t happen overnight. The organization prioritized building trust with their health center care teams, helped employees overcome stigmas and encouraged team members to utilize health center services.

“I think the biggest factor is just that we see Marathon Health as part of Duncan,” Fannon says. “I’m not going to take credit for the engagement levels. We have the right providers and our senior leadership teams really support the Marathon vision. We promote a family atmosphere at Duncan, and Marathon Health ties in perfectly with our overall company values.”

Building Mutual Trust

When an organization like Duncan Aviation establishes onsite health centers, naturally some employees feel apprehensive about engaging with employer-sponsored health services.

Fannon says it’s important for Duncan employees to relate to the health center providers, so they can get to know them as individuals and build trust. Duncan’s Marathon Health care team actively participates in company initiatives and frequently engages with employees on the jobsite.

“Our Marathon Health providers are out in the hangars, they’re doing blood pressure checks in the break rooms,” Fannon says. “They dress the way our team members dress, so there isn’t that white coat syndrome type of feeling. They’re just part of Duncan and everybody knows them. They’re truly part of our team.”

Besides building trust at the individual level, Fannon says Duncan ensures employees understand their health information will remain confidential.

“At every new-hire orientation, our providers really emphasize, ‘No one at Duncan will know your health information unless you deliberately tell them or ask us to provide that information. Marathon Health is an entirely separate entity,’” Fannon says. Marathon Health follows HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), a federal law that protects each patient’s health information from being disclosed.

Overcoming Employee Health Stigmas

Even with equitable access to health services and behavioral health support, surveys show some employees bypass needed care due to stigmas. According to a 2021 survey by McKinsey & Company, 53 percent of all employees reported feeling at least some degree of stigma around receiving physical care, while 61 percent noted some degree of stigma around receiving behavioral healthcare.

Fannon says Duncan regularly initiates stigma-reducing campaigns to encourage employees to seek needed help. When COVID began in early 2020, the organization quickly pivoted a cancer-screening campaign to one focused on behavioral health services.

“As soon as the pandemic hit, we shifted gears and recognized that behavioral health is really at the forefront now,” Fannon says. “We developed a campaign talking about reducing those stigmas and how it’s common to seek care for behavioral health.”

Fannon says Marathon Health providers hold various lunch-and-learns to teach employees about available services, and also to help them understand it’s not just normal, but OK to seek mental health support. Duncan already employed one behavioral health specialist, and after seeing engagement skyrocket, they expanded the offering to additional health centers.

“We wanted to pilot that program and it really took off — even our spousal utilization rate with behavioral health was very successful,” Fannon says. “When you have the right providers, people get the word out and they share that it’s successful, it’s comfortable and there’s no judgment involved.”

Engagement Strategies Drive Utilization Higher

Duncan’s wellness team conducts several wellness challenges throughout the year to reward employees who engage with health center services. Similar to other employers who offer worksite health services, Duncan conducts an annual biometric screening program to check for common-yet-serious conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, and rewards employees who complete the screening.

“We provide a 20% insurance premium discount if they complete their health screening requirements,” Fannon says. “It’s a big way that we continue to increase engagement year over year.”

For many organizations, encouraging spouses and dependents to engage with worksite health services proves difficult. As a result of Duncan’s year-round engagement campaigns, 53% of covered spouses visited Marathon Health at least once in the previous year.

“We’ll send mailers home promoting services, but it really comes back to the word-of-mouth referral from the team member visiting the health center and then going home and saying, ‘I just had the best experience of my life,’” Fannon says. “They can’t help but share that with their spouse, and it creates this welcoming, safe environment to bring their families.”

Photos courtesy of Duncan Aviation

Marathon Health Partnership Delivers Results

Now nine years into their partnership with Marathon Health, Duncan sees a tangible ROI. But not just in the form of $23 million in cumulative savings and improved population health — Duncan employees absolutely love their health center and Marathon Health providers.

“Just about every review we receive is like, ‘Wow! These are the most welcoming people you could ever meet. It was such a great experience,’” Fannon says.

According to the most recent survey data, Duncan employees rated their satisfaction with Marathon Health benefits a near-perfect 98.6%, while the health centers enjoy a world-class Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 89.

“Our employees really love how their Marathon Health visits tend to be longer. Rather than spending five minutes and being rushed out, they have 30 or 45 minutes to sit down and really get educated about their condition or a medication they’re taking,” Fannon says. “We constantly hear employees spread the word, and it’s a big driver of engagement.”