As other parts of healthcare grab the spotlight, executive healthcare programs continue to hum along in the background.
Executive health programs generally offer comprehensive physical examinations and lengthy consultations in what are generally upscale surroundings.
Newer and older institutions are in on the trend.
“We offer what has been known in the past as executive physicals,” said Charlene Jessup, cofounder and managing director of the Mission Center for Longevity and Wellness, which offers executive healthcare programs on the Mission Hospital campus in Mission Viejo.
The center also offers the executive-style service “to anyone out there who’s interested in taking a snapshot,” Jessup said.
There’s a basic physical examination and a “health and longevity examination” that includes the Vo2 Max treadmill, which tests a patient’s heart and lung functions. There is also a test that looks at carotid arteries as a way to predict heart disease. The basic physical costs $1,500, while the health and longevity examination is $3,000.
Jessup and her business partner, physician James Heinrich, founded the center in 2009.
She and Heinrich, the center’s medical director, wanted to come up with something “where the employers, particularly in South Orange County, could use this as a tool to potentially attract executives,” she said.
Mission Center mostly gets self-pay patients. It also started billing insurance earlier this summer—something that isn’t commonly found in executive health.
The University of California, Irvine, has had an executive health program since 1988, according to Morris Hasson, its medical director.
Hasson said UC Irvine’s program is not considered “concierge medicine,” where patients pay for an annual membership that gives them same- or next-day appointments, reduced waiting times, longer exams and more access to their doctors in person and by phone.
Hasson said concierge medicine programs do tend to draw patients from the executive ranks, but added that the executive health program differs.
“The way I think of concierge medicine is ongoing care,” Hasson said. “We have basically two shots at people through the year.”
Those are the examination and a visit two weeks later, where results are gone over, he said. The follow-up visit includes a session with a registered dietitian to help patients devise “a reasonable plan” for eating, including being on the road.
UCI’s executive health program is in the Gottschalk Medical Plaza building on campus. Services run from about $1,450 (for a basic executive physical) to more than $4,000, depending on whether additional tests or procedures are needed.
The university’s executive health program does do treadmill work, but not full-body scans.
Growth has come from word of mouth because of the program’s longevity, Hasson said. He noted that the program draws patients from the East Coast and the Midwest, as well as executives who work in companies’ overseas outposts who are in the area for visits.
“For us to grow our business, it would be an exponential growth because the most precious commodity at a university is space,” Hasson said. “I really just want to keep our current appointments full.”
Studies have shown that executive healthcare programs can make good business sense. A study from the University of Michigan Management Research Center found that executives who had executive healthcare physical exams had 20% fewer health insurance claims and lost 45% fewer work days than those who didn’t.
Ensign Buy
Mission Viejo-based Ensign Group Inc. said late last month it exercised the option to buy two California nursing homes.
Ensign bought the underlying real estate and other operating assets of the 160-bed Whittier Hills Healthcare Center in Whittier, and Ukiah Healthcare Center, a 57-bed nursing home in Ukiah. Ensign subsidiaries had operated the facilities for 11 and nine years, respectively, with options to buy.
Ensign now operates 99 healthcare facilities, three hospice companies and three home healthcare businesses across 10 states (see related story, Frontpage).
Bits and Pieces:
Endologix Inc., an Irvine medical device company, said that it plans a full commercial introduction of its new AFX Endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm device this month … Irvine drug developer Cortex Pharmaceu-ticals Inc. said it received a patent for the use of Ampakine molecules to treat or prevent respiratory depression. Cortex said the patent broadly covers all Ampakine molecules, including competitor compounds, and provides protection into 2027 … Radient Pharmaceu-ticals Corp. of Tustin said it sold and shipped its first order of Onko-Sure cancer diagnostic test kits to Brazil. The company also filed for patent protection of Onko-Sure in that country.
