Striving for pain-free health care for tech and other workers

Feb. 15--If you're a tech employee in Silicon Valley, your health care experience might be a bit different. For example, you might go see a doctor without leaving work.

At Facebook in Menlo Park, more than 80 percent of employees get their primary care at an onsite center run by Crossover Health, where workers can go for physicals, flu shots, travel vaccines, eyeglasses and more.

"It's a great center that delivers personalization of care," said Renee Albert, benefits director at Facebook. "Employees can really form relationships with their providers."

And workers who aren't on the same site as a Crossover center can get free Lyft rides to their medical appointments at centers nearby.

Crossover recently opened its newest center in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood, where exam and other rooms are named after City Hall, the Flood Building and other local landmarks.

That brings Crossover up to 10 locations in the Bay Area, including dedicated onsite clinics at Apple, Applied Materials, Visa, Square and Western Digital.

We talked with Crossover CEO Scott Shreeve about the Southern California-based medical group recently. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Your new San Francisco center, which you opened in late October, serves different companies' workers. Can you talk about that?

A: We've wanted to be in the city for a long time. So many clients have personnel in the San Francisco area. We have unique clients in the area that are responding to new health care ordinances in the city. There's a restaurant group that's providing the same level of health care as elite employers.

All clients who are members of our network can access our new San Francisco site.

Q: What services does Crossover provide?

A: We provide a broad range of primary care. In San Francisco, we offer physical therapy, chiropractor services, acupuncture and other physical services. Occasionally we'll bring specialists in. Our other sites have optometrists.

Tech-enabled delivery is a big part of our offering. Instead of clients having to call, everything can be done online, such as messages and results from providers. It's the way you pay your bill, answer surveys, etc. This extends to the actual caregiver themselves. They can provide help digitally.

We maintain a service level and guarantee you can be seen in a certain amount of time.

Q: Does Crossover work with other health insurance providers?

A: We can tie in to other health care programs -- we can actually be a close part of that. We can become a seamless extension to programs and benefits. Every employer still partners with a health insurance company. For example, a LinkedIn employee might rehab with us, then get a referral through Aetna or whatever.

The idea is that this primary care serves as workers' medical home. We're trying to help quarterback your care.

Q: You're a doctor who founded Crossover in 2010. Why was it important for you to do so?

A: In my earlier career as an emergency medicine physician, I had a sense that the health care system desperately needed to be reworked from a fundamental level. Specifically, health care needed to move away from fee-for-service treatment and "sick care orientation" toward a model that emphasized primary care, integrated health management, and health care accountability.

While the model was initially targeted toward retail consumers, we quickly learned that the most efficient way to scale the offering was to target large, self-insured employers, who were looking for innovative, cost-effective ways to provide care to their employees.

Q: Do you have plans to expand further in the Bay Area?

A: Employers are making lots of moves. Health care activists are really getting involved in care delivery. Tech companies are progressive and want to solve to health care problems.

In the past year, our employer partners have asked "what can you do for my remote population in Colorado?" We've started to expand virtual-practice capabilities.

And they're asking us to design custom health care solutions to meet their needs. They're asking for more behavioral health services, musculoskeletal services and more.

SCOTT SHREEVE

Age: 49

Position: Co-founder and CEO at Crossover Health

Previous jobs: Founder and chief medical officer at Medsphere Systems

Education: BS in Zoology and Economics from Brigham Young University; MD from University of Utah School of Medicine; and Emergency Medicine Residency at University of Arizona

Residence: Orange County

Family: Married with four children

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SCOTT SHREEVE:

1. Loves the outdoors.

2. Played quarterback at BYU.

3. Enjoys Thai food.

4. Has gone scuba diving in the South Pacific.

5. Drives a Jeep Rubicon.

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