Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney leads the opening ceremony of Marathon Health’s Hioaks facility. (Photo courtesy Marathon Health)
“Location, location, location,” isn’t just a mantra for the real estate world: Medical practices are recognizing the importance of proximity to patients. A 2023 survey by real estate company Jones Lang Lasalle found that 86% of patients lived within 30 minutes of their primary care facility and roughly half lived less than 15 minutes away; 70% of surveyed respondents considered convenience of location very or extremely important.
Employer-provided health care network Marathon Health is acting on that data with its government employee-exclusive care program, which includes contracts with the city of Richmond and Hanover County government and schools. By building facilities near their patients’ workplaces and bundling services under one roof, Marathon aims to improve accessibility and reduce cost, according to Greg Howe, vice president of client success.
Earlier in the year, Marathon opened two locations in Richmond and one in Hanover County near Ashland. Over 3,300 Richmond city employees and 4,000 Hanover County employees, including firefighters, librarians and government employees, as well as their spouses and dependents, now have access to the network’s wide array of medical services, which include primary care, behavioral health counseling, health coaching and urgent care visits. Marathon also offers biometrics testing, with cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure all checked during one visit.
Primary care visits for employees and their families are free or offered at low cost through their health plans, Howe says. “All preventive services are offered at no cost. Fees for sick care are dependent on the type of health plan the member has enrolled in. The fee typically ranges from $0 to $25.”
The five-year contract with Hanover County comes in at $2.6 million annually, or $55 per employee per month, from the county’s Self-insurance Fund. The city of Richmond did not respond to questions about its costs by press time.
Michelle Hungate, a nurse practitioner at the Hanover County location, which opened in February, has seen positive effects in her patients. “We’ve seen a lot of chronic disease management, folks wanting to transition over their medications that they take, whether it’s for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, anxiety and depression,” she explains.
Coming from a private practice, Hungate has been impressed with the services she and her colleagues can provide to patients. Mental health counseling in particular has been an asset to patients.
“We would see patients who were on the waitlist for a counselor for six months when they needed it ASAP,” Hungate says. Being able to reach those patients more quickly is “something that’s very valuable to us at Marathon Health.”
This attention to mental health complements the city’s September 2023 decision to give Richmond’s first responders and City Hall employees two mental health days as paid time off. A study from Eagle Hill Consulting in April 2023 found that city employees experience mental health issues at an increased rate compared to private sector counterparts.
Marathon touts the convenience of its streamlined service model. According to Howe, patients can expect to have up to 90% of their medical needs met at these facilities.
Hungate appreciates Marathon’s comprehensive approach as much as patients do. “Having a health coach, having behavioral therapy, having physical therapy, all of that has just been really refreshing and made it easy to coordinate care for these patients,” she says.
