QuikTrip: ‘If Our Employees are Happy, We’re Happy’
With 900+ stores in 15 states, delivering a healthcare benefit to employees can be a challenge for a company like QuikTrip.
In Exemplar Care, the Tulsa, Oklahoma based company has found the perfect partner to offer the nearly 200 employees at its Des Moines metro stores easy access to high quality care.
In its smaller markets like Des Moines, Omaha and Charlotte, QuikTrip seeks out partnerships with Direct Primary Care (DPC) clinics to deliver routine services to its employees. The organization supplements primary services with plans for specialty care. QuikTrip has been working with Exemplar Care for more than two years.
“We used to work through a vendor to identify opportunities for care in our smaller markets,” says Carolyn Barton, who manages the healthcare benefit as a member of the corporate Human Resources team. “We have moved away from that model and are now working directly with care providers. Switching to a model where we work directly with the team at Exemplar Care to administer the benefit has streamlined things for us, while providing a significant bottom-line savings.”
With a self-insured plan administration model, every dollar saved is vital for QuikTrip. But Barton says more important than the money saved, is the appreciation employees have for the team at Exemplar Care.
“The financial savings is nice, but we aren’t just out there looking for the best deal,” Barton says. “We are looking for partners who are going to take care of our employees, who our employees are going to trust, and who we can build a relationship with. We want the lines of communication to be open and we want it to be easy to talk to someone when needed.”
Barton says the relationship with Exemplar Care has been a gamechanger—offering up a win for employees and a win for the team that administers QuikTrip’s health benefits.
“For our employees it’s an email or a phone call and they are in touch with the care team,” Barton says, also adding that it is a huge benefit that urgent care services are included in the DPC offering. “If they need to be seen or have a question, no matter what time that is or where they are, they know that they are going to be taken care of. That speaks to the trust our employees tell us they have in the Exemplar Care team.”
“For those of us responsible for administering the benefit, we know that if we have questions, the answers are only a call away,” Barton continues. “When something comes up, I know I am going to have someone from Exemplar Care working with me to take care of things quickly and seamlessly.”
In one area in particular, Barton says Exemplar Care has gone above and beyond to serve QuikTrip and its employees.
“Throughout the COVID pandemic, Dr. Jon [Van Der Veer] and the team has stepped up to do quick and efficient testing,” she says. With an operation that is open 7 days a week, Barton says testing helped them keep their staff and customers safe and healthy, even during the recent spike in cases. “If we did have employees who tested positive, they could receive care in a manner that was convenient for them, including by secure text message or video call.”
While QuikTrip operates its own clinics in some of its larger markets, it doesn’t see itself moving in that direction in Des Moines. With the level of care its employees have received at Exemplar Care, it is the perfect partnership.
