Amazon’s First Neighborhood Health Center Will Be In Dallas-Fort Worth

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Amazon is launching a healthcare pilot with Crossover Health in Irving, offering a clinic designed to serve Amazon employees at nearby fulfillment centers and their families. 

California-based Crossover Health opened its first clinic in the area earlier this year, looking to directly contract with employers in the area and offer direct primary care services that include integrated primary care, musculoskeletal services, and behavioral health and health coaching. The direct primary care practice can be difficult to scale when it asks residents to purchase a membership on top of existing health insurance, but partnering with employers is a win for employers who want value and for the growing clinic. 

“Across the U.S., an increasing number of patients do not have easy access to a primary care physician and instead utilize emergency or urgent care options, which is not only more expensive for patients, but also overlooks important preventative care opportunities,” said Darcie Henry, Amazon’s Vice President of Human Resources via release. “We want to solve that for our employees, and the launch of these new Neighborhood Health Centers will provide a range of quality primary care services for employees across the country – further strengthening Amazon’s industry-leading benefits program, which provides comprehensive healthcare for employees starting on day one of employment.” 

According to Derek Rubino, Senior Program Manager of Workplace Health & Safety at Amazon, Amazon chose DFW because it has one of the largest populations of Amazon employees in the country.

“With large fulfillment centers in Coppell and Haslet and other sites near Dallas, Garland, and Fort Worth, it is a perfect place to try out this model,” Rubino says. “Amazon also looked at primary care usage, health of its employees, and emergency room overuse to make its decision.”

 The pilot program is launching five markets across the country, and by the end of the year, there will be six nearsite clinics to serve Amazon employees in DFW alone. Current and future Crossover locations have been chosen to serve areas where a high concentration of employees live and work. The first clinic is open to all Crossover members, but future Crossover clinics will only be for Amazon employees.

Crossover also acquired a digital health company Sherpaa, allowing it to continue to serve patients during the pandemic. The clinic even has a virtual care studio specifically designed for physicians to do virtual visits so that they don’t use an exam room. 

Rubino says Amazon chose Crossover health because of its virtual health platform, convenient access, and holistic care all under one health. Current Amazon employees can keep their primary care physicians if they want, but Crossover offers another option. Eventually, hours at Crossover will go from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. six days a week to allow Amazon’s shift workers to access the facility,  

“The landscape is changing drastically,” says Nate Murray, Co-founder and chief revenue officer of Crossover. “I think, through the pandemic, we fell upon something that is more convenient, and even though some people are a little apprehensive [about trying virtual care], they find out that it actually was a great visit and super convenient.”

“We are proud to collaborate with Amazon to support the health and wellness of Amazon’s employees. Crossover Health believes that exceptional primary care is central to continued health and well-being,” said Dr. Scott Shreeve, CEO and co-founder of Crossover Health via release. “Now it’s more important than ever to make care available through multiple channels and across the full continuum. Our advanced primary care model will serve as vital infrastructure to deliver expanded access to care in-person and online to meet the needs of Amazon’s employees and their families.” 

 

Source: D CEO Healthcare Magazine

Partners To Bring SCL Health Anchored Facility To Candelas Community

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Mortenson Development, Inc., the development arm of top-20 U.S. builder Mortenson, just announced it will soon break ground on a new 43,732-square-foot Class A medical office building at the intersection of West 91st Place and Candelas Parkway within the rapidly growing Candelas master-planned community in Arvada, Colorado.

Mortenson has worked closely with SCL Health to deliver more than 40 projects over the last decade. This marks the first project on which Mortenson will act as a developer/owner for the nonprofit healthcare organization.

“Access to quality healthcare has never been more important, and we’re proud to be working with SCL Health to bring this primary care facility to the Candelas community,” said Taber Sweet, Director of Real Estate Development with Mortenson Development, Inc. in Denver. “Acting as a development partner on a vital healthcare project like this is one of many ways Mortenson delivers value to its clients and invests in building stronger communities here in Colorado.”

The new two-story facility, designed by Davis Partnership Architects, will provide the Candelas community with convenient access to primary care physicians. Mortenson was responsible for site planning and design services for the development, including managing all entitlements and city approvals. The project team anticipates breaking ground on the new facility later this summer, with completion anticipated in summer 2021.

“With more than 4,300 new homes currently under construction in Candelas, we recognized the growing need for access to compassionate, high-quality and effective care in this community,” said Steve Chyung, Senior Vice President with SCL Health. “This project represents an important expansion of SCL Health’s network of care. Through our work with Mortenson, we look forward to delivering a new facility that will allow us to provide comprehensive, mission-driven care solutions in the heart of Candelas.”

SCL Health provides coordinated care through eight hospitals, more than 150 physician clinics, and home health, hospice and mental health and safety-net services primarily in Colorado and Montana.

Mortenson partnered with Seavest Healthcare Properties LLC in a joint venture to develop the project. Seavest is a sector-specific investor focused on investing in medical office buildings and outpatient facilities of all types that are strategic to hospitals. Seavest has been a recognized owner and manager of these critical assets for more than 30 years.

“We are pleased to join with Mortenson to assist SCL Health to bring healthcare services to Candelas,” says Jonathan “John” Winer, Seavest Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer. “Mortenson has done a terrific job of designing and planning for the project and we look forward to getting in the ground shortly.”

Associated Bank provided the construction financing loan totaling approximately $9.6 million. Since 2012, Mortenson Development, Inc. has partnered on the development of nearly 700,000-square-feet in the healthcare space.

 

Source: HREI

Medical Real Estate Still The Best Way To Keep Your Portfolio Healthy

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In 2018, the JSE’s SA listed property index dropped 25%. In 2019, the total return from the index was 1.92%, well below inflation. In the first five months of 2020, the index shed 39%.

Although dividends from listed property grew by 8-12% a year between 2014 and 2017, growth slowed to 3.5% in 2019, which again was below inflation. In response to the economic fall-out from Covid-19, many property companies have warned they will withhold dividends this year to strengthen their balance sheets and until they understand the full fallout from the pandemic.

The data is not looking encouraging.  Office tenants are cutting space wherever possible, having learned that their reduced workforce can work from home. Retail is under enormous pressure across the board, from the legendary brands like Edgars to the smaller independent brands, and restaurants that just don’t have the fire power to recapitalise and pay rents in a market where there are still restrictions and the consumer is unable to come to the rescue.

What’s more, if you are in the hotel and hospitality industry, then there is really no clear path to recovery at this stage and the losses will be devastating.

There’s no refuge in residential property, either. The Lightstone Residential Property Index shows national house price growth in SA peaked at 6.25% in 2014 and has slowed since then to a five-year low of 1.7% in 2019. Lightstone expects, despite the recent interest rate cuts, that growth in the residential housing market will slow again in 2020.

Two specialized sectors of the property market have continued to deliver solid returns throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Logistics is one of the winners due to online e-commerce stores which have enjoyed a surge in online shopping.

The other big winner globally is medical office buildings, whose tenants mostly offer essential services. Even those who had been required to close are already benefiting from a post-lockdown surge in patient visits as medical procedures can, in most cases, not be postponed indefinitely. Think for a moment about your dentist, who will still need to attend to those fillings even if he could not see you over the last three months.

For South Africans who invested in offshore logistics or medical buildings, the rand returns have been considerably enhanced by the latest depreciation of the rand against the dollar.

In the US, the Covid-19 crisis has hit particularly hard, with 134,000 deaths by early July, amid total confirmed cases exceeding three million. Hospitals under pressure to clear wards and scale up for the anticipated flood of Covid-19 patients have had to postpone all elective procedures and turn patients away who were not critical.

This dramatically affected the income of all medical professionals who are not directly involved in treating Covid-19 patients, and has also affected hospitals’ revenue. Even as the US emerges from lockdown, patients choose to avoid traditional hospitals in fear of being exposed to the virus. This has been a boost for medical practitioners working outside the hospital systems, as patients have sought treatment from doctors working from these independent facilities.

Orbvest, which has 19 medical office buildings under management in three US states (Texas, Georgia and New Jersey), noted rental collections declined slightly in April, during lockdown, as about 21 tenants across the entire portfolio of over 100,000 square meters requested deferment.

But by end-June, the net collection of rentals was back to 97.6%, as both Texas and Georgia re-opened their economies, and collections for the month of July already are close to normal. The nett result of the pandemic on our projected revenue will be negligible and we expect to have fully recovered before year end.

Medical property investment was not an unexpected beneficiary of the Covid-19 crisis. The argument for buying into a building tenanted by medical professionals, especially in the US, makes fundamental sense in the long term. In the US, the aging population is growing and requiring more medical care. An investment delivering a proven 8% p.a. in US dollar dividends paid quarterly, plus a capital gain share at the end of the investment period, is an essential part of a diversified portfolio for South African investors.

 

Source: Daily Maverick