ProHealth Medical Group has a new clinic ready to open, more mobile clinics and a growing client list that recently added the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to the roster. Mission Hills-based ProHealth Medical is a chain of clinics specializing in workers’ compensation cases. The company also offers occupational medical care, occupational and physical therapy and in-house or traveling medical specialists for businesses. The group is also qualified to serve urgent care patients. “We’re pretty much a one-stop shop, multi-specialty clinic where specialists come in-house,” said Natasha Madarian, chief operating officer for ProHealth. “If we need an orthopedic consult, we would submit that referral, and the orthopedist would come to our clinic to treat the patient. … Their primary (physician) is here, their specialist is here – if they need any kind of physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, it’s all at the same place.” Employers pay ProHealth directly for any employment requirements, such as drug testing, vaccines or physical exams. For an injured employee, the employer can choose to pay for the first visit – considered a first-aid treatment. Any subsequent visits are paid via the self-insured employer or that company’s medical provider network. If an individual chooses to go to a ProHealth clinic for its urgent care services, the company is contracted with Blue Cross of California and United Healthcare Inc., Madarian said. Also, a patient may pay cash and submit a reimbursement though private health insurance. Premium control The company’s success stems from “hiring right,” or providing appropriate screenings for prospective employees at client companies, plus taking a proactive approach to any situation that could turn into a workers’ comp case. “We do what’s called a hiring physical,” she added. “When you think of a hiring exam, most people think of only a drug test or a drug and alcohol test. This is expanded on and is actually a full physical.” Employers reduce risk by more than 50 percent if they place the right person in the right position, according to ProHealth. Every employer has what’s called an “XMod,” or experience modification rate, in the workers’ comp industry, which determines policy premiums based on the amount and severity of the previous year’s claims. Much like car insurance, employer policies are determined based on a variety of factors, including ZIP code and the type of business. “Say in manufacturing, if the XMod ratio is 3 percent, it means that it’s 3 percent of their payroll. If they had a doubled XMod, that means that they had so many claims the previous year that that number would double,” explained Madarian. For businesses in California that have between 20 and 125 employees, a doubled premium from a lengthy claim the year before can have devastating consequences. If a small company has one really bad workers’ comp claim, it can make the payroll “unaffordable,” added Madarian. Coupled with employee-friendly laws in California, even large employers have to be careful with workers’ comp cases. “This is one of the only states where you can sue your employer for a cash settlement,” said Madarian. “It is a very lawsuit-happy state. I think that does have a big effect. Any time the economy is bad, you’re going to have an increase in workers’ comp cases.” One client of ProHealth, Nestlé USA, closed its factory in Chatsworth and partnered with ProHealth for employee exit interviews. In each interview, a representative with ProHealth would ask if that employee had ever been injured on the job and didn’t report it – if the answer was yes, ProHealth started a course of treatment immediately, Madarian said. “The doctors actually visited our factory on an annual basis so that they would be familiar with the food process mechanisms,” said Karyn Smithson-Hughes, western region claims manager for Nestlé, in another referral letter. “This was so beneficial and cost effective to us as it allowed for us to provide an early return to work for our injured employees.” Prohealth’s one-on-one customer service, ability to lower costs for clients and the convenience of its clinics, on wheels or otherwise, have helped the relatively small company nab big businesses, compared to its national competitors, like Valencia-based US Healthworks Medical Group. MV Transportation Inc., another client of ProHealth, reported a reduced workers’ comp cost of 32 percent from 2014 to 2015, and a reduction in fraudulent claims by 16 percent year over year, the company said in a referral letter. Music festival shock Clients range the industry spectrum, from LA Metro, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Walt Disney Co. and Starbucks to aerospace companies and, most recently, two big outdoor music events, the Coachella Festival and the Stagecoach Festival. Coachella is the perfect setting for the company’s mobile trailer, which is fitted with a digital X-ray machine, on-site drug-testing, hearing testing, a lab and exam room. But the ProHealth team didn’t anticipate a death within the first week of its five-week contract at Coachella. A 20-year veteran employee of the music festival, later identified as San Diego man Christopher Griffin, fell 60 feet while setting up a stage for the first weekend of the festival, according to multiple news reports, including a spot via NBC 7 San Diego. “That happened on our first week, our first few days. It definitely shook everyone up a bit,” said Madarian. “We were the first responder because we were the medic on site, although they had called the ambulance because the man did fall. He didn’t make it on arrival. There was nothing for us to do. The provider that was on duty that day, along with the tech, went out, and there was really nothing to do.” For other employee incidents, however, the trailer proved crucial in the desert heat. ProHealth representatives treated employees for heat exhaustion and dehydration. Madarian foresees multiple RVs for ProHealth. The group is looking to have six trailers by the end of 2021 for clients like Coachella, as well as farm and industrial workers. “We have a lot of interest in taking RVs out to remote areas, where getting an X-ray could be two hours away. We’re definitely going to multiply the RV component and bring it to your workplace,” she said. The company currently has four brick and mortar locations in Glendale, Mission Hills, Bakersfield and Delano. Madarian oversees 167 employees, reporting to Dr. Sean Younai, the owner. The group’s Glendale operation plans to move into a new 40,000-square-foot office building at the end of the year, located at 500 E. Colorado St. ProHealth will occupy 10,000 square feet and the rest is set to be primary care space occupied by other tenants. The operation will slowly transition over time from the old building at 222 W. Eulalia Street to the Colorado location, down the street from the Americana at Brand shopping center. “I think being right on Colorado and Glendale Boulevard is going to give us that visibility to the general public,” said Madarian. “We’re looking to extend our services and keep it a workers’ comp clinic, but if those patients need somewhere to go for urgent care, we would be an option for them.”