Several large employers in downtown Akron are hoping they've found a cure for at least some cases of absenteeism and rising health costs for their workers.

On Oct. 6, CVS Caremark is opening a MinuteClinic walk-in medical practice and a retail pharmacy inside the FirstMerit Tower building on South Main Street.

The MinuteClinic and CarePlus CVS Pharmacy will be open to the public but will cater to workers at Akron-based employers who belong to a group called Employers Health Purchasing Corp. of Ohio (EHPCO).

Many of the business coalition's members — including at least five employers headquartered in downtown Akron — use CVS Caremark to manage pharmacy benefits for their employees.

Those five employers — FirstMerit, the city of Akron, FirstEnergy, Akron Public Schools and GOJO Industries — have about 15,000 workers in downtown Akron who will be able to use the walk-in clinic for the same price as a doctor's visit copay under their insurance plan, said Chris Goff, the coalition's president and chief executive.

Workers also will be able to use the downtown pharmacy to quickly and conveniently fill prescriptions, including 90-day supplies that often are available at a discounted rate, he said.

''It creates access and convenience,'' said Chip Phillips, president of MinuteClinic.

The MinuteClinic will be open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The pharmacy will have slightly longer hours: from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The walk-in clinic will be staffed by nurse practitioners, who will be overseen by a local doctor.

FirstMerit plans to encourage the 1,200 employees in its headquarters to use the clinic and pharmacy for minor illnesses, said Cathy Todd, vice president of corporate benefits.

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practitioner and get taken care of and go right back to work,'' she said. '' . . . It's not replacing the emergency room. They're just going to be seeing your minor aches and pains and colds and flus.''

The financial firm also will use the MinuteClinic to provide flu-shot clinics and pre-employment drug screenings, Todd said.

The venture is an attempt to give the Akron employers many of the same benefits provided by having an on-site medical clinic and pharmacy but without any cost or risk for the businesses, Goff said.

On-site clinics and pharmacies can cut down on absenteeism, encourage workers to participate in programs to keep chronic illnesses under control and boost use of generics and preferred, less costly brand-name drugs, said MinuteClinic's Phillips.

On average, employers with on-site medical clinics and pharmacies save 3 percent to 6 percent on their medical costs and 5 percent to 10 percent on their pharmacy costs, said Gordon Erley, senior consultant in the Detroit office of Hewitt Associates, a national human-resources consulting firm.

About 29 percent of employers with 1,000 or more employees nationwide offer an on-site medical clinic for workers, according to Watson Wyatt, a global consulting firm.

According to a recent Watson Wyatt report, ''on-site health centers offer employers the opportunity to provide convenient access to care, lower their health-care costs, ensure a safer workplace and achieve a competitive advantage through a healthier work force.''

The workplace-based medical practices and pharmacies are popular among workers, too.

A recent survey by Hewitt Associates found 25 percent of workers used on-site medical clinics and about half filled prescriptions at on-site pharmacies where they're available.

Employers typically need to have 2,500 or more employees at one site to make an on-site medical clinic and pharmacy viable, Goff said.

Vendors use different arrangements to run the corporate medical centers, with some billing the employer for the cost of care plus an additional profit and others renting the space and billing for care providers, Goff said.

The new downtown MinuteClinic and CarePlus CVS Pharmacy offers ''a great way to be able to enjoy the economies of scale, a coalition of employers coming together to benefit from a zero-risk initiative,'' Goff said.

''There's no investment on the part of the employer,'' he said, ''but hopefully very comparable benefits to having implemented and invested in an on-site medical and pharmacy initiative.''