The emergency room has become the preferred clinic of choice for the uninsured. This we know. But a group of Florida businesses discovered an alarming new trend: employees with full coverage were going to the ER for minor medical events instead of making clinic appointments that would have been covered.

The reason, reported the Daytona Beach News-Journal, was convenience. If an employee had a minor medical need — flu symptoms, a cut, ankle sprain, etc. – they knew from experience that they couldn't get in to see their primary care doctor or another medic at their clinic for several days at best. So they checked in to the ER, and ran up the bills for the company health plan. (Treatment at an ER can be 10 times as costly as treatment at a clinic where employees' costs are covered by company insurance, the newspaper said.)

The 35 businesses, located in Volusia and Flagler counties in Florida, took action beginning in 2012. As participants in Florida Health Care Plans' Worksite Wellness program, they identified ways to incentivize their employees to stop using the ER as a quickie clinic.