A Chief Medical Officer (CMO) should be the health conscience for your organization, protecting your employee’s medical privacy while ethically protecting the interests of your business. They are your company’s medical expert and partner:

• Giving unbiased guidance to your organization to improve your health plan decisions

• Analyzing and interpreting claims data and disease prevalence within your organization

• Making certain you have the programs you need (and not paying for services you don’t)

• Communicating as your representative to brokers and third-party health services (Large Case Management / "Care" Management, Disease Management, Wellness Programs, Behavioral Health vendors, "Concierge" services, etc.) - making sure they fulfilled their contractual obligations to your organization and represent their impact accurately

• Lending physician-level expertise to your appropriate business needs

Most important, a CMO gives you the assurance that you’re doing what you should to protect the health of your employees and their families. This is one of the main reasons there has been an increasing trend for large organizations to hire their own Chief Medical Officer.

However, smaller companies have the same healthcare pain points as larger organizations – in fact, they often have more. But limited resources prevent them from onboarding a CMO, and candidly, they may not need a full-time doctor on staff.

Your business may not need a full-time dedicated physician, but it needs a dedicated physician, nonetheless.

The bottom line: if you are a company who provides health benefits to your employees, you need some degree of unbiased Chief Medical Officer input.