Citigroup Inc. has introduced a one-time-use debit card to reduce corporations' cost of providing flu shots or other vaccinations to employees.
The Citi Flu Care Card, announced Nov. 9, is usable only at 17,000 participating pharmacies nationwide for an authorized flu shot or vaccination.
The new card departs from typical prepaid debit cards commonly used to pay for health care. The typical card requires employers to load value into card accounts ahead of time and can result in misspent funds or leftover value employers may not recapture, Citi said.
Flu shots administered at pharmacies typically cost $30, compared with vaccinations at doctors' offices and clinics, which typically cost about $83, said Andy Radlow, Citi's vice president of health management.
"Employers' savings in administering flu shots through pharmacies could be tremendous compared with going through hospitals and clinics," he said, "and companies won't have to tie up millions of dollars on prepaid cards before employees actually get their shots."
Offered through Citi's global transaction services unit, the card is designed only to pay for vaccinations but could be expanded to cover other employer-sponsored heath-care services through pharmacies, such as basic diagnostics and employee drug tests, Radlow said. "A number of Fortune 100 companies" are adopting the flu card, he said, but he declined to name them.
