A year ago this month, the Brown County Health and Wellness Center opened to serve 401 Brown County Schools employees, and hopefully others from the community who wished to pay a monthly fee for unlimited care.
Now, in addition to the schools patients, the clinic has 253 patients who work for county government and more than 150 other local business employees and others who joined as individuals, said Rodney Clark, an account executive for Wellness for Life.
In October, the Brown County Commissioners voted to provide clinic memberships to county employees as part of their benefits package. Bringing on those extra patients allowed the clinic to be open five days a week instead of the two days it started with.
“What is more incredible is that businesses and individuals from adjoining communities are now driving into Brown County to utilize this extraordinary healthcare model due to the value and benefits they receive from the Health and Wellness Center,” Clark said last week.
The school district decided to open a clinic as a way to save on its health insurance costs. Superintendent Laura Hammack established a committee to study the issue in 2016. The committee heard that a local clinic would help employees get care quickly so they would not have to miss an entire day of school driving somewhere else to go to an appointment.
The clinic, at Brown County Schools’ Eagle Park athletic complex, offers physical exams; acute care, like treating earaches and sore throats; and some urgent care, like splinting, wound care and x-rays. It also offers preventative care including health and lifestyle coaching. The clinic has an on-site pharmacy and lab testing.
A 24/7 hotline is also available to members. People can call the hotline and speak to a provider who can help them understand symptoms they’re having, give medication advice and treat minor illnesses or injuries. “That eliminates many urgent care and emergency room visits, thus saving our members unnecessary costs,” Clark said.
Overhauling the school district’s health insurance program, including opening the clinic, is one of the district’s “greatest success stories,” Hammack said last week.
Previously, the district’s health insurance fund had a negative balance of $650,000. The general fund had to cover that. Now, that fund has a positive balance of $1.3 million.
County government’s health insurance fund has been stretched as well. For 2018, the county had to appropriate almost $1 million to help pay health care costs. County commissioner Diana Biddle said last week that it would take about two years of data to see if joining the clinic is saving the county money, but “I know that more and more people are using it,” she said.
Recently, a county employee came into her office saying that his ear hurt and he was not feeling well. “We’re like, ‘You know you can go out there.’ … He went and it turned out he had a double ear infection,” she said.
“He wasn’t going to go do anything about it, but because the clinic was there and he didn’t have to take time out of his day to go to Bloomington or Columbus to the doctor, he got treated,” she said.
When the county joined the clinic, discussions were had about doing an urgent care partnership to treat people who get injured, such as visitors at Brown County State Park.
The Brown County Health and Wellness Center sees patients by appointment only. It is not designed for urgent care walk-ins. “As much as we would like to care for all cases of healthcare, it doesn’t fall into our current scope,” Clark said.
However, Clark said Wellness for Life is “always looking for creative an innovative ways to help our clients and Brown County as a whole, so nothing will ever be taken off the table for future discussions.”
Biddle said opening an urgent care facility in the county is still a possibility.
READ MORE ABOUT HEALTH CARE:
http://www.bcdemocrat.com/2019/01/30/checkup_ambulanc…services_planned/
http://www.bcdemocrat.com/2019/02/01/checkup_iu_health_expanding/
