County makes health clinic deal with Fort Oglethorpe
Catoosa County and Fort Oglethorpe officials recently finalized an intergovernmental usage agreement for the county’s employee health clinic off Boynton Drive.
In October 2017, the county opened its own employee health clinic in the Remco Business Center in an attempt to lessen its insurance premiums and save money each year.
After Fort Oglethorpe proposed jumping on board to utilize the clinic, the two sides hammered out a contract that works well for each party.
Fort Oglethorpe will pay a portion of the clinic’s operating costs to use the facility, which will hopefully create the same type of savings on its insurance premiums.
Fort Oglethorpe’s City Council approved their portion of the intergovernmental agreement in mid-december, and then Catoosa’s Board of Commissioner’s approved the contract in its entirety just before the end of 2018.
“We already operate the health clinic and have been doing so for roughly a year where we contract out with One to One Health to provide the professional services,” County Attorney Chad Young said.
“We have a set, fixed cost under our existing agreements to operate that clinic.”
Per the agreement, Fort Oglethorpe employees and their covered dependents will be allowed to use the clinic.
The clinic operates with one medical assistant, one nurse practitioner, and is available to employees 20 hours per week
“They (Fort Oglethorpe) are willing to reimburse the county for their percentage based on the number of employees they have versus the total number that would be using the clinic,” Young explained.
The agreement is constructed for Fort Oglethorpe to play 20 percent of the operating costs of the clinic.
“Right now, the city’s covered dependents and employees are roughly 20 percent of what the county’s are that would be using the clinic, so they would be reimbursing the county on a 20-percent rate of the fixed monthly cost of the clinic operations plus the pharmaceutical dispensary and lab services each month,” Young explained.
The annual cost of operating the clinic is approximately $300,000, which turned out to be about how much the county saved on its insurance premiums after bringing the clinic into existence.
Fort Oglethorpe City Manager Jennifer Payne-simpkins said that although 20 percent of that cost would be $60,000, the city budgeted up to $80,000 for the agreement.
“The cost will be about $80,000 and is included in the adopted 2019 budget,” Payne-simpkins said. “There are some unknowns such as prescription costs. The clinic offers free prescriptions for the top 25 prescriptions that are used by employees, so we would reimburse the actual costs of the prescriptions. There’s a little bit of a buffer built into our budget because of the unknowns.”
Young said County Manager Alisha Vaughn and county staff crunched numbers and evaluated how the additional usage would impact the county.
“The employees of Fort Oglethorpe using the clinic will not increase our overall cost at all because our fixed costs are the same, and we will actually still have room where we could grow and add more employees later to the clinic if needed,” Young said.
From Fort Oglethorpe’s perspective, Payne-simpkins said, the city can evaluate employee usage and opt out of the contract if employees don’t take part in it.
“If nobody uses it, then I would recommend ending the intergovernmental agreement with Catoosa County,” she said. “The city can cancel at any time with a 60-day notification.”
On the flipside, Young said Catoosa County will also keep an eye on the usage with modifications possible down the road if both sides agree.
“We would get the city’s health insurance census data to see if the usage is going up or down, and that way we could adjust their percentage of reimbursement accordingly the following year,” Young said.
Overall, the county looks to continue its success with the clinic while having Fort Oglethorpe cover a portion of the cost. Meanwhile, Fort Oglethorpe can take part in the clinic and likewise lower their annual insurance premiums moving forward.
“It’s not costing us any more money and we’re not losing any level of service,” Young said. “We’re going to get the same service for 20 percent less of the cost.”