The Doctor Is In House

On ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, or in Ozarks Technical Community College’s case, a savings in health care premiums. Opening in September 2007, the OTC Health and Wellness Clinic provides full-time employees a free alternative for a quick check-up or sudden illness and with a focus on preventive medicine, Dr. Jim Blaine has helped steady the college’s rising health insurance costs.

“About five years ago, we started looking around for a way to combat our ever-increasing health care costs and decided to follow the lead of companies in town like Paul Mueller Co. and Missouri State University by creating an in-house clinic,” said OTC President Hal Higdon. “We found we are able to offer access to the clinic for all our full-time employees, their spouses and all dependents for less then we were paying before.”

According to OTC Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services Rob Rector, the college’s health insurance budget has remained level at $2.9 million, first through United Healthcare and now through CoxHealth.

“For the last three years, our health care costs have been flat and that is due to Dr. Blaine and the clinic,” Rector said. “We were seeing our costs go up by as much as 10 percent compared to our peers of the same size. That first year we saw an initial drop and now costs have been stable since.”

The Health and Wellness Clinic, in Lincoln Hall at 815 N. Sherman Ave., is a turnkey operation open 7:45 a.m. – 1 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and 7:45 – 11 a.m. Friday, and operated by Springfield Preventive Medical Clinic. Company medical director Dr. Jim Blaine, who also serves as physician of the clinic, pays all medical equipment, staff and associated medical costs. The college pays Blaine a flat fee of $46 a month per full-time employee, about $275,000 a year, but Blaine said the real savings come from preventive care.

“About 85 percent to 90 percent of all employees come see me for a yearly physical and during that time I get to know them, I get to know their problems. We can pick up on things early, addressing the little things before they become big things,” he said of the college’s 510 full-time employees.

In addition, Blaine said wellness visits have helped reduce the campus employee-smoking rate to about 3 percent, well below the state average of 21 percent for adults, helping decrease smoking-related illnesses, such as heart disease, which can cause health insurance rates to spike. Blaine also has been instrumental in coordinating a Weight Watchers group with neighbor Drury University to help prevent future weight-related problems.

“Things like a lower smoking rate add up to savings for the college,” Higdon said. “After the first year, we saw insurance use at a lower rate. The program also came at the same time as massive budget cuts from the state. The savings in health care costs helped us not have to cut in other places.”

Practicing for 35 years, Blaine has a history in emergency trauma but said his time in family practice has brought the most satisfaction in past years, as he helped start similar clinics at Paul Mueller Co. and City Utilities of Springfield, in partnership with Tulsa, Okla.-based CareATC, before starting the OTC clinic on his own in 2007.

Additional care
In place for the past seven years at CU, Human Resources Director Debbie Kreider said the staff clinic has helped CU’s health care numbers buck the current upward trend.

“The current trend is an 8 percent to 10 percent increase each year, but not here,” she said. “In 2010, we saw out health care costs go down 10 percent and continue to fall 3 percent in 2011 and another 6 percent in 2012. That is due to the clinic and the preventive care our employees get.”

CU inked a contract with Mercy Hospital  Springfield on Oct. 1 to operate the clinic, at 301 E. Central Ave., four hours a day, four days a week for the next year for all employees, spouses and qualifying dependents.

“We have had a lot of success with the clinic in terms of preventive care,” said Sherri Murbaugh, CU human resources manager. “It’s hard to establish the exact savings, but having the clinic on-site also saves trips to the doctor which can take hours and eat up man hours.”

Blaine said the OTC program recently underwent its first audit by Ollis & Co. Inc., in collaboration with Branson-based Akers & Arney, the results of which will be released during the November board of directors meeting.

“The credit for this clinic goes to Dr. Higdon and the board for their foresight,” Blaine said. “My incentive is this clinic allows me to practice medicine for the benefit of my patients.”