That’s the date when the Wellness Center opens to provide health services directly to full-time employees covered by the county’s benefit program and to their covered dependents. The same benefits will be available to retirees enrolled in the program.
“This is one aggressive, innovative approach,” said County Manager Steve Wyatt.
Wyatt pioneered a similar effort in Catawba County a few years ago, when he was manager there. The Catawba program is not identical to this one, but appears to be successful.
The center will be operated in offices in the former Carriage Oaks shopping center building that also houses the Department of Social Services. The site is beside a Subway restaurant.
The county has entered into an agreement with Sanford Medical Group to provide two nurse practitioners, an office assistant, and a supervising physician at a cost of $106,000 a year. In addition to salaries, that amount includes fees for professional liability, licensures and other fees.
Kanoy Builders was awarded the $75,600 contract to remodel the offices. Added to that cost is the purchase of equipment, furnishings and medical supplies, bringing the total initial start-up cost to $95,600.
Wyatt sees the Wellness Center as a gigantic plus when it comes to cost saving. It should also serve as a convenience for many county employees, because there should be no appointment process or long waits in doctors’ offices.
Wyatt said health insurance costs have been increasing at a 20 percent yearly rate and the county cannot continue to maintain such expense.
“This puts an incredible stress on the budget,” he said.
The employee health benefits’ part of the budget climbed from $2.7 million to $3.5 million, then another 20 percent increase can be expected a year later.
‘Rein In’ Costs
“We’ve got to find some way to rein in benefits’ costs,” Wyatt said. “This is a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers.
“Otherwise, we’ll have either to drastically reduce benefits or ask the Board of Commissioners to raise taxes. And I’m not going to do either. We’ve got to find something to relieve the cost.”
Moore County is not in this alone. Wyatt said it is a national issue with local, state and federal governments facing similar crises, along with private employers.
“The key to making it work is that employees will have to use it,” he said.
The idea is to provide a convenient place for employees and their covered dependents to visit for many of their routine health needs, including management of diabetes and high blood pressure. It will also serve most workers’ compensation needs.
The program will not cover all needs, but it should provide a basic level of primary care.
Wyatt said the average doctor’s office visit costs $100, but the county can cut that cost in half through use of the Wellness Center.
The deal here is the absence of the co-payment. Employees are covered through a self-insurance program, and most of the costs will be paid through that program.
Plans call for the center to be open during regular work week hours, when a nurse practitioner will be on duty. A physician will make periodic visits to see patients and oversee the staff. An employee can come to the center for blood work, to have blood pressure checked and blood sugar checked, and can bring a sick child in for examination and treatment.
Nurse practitioners are qualified to provide many of the same services traditionally provided by physicians and are in a position to make referrals and to call an ambulance if there is an emergency.
The center will not have a laboratory, but blood work will be dispatched to a nearby lab for analysis.
“It’s a resource,” Wyatt said. “We just can’t stand a 20 percent increase in cost every year. We just can’t stand it. Our budget cannot sustain these increasing costs.”
‘Really Excited’
Personnel Director Joyce McGehee said her office has received numerous questions from employees about the center, and the response is largely positive.
“We’re really excited.” McGehee said.
McGehee said not all of the county’s 600 employees are covered by the county’s health benefits plan. Some employees are included in a spouse’s group insurance, and some have alternate sources of insurance. Not everyone has dependents covered. However, most do participate, and most employees with children have them covered as well.
Medicine samples and prescriptions will also be available through the center.
McGehee said everyone is pleased with the quality of the Sanford Medical Group and appears eager for the center to open.
“These are reputable people,” she said. “We’re very fortunate to have them. I know it’s going to save the taxpayers money.”
The decision to test the wellness concept was made last fall when the Moore County Board of Commissioners was faced with another whopping increase in insurance costs.
That’s when the board opted to change the county’s coverage, raising co-payments, raising deductibles and limiting some services to bring costs under control.
Wyatt persuaded the commissioners to try the center for a couple of years. If it doesn’t pay off, then the county can close it.
The program that he introduced in Catawba County a few years ago has had a significant impact there, Wyatt said. The Catawba plan limits service to employees, but otherwise the program is similar to the Moore County plan.
Wyatt says it wasn’t an easy sell in Catawba County.
“It took some convincing,” he recalls.
Despite that reluctance, the program, which was the first in North Carolina, was the winner of national recognition.
Moore County apparently is initiating the second such program.
