North Port takes steps toward employee health center

NORTH PORT — City of North Port employees may soon have their own health center.

North Port’s commission unanimously agreed Thursday to task staff with taking the next steps. Commissioner Barbara Langdon made the motion at the board’s meeting.

Gehring Group staff made a presentation about the proposed project, telling commissioners it could help the city save money in the long run. The estimated cost of around $1.2 million would come from budgeted savings.

The health clinic would be managed by a third-party administrator. It would be open to all employees and their dependents who carry the city’s health insurance card on a voluntary basis. It would be a one-stop shop for doctors, urgent care, specialists, lab work, imaging, prescriptions and more.

A breakdown for the projected $1,237,000 cost is:

Staffing, $802,000.Administration, $193,000.Pass-through costs for supplies, prescriptions, $242,000.Facility, to be determined, possibly rented.

Commissioner Debbie McDowell asked how a health center would benefit the taxpayers.

A new center would reduce workers compensation costs, keep rising health insurance costs down and improve recruiting and retention as well, staff said.

Employees and the city could both save money in the long-term.

Gehring staff also recommend partnering with Charlotte County for clinic services through an interlocal agreement.

Charlotte County has an employee health center that opened its doors in 2009. It’s one of dozens of counties, cities and other entities across the state that have a health center, including Charlotte County Public Schools.

Gordon Burger, Charlotte County’s Budget and Administrative Services director, attended Thursday’s meeting in North Port and said the country’s health care system is broken, and there is no sense in waiting for it to fix itself at a federal level.

He said having a center would allow employees to have a positive relationship with their doctors.

Financially, Charlotte County’s health care center broke even after its first year, Burger said.

Now about 98% of Charlotte County staff use its services. It only took four years to reach that level, Burger said.

The goal of such facilities, according to Gehring staff, is to shift costs from medical plans to an onsite health center by doing things like changing employee attitudes toward the medical industry.

ER visits — which are costly to employees and employers — would go down, and the overall experience for employees visiting doctors would improve, Gehring staff said.

Vice Mayor Phil Stokes said he did not need to be sold on the idea. He is bothered that many people are one health incident away from a “catastrophe.”

McDowell wanted to make it clear that she had a lot of concerns prior to the special commission meeting. She said after the presentation, however, that 98% of those worries were alleviated.