Lowndes County will wait to gather proposals from local health providers before deciding what to do with a potential shared-site health care clinic.
Last week, officials from Lowndes County, the city of Columbus and Columbus Light and Water met with representatives of Biloxi-based Medical Analysis for a question-and-answer session about the proposed clinic.
The clinic, according to Medical Analysis Vice President for Business Development Todd Garlington, could save insurance costs for the three entities by reducing claims payments.
“In a self-funded insurance plan, the city pays based on utilization of that plan,” Garlington said at last week’s meeting. “The goal here would be to potentially drive primary care claims into our clinic, which would mean a reduction in the usage of those claims on their health plan.”
If the deal goes through, the three entities will enter an agreement with Medical Analysis to provide primary health care, as well as some other health services such as drug and alcohol screening and preventative care, for employees. The employees and their dependents could see a nurse-practitioner at the clinic with no copay.
Medical Analysis would lease property for the clinic.
County Administrator Ralph Billingsley said during Monday’s board of supervisors meeting he’s received calls from at least two providers — Allegro Family Clinic and Baptist Health Systems — with concerns they didn’t get a chance to submit proposals to provide clinical care.
District 1 Supervisor and Board President Harry Sanders said he’s also received calls from pharmacists and nurse practitioners.
“Most of them were very upset that they didn’t get an opportunity to get proposals,” Sanders said.
“I think, in my mind to be totally transparent so everyone is happy with whatever decision we ultimately make, that we table this particular concept until we have proposals from other people too,” he added. “Especially local people in the community — one of the complaints was that you’re going to send money out of town.”
The board decided unanimously to allow health care providers to submit proposals for clinical care until 9 a.m. on Oct. 14.
The county’s decision to wait will also likely force the city and CLW to wait as well. The clinic needs about a patient base of 500 in order to work. The city, county and CLW have about 600 employees altogether.
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith, who was returning from out of town Monday afternoon, said he wanted to talk with the city’s insurance agents to determine what the move might mean for the city.
“You have to have at least 500 employees, or it’s sort of a dead deal,” Smith said. “Right now, I don’t know what the council will do.”
The city council meets this evening. CLW’s board meets at noon on Thursday.
Baptist plans to bid
Garlington said he wasn’t concerned about having to bid. However, he told supervisors he is concerned about the bidding process starting after Medical Analysis already put its cards on the table.
“Our bid is public knowledge, as well as the offerings,” he said. “It’s one thing just to come up with a price point, but another big key that we’ve worked on over the past 16 years is our program itself and all the aspects of it, from the wellness and acute care and all the ins and outs of our offering. Now that’s all out there for public knowledge for someone to go line-by-line and say, ‘We can do that, we can do that, we can do that.'”
Billingsley, however, would not release details of the Medical Analysis proposal to The Dispatch, citing that he didn’t want to saddle the company with an unfair disadvantage.
Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle CEO/Administrator Paul Cade said the hospital had initially been unaware of the proposed agreement with Medical Analysis. He said after learning about it, the hospital wanted to bid.
Baptist has a company, Baptist Medical Group, that provides clinical care.
“We appreciate the opportunity to bid on the project,” Cade said. “We certainly have the expertise to bid on this project, and we’re glad the board of supervisors gave us the opportunity to bid.”
Because the proposed agreement is for a professional service, the entities were not required to seek proposals. Nor, as Sanders pointed out Monday, are they required to accept the lowest bid.
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks said he will base his choice on whichever organization presents the best proposal.
“I want to be clear to everybody here, my ultimate decision is not predicated on whether it’s local, it”s predicated on dollars and cents,” Brooks said. “What we’re trying to do is save for our employees and save for the county, so at the end of the day, if my brother submitted a proposal, I’m looking at dollars and cents.
“It was just an oversight on our part,” Brooks added. “I don’t think we meant to leave anyone out. …But I think the bottom line is: what is the best proposal for our employees and for the insurance moving forward?”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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