City officials want more details from Baptist Medical Group before entering an agreement on an employee-focused clinic.

Lowndes County supervisors entered a year contract last week with Baptist for a primary care clinic for its employees. The clinic, which would treat those employees without requiring a copay, is designed to reduce insurance premium costs for the entities it serves. Columbus and Columbus Light and Water have previously met jointly to discuss the prospect of partnering on such a clinic.

City leaders, however, seemed reluctant to proceed with Baptist during a Monday afternoon insurance committee meeting. Some even suggested the clinic might serve as a “back door” for BMG to get more patients into Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle in Columbus, rather than keep them out.

“I think the whole goal is to try to reduce costs and reduce ER utilization,” Columbus Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell said. “I’m just not feeling real good about going with Baptist if that’s where all the ER visits are — that they would steer those individuals to the clinic and not utilize Baptist or any of the doctors in the Baptist network.”

City Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong on Monday echoed Mitchell’s concerns.

“I think what concerns us is that they’d get us through the back door to walk us through the house — the house being the hospital,” he said.

Mayor Robert Smith pointed out the agreement, if approved, would only be for one year, and the city could withdraw from it after a year if it proves unsatisfactory.

He suggested the committee wait until receiving a more detailed proposal from Baptist before deciding to present a clinic plan to the full city council for consideration. He said insurance committee members, including councilmen Gene Taylor of Ward 1, Charlie Box of Ward 3 and Marty Turner of Ward 4, could also meet with Baptist representatives to better review any proposals.

“They need to hear the presentation from Baptist,” Smith said. “I’m quite sure you all are going to have some questions that you’re going to ask.”

BMG’s clinic services would cost the county, city and CLW a combined $226,000 annually. It would cost the county roughly $105,000 per year if it only serves its employees.

Clinic details

Two nurse practitioners and a doctor will staff the clinic, which will be housed at 2502 Fifth St. N., next to an existing BMG family clinic.

BMG Executive Director of Operations Sean Nelson told The Dispatch the clinic aims to keep patients out of the hospital.

“The clinic will provide wellness and acute care, with the goal of keeping them out of the ER in the hospital,” Nelson said. “We have mutually-aligned goals in regards to keeping the patients healthy.”

Mitchell noted Baptist would charge additional fees. For example, if an employee went to the clinic for a sinus infection and got a shot, Baptist would charge the city for that shot.

Nelson said the clinic would charge for things that are “above and beyond” a regular visit, such as a shot. He said Baptist outlined those charges in its proposal to Lowndes County at the supervisors’ request.

Nelson previously told The Dispatch the clinic will provide the “full spectrum” of primary care, as well as other services such as preventative care, physicals and educational programs for employees. If patients need services not provided, such as surgery or to see a cardiologist, clinic staff can refer them to an appropriate specialist.

Nelson added the clinic will refer patients for medical needs that cannot be addressed in-house using a three-tiered method.

He said the clinic will give top referral priority to patient preference. If the patient does not have a preference, Baptist will see if the patient has a history with a specialist in the community and refer them there for continuity of care.

If neither of those considerations yield anything, he said the clinic would attempt to use a Baptist provider, if possible.

“Above all, we were going to honor patient preference,” he said. “That was going to be our utmost priority.”

Background

Lowndes County, along with the City of Columbus and CLW, held a joint public meeting in August to review a primary care clinic proposal from Mississippi-based provider Medical Analysis.

Medical Analysis offered a similar proposal for an on-site primary care clinic, and the three entities appeared poised to enter into an agreement on the clinic. However, a few days after the joint meeting, supervisors voted to allow providers to bid on the clinic after receiving complaints from local health care groups.

Billingsley said Medical Analysis’ proposed clinic would cost about $372,000 annually, roughly $146,000 more than BMG’s proposal.

Armstrong, referencing an earlier meeting officials had with Baptist representatives, said he questioned how Baptist’s offer was so much less expensive than the Medical Analysis proposal.

“What they said, and it concerned me, was, ‘Well we’re not going to make any money on this. We’re just doing it for the good of the community,'” Armstrong said. “That didn’t fly with me.”

Tim Cox, an insurance agent who works with the city, said it’s hard to directly compare Medical Analysis’ proposal with BMG’s without more detailed information from Baptist.

“Medical Analysis is a totally different concept than what Baptist proposed,” Cox said. “With Baptist, basically what they’re giving you is discount pricing for a backdoor entry to their existing medical clinic. Medical Analysis is a dedicated employee clinic. You’re not sharing with an existing doctor’s office, per say.”

Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.