The Marshall County government is moving forward with plans to provide greater access to healthcare for some of its employees.
Partnering with St. Joseph Regional Health Systems, the Marshall County Commissioners Monday morning heard a presentation about the benefits of implementing a wellness program through a professional services agreement.
Loretta Schmidt with the St. Joseph Regional Health says the benefits are really two-fold.
“One, it covers acute sudden illness,” says Schmidt. “And two, it looks at health and wellness and what can we do as a community to partner together to really try to impact that moving forward.”
Marshall County has been discussing a program such as this for the past three or four years, but intends to finally take action on the proposal. For the next six months, Marshall County employees will have the opportunity to visit a health clinic for a nominal charge to the county government if they visit with a nurse practitioner.
This is designed to increase accessibility to healthcare services, but also reduce time away from work for Marshall County employees. Further, Marshall County has shown an interest in tracking the visits to show the potential for reduced costs to its insurance carrier.
Schmidt says the program is an added benefit.
“What we know about family practice is that a lot of times when you call sometimes you can get right in, but many times you cannot,” says Schmidt. “Sometimes it’s a day, two-days, three-days or a week later before we’re able to open up an appointment and get somebody seen. So again, this is really meant to provide a service to the employee and the dependents.”
Like many other areas in the United States, there is a shortage of primary care physicians. The wellness clinic proposal will not replace the primary care physician, but encourages immediate healthcare.
The Marshall County Commissioners agreed to move forward with the plan, unanimously.
