Superintendent Stetson Roane (on left), Ben Clinton Assistant Superintendent (on right)
A case study of how to build a pay-for-itself community health clinic with other people’s money while making a profit at the same time…………………
A small rural Texas school district wanted to provide plan members with better, easier access to primary health care while lowering costs and controlling referrals to secondary care. They wanted same-day-on-command service instead of typical delays of days and weeks culminating with long waiting room visits in a windowless room filled with coughing and sneezing patients waiting their turn for their five minute doctor visit.
So they builT their own clinic.
But a 350 life group is not large enough to support an eight hour a day, five day a week fully staffed clinic. How was this small rural school district going to pay for all of this?
District leaders decided what better way than to have other employers pay for it. “Come join us, your insurance plan will pay for it! Your plan members will have same-day-on-command access to our community clinic!”
This strategy of delivering better access to health care is nothing new. Rather than time and expense of building out a clinic, staffing it, insuring liability, etc., districts large and small can engage with Direct Primary Care organizations like Frontier Direct Care offering the same level and access to services. DPC organizations bear all risk (expenses, office overhead, salaries, etc) in exchange for a low monthly capitated member rate.
There are hybrid models that accomplish the same results.
In this instance the ultimate goal is to achieve zero net cost to the district. Profits earned by selling access to surrounding businesses will mitigate losses to their self-funded health plan.
The Raymondville Independent School District is a small rural school district located in deep South Texas near the Mexican border. This is a district unlike any other in Texas. Stetson Roane, the district’s superintendent, believes “There is no such thing as an unsolved problem.”
By Staff Report – April 12, 2023
“This clinic will make health care more accessible and convenient for our students, staff members and public servants, and we are pleased to share this momentous occasion with the community.”
With fanfare that included drum cadences and mariachi music, Raymondville Independent School District officials opened a new on-site clinic April 12 to a large crowd of city, county, state and law enforcement officials.
The Raymondville ISD Health Clinic will provide training to students aiming for medical-related careers and also provide medical care for school district employees, as well as county and city workers and even Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, sheriff’s deputies and others.
SOURCE: Raymondville ISD opens on-site health clinic | MyRGV.com
