Clinic could reduce cost of insurance premiums

Freeborn County and the city of Albert Lea are evaluating the possibility of having an employee clinic.

The matter was discussed at a recent meeting between the two entities and health care provider HealthPartners. The provider reportedly presented the options, which could include in-house lab work and pharmacy services at a relatively low price. Doctor comments and testwork could reportedly be viewed online, and employees would be able to schedule appointments.

“We asked a lot of questions about how it would benefit our employees, what the structure would be, what the cost points would be, all of those various items, what it would take to be self-sustaining, because we don’t want there to be a tax implication on our end or cost to the employee,” said Candace Pesch, Freeborn County Human Resources director. 

She estimated an employee could reduce health care premiums and would need to have approximately 10 to 11 patients per day to become self-sufficient.

“It increases the health of your workforce and maintenance and long-term care and all of those things that we want people to engage in to be in better health for themselves and for us as an employer,” she said. “It’s all there.”

Freeborn County Administrator Thomas Jensen and Pesch expect an in-house clinic to ensure workers have a fast and reliable health care provider that can help bring down health insurance costs.

“It is a benefit,” Jensen said. “It’s a huge benefit.”

“It’s just well worth exploring,” Pesch said.

She said there will be future meetings to discuss the option. The provider could be in place in six months to one year.

“It was just a discussion,” Pesch said. “We didn’t even know if this was (an) option. We didn’t know what the price point was going to look like, we didn’t know if it was going to be feasible at all because we are really constrained with our budget.

“We don’t have a lot of extra dollars to spend, but in this case, it would be money extremely well spent.”