District looks at health clinic: Clark-Pleasant considering center

Clark-Pleasant employees and their families soon could receive doctors visits, routine tests and prescriptions for free when they feel a cold or flu coming on.

The district is considering opening a wellness clinic for employees as a way to save money, and it isn’t the first. Center Grove opened a free clinic for employees in 2009, and a year later Franklin and Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson schools partnered with Johnson Memorial Hospital to offer free clinic services to employees through the existing Immediate Care and Occupational Health Center in Franklin. Franklin College and Johnson County government employees also are eligible to visit the hospital’s center through the agreement, Johnson Memorial Hospital spokesman Bill Oakes said.

No proposals have been presented to the school board yet, and Clark-Pleasant doesn’t know yet what the cost of the clinic will be but is hopeful it will lower the district’s insurance costs, director of benefits and treasurer Karen Canary said.

Center Grove’s insurance costs broke even in 2010, and the district is analyzing now what kind of savings the district has seen since then, chief financial officer Paul Gabriel, said.

Savings amounts from Franklin and Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson were unavailable.

But having the clinic can save money for the district in other ways. A teachers who need to see a doctor would no longer have to miss part or all of the school day to schedule and attend a doctor’s appointment with their family physician. Instead, they could schedule an appointment at the clinic during their planning period, meet with the doctor, receive routine lab testing and a prescription, Canary said.

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