City of Aurora to open new health clinic for its employees

The city of Aurora is planning to open a new health clinic for its employees and their dependents at the Bloomhaven campus on the city’s East Side.

The clinic, which will be operated by Marathon Health, should both save the city money on health insurance costs and provide high-quality, accessible health care for the city’s employees and dependents, along with any pre-Medicare retirees, city staff told the Aurora City Council on Dec. 17. The plan was approved by the Aurora City Council at that meeting.

When the clinic opens, city employees and those on their health plan will get the choice to go to this clinic instead of their usual primary care doctor or urgent care clinic. Visits will be free for employees on the city’s PPO plan and $25 for employees on the HSA plan, according to a staff report included with the meeting’s agenda.

The clinic will also have a pharmacy, where employees on both plans can get a variety of prescription medication filled for free, the staff report said.

Larry Morrissey of Marathon Health said the company “prides itself as being a national leader in proving evidence-based, quality care,” and that it works to build relationships with its patients. The clinic will offer “advanced primary care” that covers preventive care, general wellness, urgent care, condition management and other services, his presentation showed.

Patients who need specialized care outside of what the clinic can provide will be referred to specialists, but those working at the clinic can also ask questions of specialists employed internally by Marathon to get patients quicker answers to their questions and potentially save them a trip to a specialist, according to Morrissey.

For example, if someone came in with a skin condition that looked somewhat questionable, the doctor could take a picture and write a brief description to send to an internal specialist asking whether or not it needs to be referred out, he said.

Employed at the clinic will be one medical doctor, two medical assistants and a licensed social worker for mental health services.

Aurora’s Chief Management Officer Alex Alexandrou said that the city’s Human Resources Department has been hearing from employees that it has been difficult to get mental health appointments, with some people having to wait two or three months for an appointment. Having a full-time mental health professional at this clinic will be “huge,” he said.

The city will also use the clinic for its occupational health and workers compensation services like pre-employment physicals, drug testing and immediate care for injuries at work, according to the staff report.

Morrissey was previously the mayor of Rockford, which hired Marathon Health while he was in office. That clinic has been successful because employees use it and because it has saved the city money, he said.

“It was probably, looking back, the best thing that I ever did as mayor to help align the interests of labor and management, and also do something very good for taxpayers: save them money,” Morrissey said.

The city could save as much as $6.5 million over the life of the five-year contract, according to Aurora Chief Financial Officer Chris Minick. He said the contract effectively fixes the price of routine health care for its employees who use the clinic, which leads to cost savings and less variation in the amount spent year-to-year.

The contract also locks in the prices the city will pay over the next five years, and while there are annual increases, they are much lower than the estimated rate of medical inflation, he said.

The first year of the clinic is expected to cost around $2.4 million, split among the roughly $1.25 million annual operating cost, $1.1 million build-out of the clinic at Bloomhaven and a $75,000 reimbursement to Marathon Health for its lease of the Bloomhaven location, staff said.

With cost savings, the city is expecting to basically break even the first year of the clinic, according to Minick.

The clinic is expected to be open by October and is set to be located in a roughly-2,500 square-foot space with room to expand, Alexandrou said.

Marathon will regularly review how busy the clinic is to see if more staff may be necessary, Morrissey said.

The Aurora City Council voted 10–1 to approve the new clinic, with Ald. John Laesch, at-large, voting against. Ald. Ron Woerman, at-large, recused himself from the discussion and vote.

rsmith@chicagotribune.com

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