The Doctor Comes to You

The City of Gainesville opened its new wellness center for employees, their families and city retirees Thursday morning off Queen City Parkway near I-985.

Human Resources Director Joan Sheffield said it’s about more than cutting health insurance cost; it’s also a community-wide initiative aimed at providing a safe medical care haven.

Sheffield said coming here is voluntary, but there’s no co-pay.

“It will not be a requirement. This is a totally voluntary clinic,” Sheffield said. “If they choose to stay with their own provider they may do that through our insurance program, but they will continue to pay the co-pay associated with that office visit and any co-pays associated with prescription drugs.

“Here there is no co-pay, no lab work cost and no cost for primary care at all.”

Glenn Austin, a city engineering inspector in the Public Works Department, said he likes the concept.

“It certainly cuts out the co-pay that we would have to pay going to a regular practitioner,” Austin said.

The contract provider is Tennessee based CareHere; president Ernest Clevenger said the city’s clinic offers the same primary care found in a private office.

Clevenger said the clinic in Gainesville is the largest CareHere facility in Georgia so far.

Source: AccessNorthGA.com
Original Publication Date: September 18th, 2008