Goodyear opens employee health clinic

Goodyear has opened an on-site clinic to save employees and the city money on rising health-care costs.

The clinic is open three mornings a week. It also provides drug screening and other required exams the city already pays for.

Goodyear and its employees will pay about $5 million in health-care premiums this year, a figure that has been rising nearly 10 percent a year for the past eight years.

"Imagine what that premium would be in 10 years if you did nothing," risk manager Dean Coughenour said.

The city will pay Mesa-based NextCare Urgent Care up to $95,000 this year to operate the clinic at Fire Station 185, near Pebble Creek Parkway and Clubhouse Drive. The service is free to employees and their spouses.

Advantages include cost savings and better access to care. According to the city:

• Early detection and treatment of serious illnesses costs less over time than a visit to the emergency room. Also, an urgent-care visit costs lest than a visit to a primary care physician.

• Employees are more likely to seek care if it is free and easy to get to, reducing sick time and time spent traveling to a doctor's office.

"The nice thing about the clinic (is it) makes it easily accessible to the employee," Coughenour said.

Businesses are increasingly offering on-site services to their employees, though Goodyear is the first West Valley city to try it. Other cities provide employee wellness seminars, flu shots or periodic mammogram screening.

"I definitely think there's a movement (toward on-site care) to try and offset health-care costs," said Dean Maniscalco, a NextCare vice president.

Goodyear already pays about $17,500 a year for employee drug screening, commercial driver's license medical exams, flu shots and worker compensation-related exams.

City insurer UnitedHealthcare could pick up almost half of the NextCare bill if it agrees to cover the services.

Coughenour said he expects early detection will help Goodyear save money even if its insurer opts not to pick up the cost.

Physician's assistant Trent Knight talks with a patient in an examine room at the medical clinic located inside Goodyear Fire Station No. 185.