ST. LUCIE COUNTY — County Sheriff Ken Mascara opted to defray health-care costs by signing with a local health-care provider as opposed to joining with the proposed county-owned health clinic.

Mascara said a new two-year contract with a two-year option with Physicians Immediate Care builds a foundation with a local company while eliminating the expense of purchasing new equipment and costs for upgrading a building.

“I just didn’t want to re-invent the wheel,” Mascara said.

The Sheriff’s Office, which has about 650 employees, paid $7.5 million on employee medical bills last year. Mascara said he did not know how much the Sheriff’s Office will save with the deal in overall expenses, but he said the cost per visit would go down with the new contract. The contract begins a new program and does not replace an existing provider.

Dr. Kenneth Palestrant, the owner and founder of Physicians Immediate Care, said he’s excited about the contract. Physicians Immediate Care has three facilities open in St. Lucie County and a fourth expected to open in early 2010. Palestrant said his clinic can save the Sheriff’s Office about $500,000 per year.

“I know we can do a better job than what is being offered by these outside vendors,” Palestrant said.

The move comes at the same time that the county is planning on opening its own health clinic to cut expenses. The county has a blanket offer to include different local entities, including the Sheriff’s Office, County Administrator Faye Outlaw said.

Outlaw said the Sheriff’s plan and the county’s plan both could cut medical expenses and that different programs work for different entities.

“There’s just no one model that is cost effective,” Outlaw said. “I think the goal of both models is to reduce health care costs.”

The county hopes to have the building open by spring of 2010 and expects the move to save taxpayers $7.1 million within the first three years of operation by reducing health care costs.

The city of Port St. Lucie already has its own health clinic, which has saved the city an estimated $2 million in health-care expenses since opening in July 2007, according to city officials. The county has an agreement with CareHere!, which is based in Tennessee.
By Eric Pfahler, TCPalm.com

Tags: contract, Health, health care, medical, physician, sheriff

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