Clinic purchases move forward
Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
The Weston County Health Services board of trustees voted to move forward with purchasing the Newcastle and Upton clinics from Monument Health after preliminary costs were presented to the board on April 15. The board accepted the numbers as presented.
According to CEO Maureen Cadwell, this motion will allow attorneys to start getting paperwork drawn up regarding the sale to Weston County Health Services. The preliminary numbers presented to the board were $137,575 to Monument Health for the equipment, staff and other clinic infrastructure, not including the buildings.
“This doesn’t include the buildings, which are not owned by Monument Health,” Cadwell told the News Letter Journal. “Right now, I believe that we will lease the buildings, similar to Monument Health, while looking at what we could potentially do in the future.”
In addition to the $137,575 for the clinic acquisition, WCHS will be responsible for spending $359,374 to build the Epic medical record system for the clinics.
The board of trustees originally expressed interest in acquiring the clinics in Dec. 17 when trustees submitted a letter of intent to Monument Health. At that time, Cadwell reported that the idea was initially discussed because of the
340B program.
The 340B program, according to hrsa.gov, enables covered entities to “stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services.”
“Manufacturers participating in Medicaid agreed to provide outpatient drugs to covered entities at significantly reduced prices,” the website says. “Eligible health care organizations/covered entities are defined in statute and include HRSA-supported (Health Resources and Services Administration) health centers and look-a likes, Ryan White clinics and State AIDS Drug Assistance programs, Medicare/Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospitals, children’s hospitals and other safety net providers.”
Cadwell explained that if the district employs the providers working at the clinics, then the retail pharmacy would be able to use the 340B program to purchase medications at significantly reduced costs. The goal, Cadwell said, would be to provide medications to the public at a reduced cost, although she noted that might take some time.
Another perk to bringing the clinics under the auspices of the hospital district would be an increase in reimbursement from Medicare, the CEO added. She said that the clinic being a department of the hospital district would allow Weston County to “maximize reimbursement” from Medicare.
Cadwell said that the costs associated with the acquisition are preliminary and that additional costs could be included. She noted that the clinics would need to remain in the separate facilities due to space constraints and the number of providers that would be employed.
Cadwell said that the urgent care area at the hospital has three exam rooms, one treatment room and two offices. While this space would help to house the additional services, the CEO says that is something that might be considered down the road.
“There is a lot of net transition that needs to be done,” Cadwell added.” Basically, once we are through all that, we can determine if there is a final price, if we will have to pay them or maybe they pay us.”
The time-line for the potential transition, Cadwell said, is three to four months.
“There are a lot of people that think we are owned by Monument Health, the hospital and the nursing home,” Cadwell said. “We are not and we are hoping that the transition will help people see that division. Maybe that will help them recognize we aren’t owned by anyone else.”
“We are owned by the citizens of Weston County and the hospital district. We rely on the taxpayers to support many things that we have done,” Cadwell said. “For the people, we can bring all their local health care under the same umbrella. Hopefully, it will be less confusing that way.”
She noted that the facility would still have a tie to Monument Health for supplies and support.