Miami Herald: Miami-Dade’s underenrolled schools could house health clinics
Oct 22, 2009
The Miami Herald published this article on October 22, 2009
Miami-Dade schools chief Alberto Carvalho laid out a new plan to cut the district’s healthcare costs by putting urgent care centers in some schools with low enrollment.
BY KATHLEEN McGRORY
With soaring health costs on everyone’s mind, the Miami-Dade school district is offering a possible solution:
Turn properties owned by the School Board into urgent care centers.
The clinics would be located in Westchester, Liberty City, Goulds and Miami Gardens, where there is a lack of urgent care facilities, said Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
They would provide free healthcare to school system employees — and affordable medical services for the entire community.
“We believe we will be able to reduce our overall healthcare costs, improve the wellness of our workforce and their families . . . and provide much needed access to medical care in underserved neighborhoods,” Carvalho said Tuesday.
The new initiative is part of Carvalho’s plan to help control healthcare costs, both for district employees and the school system itself.
With more than 50,000 employees, the school district is Miami-Dade County’s largest employer.
Earlier this year, the cost of providing health insurance increased by more than $72 million. To save money, the district severed its ties with United Healthcare and became a self-insured entity. Still, health insurance remains the district’s second largest expenditure.
On Tuesday, Carvalho called together physicians, health administrators, school district officials and labor unions for a first-ever healthcare symposium. Participants discussed ways to address the rising costs.
“If we do not control this, your wages as employees, our wages as employers and the community as a whole will be deeply affected,” Carvalho said.
The properties that would house the clinics have not been identified, but the district is eyeing underenrolled schools or district offices with available space. No schools would be closed to accommodate the clinics.
The urgent care centers would come at no cost to the district or the taxpayer, Carvalho said.
They would be run by private companies working in partnership with the school system.
Even in the short term, he said, the centers would generate savings.
Carvalho said many district employees do not live near an urgent care facility — and, as a result, often resort to the emergency room for medical care.
In most cases, emergency room visits are more expensive than urgent care visits, for both the patient and the insurance provider.
“As schools superintendent, nobody ever told me that I would be in the business of healthcare,” Carvalho said. “But it’s up to us to look for ways to reduce costs.”
Carvalho said he hopes to have the centers open by July.
In addition, the superintendent proposed extending the hours at two medical clinics housed in senior high schools.
The clinics, which serve students in the Edison and North Miami Beach feeder patterns, would be open to the public.
Both initiatives will likely come before the School Board next month.
Dr. Pedro José Greer, who gave the keynote address at the symposium, praised district leaders for taking the initiative.
“The education system is going to be one of the biggest players in healthcare reform,” Greer said.