By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

Osceola County School Board members unanimously voted Aug. 10 to reconsider the bidding process for a health clinic to serve employees and their families.

A local doctor group led by Dr. Christopher Chappel, of Chappel Family Practice in Kissimmee, contacted board member David Stone, hoping to keep School Board employees as patients. Preliminary discussion included providing a “doctormobile” and offering evening and Saturday hours, Stone said.

“These people are bringing to the table a different opportunity than a clinic. They would still be local doctors that we all know and use on any given day,” Stone said.

Additionally, in the Aug. 6 presentation given by Chappel, the doctor group would offer a pharmacy, gym privileges and a physical therapy room. Those options, Stone said, would reduce costs, allow employees to keep their local doctor and provide better service because of the doctors’ “tightly knit” community.

“There were a lot of exciting options brought to the table. I think this is a homerun in a lot of ways,” Stone said. “We want to do what’s best for the community at large and that includes local doctors and our employees.”

At the July 13 board meeting, board members voted 4-1 to implement a health clinic in the School District building on Bill Beck Boulevard in Kissimmee, which would be administered by North Carolina-based Healthstat.

Board member Cindy Hartig, who voted against the health clinic, said the focus should be on using Florida-based businesses that would boost the state’s economy and by using local doctors, who already have offices and resources, costs would not be incurred to modify a building into a clinic.

“They (the School Board) may have been overzealous in trying to save money and overlooked local opportunities,” Hartig said.

While still in early discussion about the project, Ken DeBord, director of Risk and Benefits Management for the Osceola County School District, said two options are being considered: continuing with the health clinic or working with local doctors to offer a “network within a network.”

“We didn’t want to be

in the health care business but we wanted to drive

down costs,” Superintendent Michael Grego said at the Aug. 10 meeting. “These are waters that haven’t been charted before.”

According to DeBord, health insurance coverage for school staff, provided through Cigna, rose from $2 to $50 million, this year and “it was anticipated it would cost less to go to a clinic than a local doctor.”

For Stone, working with local doctors is the best option available.

“We have an opportunity to reduce (health care spending) by $5 million or more in the first year,” he said. “The savings they are offering are phenomenal.”