Texas cities, schools consider opening employee clinics

As healthcare costs rise, running in-house health clinics appears to be a viable option for Texas cities and school districts. Several school districts in the Rio Grande Valley have opened clinics to trim the cost of employee health claims. The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district has averaged more than $300,000 a year in savings since it opened its health clinic three years ago, and the city of Garland opened its own health clinic in 2003 with an average annual savings of about $500,000. Savings first appear when staff members and their families choose to visit an employee clinic with fixed costs, instead of their regular physician's office where billing rates are typically higher.