Richmond businesses launch employer-owned healthcare center

Two Richmond business owners have launched an employer-owned medical center to provide healthcare for their employees.

The new center opened Wednesday as one of Utah’s first employer-owned medical centers.

The facility is expected to provide low-cost healthcare to the employees of two of the town’s largest businesses, Casper’s Ice Cream and Lower Foods.

“It is going to save money for our employees, because we buy them a membership to come here,” Casper’s owner Paul Merrill said. “So now they don’t have to pay towards their deductible when they are coming here.”

Lower Foods owner Alan Lower believes the new clinic will save his company money by reducing workers’ compensation claims.

“In the workers’ comp world, it is all about minimizing your claims and not having people sit home longer than they need to,” Lower said. “This place will allow us to get our employees back on the job faster, and at a fraction of the cost.”

The facility will contract with a group of physicians who will provide healthcare only to the employees of the companies that have invested.

Scott Brown, the CEO of Sterling Medical, first presented this idea to the employers.

“We are introducing employers to the next competitor in healthcare,” Brown said.

While not the first employer-owned clinic, the facility is the first institution of its kind that can distribute prescriptions to its patients.

“The law only allows us to dispense to our employees,” Brown said, adding that “the law views our investors and all the people that work for them as employees.”

Brown said medications could be provided at a fraction of the cost patients might otherwise pay.

“For a prescription that normally costs $57 at Walgreens, we can buy the generic version for $5 and distribute it for $10,” Brown said.

If the establishment is successful, Merrill hopes the companies will be able to open an outpatient surgery center and offer more services.

“That horizon is still a couple of years out,” Merrill said. “But the talks are that we should go that direction to provide even more options for our employees.”