A clinic in Springfield is offering an alternative approach to affordable health care. It is one of the first of its kind in the Miami Valley. And as WYSO's Wayne Baker reports, it is eliminating the role of insurance companies to keep costs low.
Springfield's Freedom Health Clinic offers urgent care and family practice health care services. The clinic's president, Trent Nourse, says Freedom is a viable option for people who can't afford health care. Nourse says people can save thousands of dollars because clinics like Freedom can charge lower prices than industry standards.
"A lot of the reasons that medicine is what it is as far as pricing is because of the insurance company. If you take that out of the equation, then you can actually give people very reasonable prices," says Nourse.
Patients will pay as they go, a $49 flat rate for an office visit, and for lab and imaging services. That can be a lot cheaper than having to make a co-pay for a visit or pay a high premium payment to an insurance company according to Celeste Artis of the clinic. She adds these types of patients are an untouched market.
"When we say the untouched that covers a broad spectrum. You have everything from people who do have the insurance and high deductibles to the ones who don't qualify at all, that are still working and trying that can't afford their company's insurance," says Artis.
Artis says the clinic is also offering a pre-pay option in order to help people manage their health care costs.