Fort Worth, USMD team up on Near South Side clinic for employees

By Scott Nishimura snishimura@bizpress.net

The city of Fort Worth and USMD Holdings are teaming up at a healthcare clinic on the Near South Side that will provide same-day sick appointments to city employees and retirees.

The aim is to help contain the city’s healthcare costs, which have risen 50 percent since 2008, the city said.

“We’ve made health and wellness a priority in Fort Worth, and that goes for city employees, too,” Mayor Betsy Price said in a release. “If city employees are sick, that means citizens aren’t being served as well as they could be.”

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Nearly 75 percent of the city’s active and retired employees and dependents don’t have a primary care physician, leading to uncoordinated healthcare costs, the city said.

The Fort Worth Care Today program, operated through the USMD-affiliated Medical Clinic of North Texas clinic at 909 Ninth Ave., will give employees access to more than 130 primary care physicians at USMD, the city said. The program will launch May 1.

City employees will pay a reduced co-payment for using the clinic. USMD will have a dedicated phone line for city employees, and USMD will hold a minimum of five appointments per day for city workers to fill.