When the town of Fishers opened its employee health clinic in April, the great unknown was whether employees would embrace the new service.

The answer has been an emphatic “yes,” according to Town Manager Gary Huff.

“We know we’ve had employees go to the doctor for the first time, that haven’t gone to a doctor for eight to 10 years,” Huff said.

Perhaps it’s something about the word “free” that draws interest. Whatever the case, Fishers’ experiment is now drawing statewide attention, as well as plaudits from the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns.

Free clinic visits, free medication and convenience are the selling points for the in-house employee clinic concept.

A task force of Fishers employees borrowed the concept from progressive private-sector employers, such as Toyota. Now the city of Kokomo is following Fishers’ lead.

Prior to announcing plans to open an employee clinic, Kokomo city officials visited the Fishers clinic, located in the old town train station.

“We’ve tried to find a downside to this, and we can’t find one,” Kokomo city controller Jim Brannon told the Kokomo Common Council.

The Kokomo clinic will be located in the former Kokomo Early Learning Center, which is currently under renovation.

City officials expect the service to be up and running Jan. 4, or as soon as arrangements can be made with doctors.

The city will pay a fixed cost of $25 per employee, per month, to maintain the clinic. That probably equals somewhere just under $200,000 annually.

According to Fishers officials, who have seen about 80 percent of their work force use the clinic, the returns come both in decreased health benefits claims and in increased worker productivity.

Town council president Scott Faultless said one husband and wife couple who work for the town both came to the clinic with problems largely stemming from obesity.

“They began a relationship with our doctor, and they’re now off almost all of their medication,” Faultless said. “Because there’s such quick and easy access to a doctor, they’re able to address long-term health needs they’ve ignored.”

Huff said it’s too soon to get a clear picture of cost savings from the clinic, but he said the biggest expense for self-paid benefits providers like Fishers and Kokomo are always the big, catastrophic claims.

Many of those claims could have been avoided if employee concerns about health-care costs hadn’t kept them away from preventative care, Huff said.

Novia CareClinics LLC, Indianapolis, runs the Fishers clinic, and will run the Kokomo clinic when it begins.

According to an analysis of various worksite health clinics put out in January by consultants HealthLeaders Inter-Study, Novia offers employees a wide range of services at no charge.

By cutting out various middle men — hospital laboratories, pharmacies, and health care plan administrators — Novia can provide those services at a fixed cost to Fishers and Kokomo.

Novia has a wholesale formulary of more than 2,500 FDA approved generic medications, and distributes them to clients for free. Novia spokesman Bill Crimmins told HealthLeaders that the medications kept on-site vary, depending on client needs.

“We start with 40 to 50 of the most common generic drugs, and grow that list with the needs of the population,” Crimmins said. “There are no controlled substances on site, and we can add some brand-name drugs if the employer chooses.”

In addition, Novia clinics offer on-site blood draws, and the company can send samples to a partner, LabCorp, for processing. According to the HealthLeaders article, Novia clinics offer a menu of about 800 tests it can process.

Estimates of cost savings vary, mainly, Huff said, because it’s hard to quantify a bottom line for increased employee wellness.

Both Fishers and Kokomo are counting on that benefit, however, when they offer estimates ranging from $1.3 million over three years (Fishers) to $400,000 to $1 million per year (Kokomo). The cities are also factoring in intangibles such as employees who are in and out of an employer clinic in under an hour, versus taking half a day off to go to the doctor.

But the simplest way to measure cost-effectiveness will be a decrease in the number of claims being processed through Kokomo’s benefits provider, Anthem Inc.

Everything Novia does, Brannon said, costs less than the same service, after being processed through Anthem.

“A lot of it’s just prescription drugs; Novia can get prescriptions in bulk, versus going to CVS or Walgreens,” Faultless said. “We’re getting them at cost, because they buy in bulk.”

The trend toward on-site clinics is growing; the number of convenient care clinics [CCCs] has almost doubled since 2007. Municipalities and corporate employers are choosing from various options, from the full-scale primary care clinic model used by Fishers and Kokomo, to simpler worksite nurse clinics at manufacturing sites.

Even before Fishers officials took home a State Community Achievement Award in October, the Fishers clinic was drawing attention. Now Fishers is in discussions with the Hamilton Southeastern Schools about a combined clinic, and Kokomo is talking with Howard County.

“I don’t know how many cities and towns have come to look at [the clinic],” Faultless said. “The important thing is not just the award; it’s that there’s greater awareness across the state.”

• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com