Although she has always loved her work as a doctor, something about Urgent Care bugged her.
“Basically, it was being turned into an emergency room, complete with emergency room prices, which many people can't afford,” said Bridges. “There just seemed to be a group of people out there that weren't really being taken care of by the current system of walk-in clinics.”
Just recently, they opened their fourth Cost Care clinic - three in Missoula and one in Stevensville.
“We felt like there was a population of people who we could serve,” Bridges said. “People without insurance, people who are underinsured, they often find it hard to get medical treatment they can afford.”
Unfortunately, that often leads people to avoid treatment altogether. That's particularly true at a time when the economy is unkind to everyone, but especially to those already under financial stress.
“Your health shouldn't go by the wayside when times are hard, but for too many people it does,” Bridges said.
The idea was to charge a flat rate of $45 for a visit.
The first Cost Care clinic, which was sort of a trial run, opened in Stevensville's Valley Drug in April 2007.
That clinic worked fairly well, and the physicians already had their sights set on a Missoula clinic.
“What we really wanted was to be close to an independent drugstore that would be convenient to our patients, and eventually we settled on Eastgate because of the pharmacy there at the Albertsons,” Bridges said. “We did very little advertising, but it spread by word of mouth and has done very good.”
Another clinic opened on Russell Street in June, and the group recently opened a fourth branch on Mullan Road, where the doctors provide both walk-in care and primary care for more serious conditions.
Needless to say, it's been a whirlwind year for Bridges and her colleagues. Every time they've started to make a little money, they've opened another clinic. For now, though, the expansion is over.
“It's been a pretty wild year, but we've paid all our bills and the clinics are starting to grow now,” Bridges said.
Cost Care entered a walk-in market that's at least two decades old in Missoula. Tom Roberts, who heads the Western Montana Clinic, said the clinic's Now Care operation has been around since the 1980s. Community Medical Center has a First Care Clinic, and another clinic known as First Choice has also opened in Missoula.
Now Care, which has downtown and Southgate Mall offices, isn't much of a moneymaker for the clinic, but the clinics provide a service that Missoula needs.
“We've just felt like this is a service we should be offering, and it's true that this is the way that some people want to receive the acute care that these sorts of clinics specialize in,” said Roberts, who noted that Cost Care is, at least in part, working another segment of the walk-in market.
The Cost Care model works because much of the expense of modern health care has been cleared away. There are no nurses, no paper charts, no billing of insurance companies.
Cost Care takes patients with insurance, but the patient files the insurance claim.
“We have really jumped into computer technology,” Bridges said. “All our medical records are electronic, so no matter which clinic you go to, your records are there. We're also doing electronic prescriptions.”
While Cost Care envisioned its market as the underinsured and those without insurance, Bridges said the clinics have started to see what she calls “crossover” patients.
“These are people who do have insurance through their employers, but who have decided to take a higher deductible to get a lower premium,” she said. “Then they use us for regular doctor visits and keep their insurance in place in case they have a major medical event.”
Bridges said the Cost Care model is really a common-sense approach to basic medical care.
“It doesn't have to involve a whole team of doctors and nurses and billing people,” she said. “It's possible to just come in and see the doctor and pay a small fee. People want to take care of themselves, but the industry hasn't done a very good job of making that possible. We're just trying to be an improvement on that situation.”
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
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