The Lycoming County Commissioners want to assure county employees that they are not closing the health center for current and retired employees, following some misunderstanding that resulted from a statement made at their last meeting that they were doing an evaluation of the center.

At that meeting the commissioners read a letter that had been sent to those who use the health center that over-the-counter medications would no longer be available as part of the program.

“We were just at a point where we were evaluating the current contract that we had with the health center. There are a lot of things that we changed within it. Lot of them were just really administrative things within that contract,” said Commissioner Marc Sortman.

“Yes, we are evaluating the cost savings. We do believe, we still believe – as the previous Board of Commissioners believed – there is a huge cost savings for the county in the way they changed it, I don’t know six, seven years ago,” he said.

“All we’re doing is evaluating the cost of that, making sure that we do have the right provider operating that for us. And there is no discussion of closing that center. So it’s not reconsidering the health center itself. It’s reconsidering how we’ve been paying for that and making sure that it is still a cost benefit to the taxpayer,” he said.

Commissioner Scott Metzger, who was on the board when the idea of the health center came to fruition explained the reasoning behind that decision.

“When that came about, as you know, insurance costs were out of control, and they were going up in the wrong direction. By being self insured, that helped drive some of those costs down. The Wellness Center was brought in to basically eliminate a lot of the costs, like emergency room visits, labs, things that were accessed at cost,” Metzger said.

He pointed out that the costs of those services in the hospital setting can be “enormous.”

“You come to the Wellness Center, and you pay one fee,”

Another benefit of having the wellness center is encouraging those who use it to address health concerns in the early stages before something major occurs which could turn out to be more costly.

“We want healthy employees. We wanted them to be healthy all the time. We want healthy retirees. And so if things aren’t caught early, they can result in just a bad situation for everyone involved. So we want to try to prevent things also by having things prevented. Preventive Care is extremely important in the health field,” Metzger said.

Although the evaluation was characterized as a forensic audit at the meeting, Shannon Barnes said that the commissioners did not want to imply that Integrity Health, which runs the health center, has committed any wrongdoing.

‘As we look into the audit, we want to see whether this is the one that’s doing a job for us. They’ve been here about, I think, four or five years now, and you know there’s a lot of people that do this, do the service. So we’re not looking at closing it. We just want to make sure that we’re giving our taxpayer and our employee the best bang for their buck,” Metzger said.

He noted that there had been things in the original contract that the commissioners had not been happy with but that Barnes had been instrumental in working on that for a one-year contract.

“Going forward, we want to make sure that we have the best possible contract for everybody involved. And we believe Integrity has done a good job. We just don’t know the numbers. And as we dive into those numbers, and know whether we want to continue with them or put it out for a RFP (Request for Proposal) and bring in a different entity,” Metzger said.

“And again,” Sortman said, “it’s us doing what everybody elected us to do. It’s evaluating everything that we do”

“There is nothing wrong with looking at a contract that maybe is up every three years and making sure the contract is still good for them. You don’t dig into it. We’re the group that’s digging into each one of them, and we’re going to do what’s best for the taxpayer. At the end of the day, we’re not looking, again, to close or change or get rid of any benefits. So the changes that were made in our one year contract did not affect the health center itself. It was things that affected the administration of the contract. So nothing got cut for any employee, with the exception of the over the counter drugs,” Sortman said.

In other actions the commissioners approved: the annual renewal of liability insurance with the Hartman Group for the Lycoming County Recreation Authority in the amount of $2,270 to be paid out of operating expenses; the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) 903 County Recycling Coordinator Grant application for 2025 to help offset the salary of the recycling coordinator at the landfill; a three-year Agreement with Thisgen Inc. in the amount of $15,000- $5,000 annually-for software for the Department of Public Safety paid through operating expenses; a change order with Melillo Consulting extending the terms of the agreement through May 31; and amendment to the agreement with Suburban Inc Plus to extend the terms of the agreement to provide maintenance on the county’s shredder as needed to be paid from operating expenses when used; the renewal of software for the courthouse with TOPP Business Solutions in the amount of $4,298, to be paid from operating expenses; the 2024 PHARE amendment to the agreement with Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity to extend the agreement through December 31 for the Scott Street project; the 2024 PHARE amendment to the agreement with Lycoming-Clinton Counties Commission for Community Action (STEP), Inc. to extend the agreement through July 11 for the Master Leasing Program; an amendment to the agreement with Asbury Foundation to extend the Albright LIFE Lycoming Rental Assistance Program (2024 PHARE Fund) through July 10; the agreement for Valuation Consultation Services with Brian Girio at no cost to the county; an agreement with Maria A. Ungard, a physical therapist for expert testimony; and an amendment to the agreement with Stathill Investigations for work on the Bailey death penalty case, to be paid out of operating expenses.

Under personnel, the following persons were hired for the positions and rates of pay listed: Kadyn Wagner and Rachel Smith, full-time domestic relations officers, $42,653 per year; Caleb Trotter, full-time correctional officer at the Prison, a union position, $20 per hour; Sean Diggan, full-time recycling laborer at Resource Management Services, $14.50 per hour.

The commissioners, Metzger, Sortman and Mark Mussina and controller, Nikki Gottschall, acting as the Salary Board deleted a part-time custodial position from the TDA (Table of Distributions and Allowances).

Under elected officials personnel actions, it was announced that Tami Ungard has been hired as a part-time Central Processing Officer in the District Attorney’s Office at $25 per hour.

The next commissioners’ meeting will be at 10 a.m., April 23 in the Commissioners’ Board Room, 3rd floor Third Street Plaza, 33 West Third St.