{"id":170188,"date":"2016-07-29T10:52:10","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=170188"},"modified":"2016-07-31T19:18:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T01:18:36","slug":"friday-is-the-last-day-for-on-campus-employee-health-services-at-nmsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/07\/friday-is-the-last-day-for-on-campus-employee-health-services-at-nmsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday is the last day for on-campus employee health services at NMSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Mexico State University’s longstanding practice of providing\u00a0on-campus health services for employees ends Friday. The university\u00a0hasn’t yet finalized\u00a0a plan to offer another way for employees to receive expedited health services.<\/p>\n

\"Campus

Billy Huntsman \/ The Round Up<\/p>

The Campus Health Center on the main NMSU campus in Las Cruces.<\/p><\/div>\n

That shouldn’t mean employees have to go without medical care. NMSU’s Campus Health Center wasn’t designed to be a primary care facility for employees, but rather a way for them to receive expedited and often cheaper medical services\u00a0and reduce the use of sick leave for doctor’s visits.<\/p>\n

NMSU has been\u00a0negotiating with a private medical provider, which it has refused to name, to outsource expedited employee medical services. The tentative plan was to bring the private provider on campus to offer medical services for students and employees in the existing Campus Health Center, but that plan fell apart last week when the university decided to continue operating its own health center for students.<\/p>\n

Which leaves negotiations about off-campus expedited services for employees up in the air. Monday, Aug. 1, is the first day employees won’t\u00a0have access to the Campus Health Center.<\/p>\n

“We’re still working on a plan to set up a mechanism for employees to be able to get a fast pass to an outside medical provider, but we’re not sure whether or not that’s going to be finalized” by Monday, NMSU spokesman Justin Bannister said. “Those efforts are still underway to negotiate that.”<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the university\u00a0sent a memo<\/a> to the NMSU community on Thursday telling\u00a0employees to see alternatives.\u00a0“For individual health needs, employees are encouraged to seek medical care with their primary care physician or area medical care providers,”\u00a0the memo states.<\/p>\n

The discontinuation of on-campus employee health services means seven NMSU employees, including doctors and nurses, are losing their jobs. Two vacant positions at the Campus Health Center are also being eliminated. Chancellor Garrey Carruthers has said the yet-to-be-named private company will offer jobs to the seven laid-off Campus Health Center\u00a0staffers as part of the deal being negotiated.<\/p>\n

How is NMSU’s decision to not outsource student health services impacting negotiations? It isn’t clear.\u00a0Operating NMSU’s Campus Health Center, and serving both students and employees, was likely a higher-dollar contract for\u00a0a private company than offering expedited services to employees at an off-campus\u00a0clinic.<\/p>\n

But Matt Bose, NMSU’s student body president, took issue with the proposal to outsource\u00a0student health services. Carruthers scrapped the idea after conversations with Bose and others.<\/p>\n

Bose said NMSU is still paying off debt from the most recent renovations to the Campus Health Center, so not having control if a private vendor ran the center “was not appealing for students.” In addition, Bose said, students would have paid the same student fees regardless of who ran the health center.<\/p>\n

“Students really do enjoy the experience they have when using the Campus Health Center, and the Health Center continues to remain viable even with declining enrollment,” Bose said. “…Right now students\u00a0receive\u00a0outstanding\u00a0service, our staff prides themselves on doing more than just getting a patient in and out, and I was really worried about this being compromised.”<\/p>\n