Job offers extended to all workers, but whether union workers will stick around is unknown

By Nick Morgan, Rogue Valley Times

Southern Oregon University has partnered with a local low-cost health care provider to operate its student health center next year.

La Clinica will take over the student health clinic’s operations effective Sept. 1, in time for fall term. Anna D’Amato, executive director of SOU’s Student Health and Wellness Center described the health center outsourcing as a first among the seven public colleges within the Oregon University System — and a rarity among universities across the country.

“Almost all universities have their own health center,” D’Amato said.

Beyond the switchover to new computer and phone systems, the transition ahead will mean changes for student patients, such as no longer being able to bill health care visits to their student account.

The change is more significant for longtime employees of the health center.

“They are not a unionized shop,” D’Amato said.

La Clinica extended job offers to 12 employees, which D’Amato said is every employee of the clinic providing students with medical and behavioral health services, including lab work, mental health counseling and a medication dispensary. Those jobs, however, do not offer the same PERS retirement benefits as their current positions as university employees.

“They have to weigh all that out and make the decision that’s best for them and their families,” D’Amato said.

The bulk of the medical staff have been with the university 15 years or more; one worker has been there 24 years, according to D’Amato. They have years of experience tailored to a students’ health care needs.

D’Amato said she hopes every member of her staff will stay on with La Clinica because they have made themselves experts at attending to the health needs of college students. One medical provider, for instance, specializes in transgender care while another specializes in eating disorders.

“The decision was not made because of poor service,” D’Amato said.

She was direct: The decision centered around cost savings. Presently, the clinic is funded by a $187 health fee that each student pays every term, plus a flat fee of $15 per visit to the health center. She said enrollment is down, staffing costs are rising and those costs aren’t penciling out.

“Unfortunately our expenses are exceeding that revenue,” D’Amato said. “Outsourcing seemed to be the best option.”

According to numbers provided by D’Amato, 2,657 students paid the health fee in the fall of 2023. In the fall of 2020, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 3,504 students paid the health fee.

Talks began more than a year ago when La Clinica CEO Brenda Johnson approached Southern Oregon University reaching out to the university to partner with La Clinica for its program of wellness-focused classes and workshops called The Learning Well.

Eventually, Elise Travertini Windbigler, La Clinica’s director of school-based health centers overseeing clinics at 19 K-12 schools across Jackson County was brought in to discuss the health center partnership.

“There’s been a lot of planning and thoughtfulness,” D’Amato said.

Travertini Windbigler said the partnership has the potential to give employees access to a larger health network. For instance, she noted that La Clinica has its own LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, plus other sexual and gender minorities) and gender-affirming care programs, so the SOU medical provider specializing in transgender care will have more resources “connecting with a much larger network of support.”

She said she wants to bring on as much staff to La Clinica as possible, and that they are striving to be transparent about the changes.

“Our hope is for us to be supportive and open,” Travertini Windbigler said. “Truly they are the experts at that college.”

La Clinica leadership worked to answer staff questions last week in side-by-side meetings.

Meanwhile, Travertini Windbigler and D’Amato said they have been meeting almost biweekly for the past year to prepare for all of the steps of the transition in time for September. She said that Johnson, La Clinica’s CEO, and SOU President Rick Bailey have also been meeting regularly.

“It’s a big undertaking,” Travertini Windbigler said.

“I’m really grateful for Anna and her partnership,” she said. “There’s a lot of big feelings in this transition.”

SOU will still own the building. Travertini Windbigler said the arrangement is similar to how La Clinica operates student health clinics in K-12 public schools.

Next steps include formal offer letters going out to current employees in late April or early May. Recruitment for open positions will follow for employees who decline.

Other steps include creating marketing material that reflects the health center’s name change, transition to a different health record system and a June orientation.

“The big piece is training,” Travertini Windbigler said.

For students, there will be changes, but Travertini Windbigler and D’Amato said they are committed to affordable health care for students. To keep prices low at SOU’s medication dispensary, La Clinica will participate in the Health Resources and Services Administration’s 340B drug pricing program.

Unlike the university-run student health center, La Clinica bills insurance but never turns anyone away for inability to pay.

By having the students in the La Clinica health care system, Travertini Windbigler sees opportunities to connect them with services available at other locations, such as clinics specializing in dentistry, women’s health care and primary care — “really all of our services.”

Beyond the new resources, Travertini Windbigler said that La Clinica wants to continue providing everything that SOU already offers.

“It’s just to continue all the great services our staff already provide,” Travertini Windbigler added.

Reach reporter Nick Morgan at [email protected] or 458-488-2036. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.