Taking the Highway to Health

The famous rock band AC/DC once sang about taking a particular path to a place for those who misbehaved in life. This year, Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC) is unveiling a different road: the Highway to Health.

For the past several years, MHCC has held annual wellness clinics and blood draws around March and April. These clinics allowed Carbon County residents to get an annual checkup, selected blood labs and later go over that information with their provider. This year, the hospital rethought their strategy.

“As most businesses can relate to, staffing is always a challenge. We looked at that and said ‘How can we make this more feasible? How can we spread this out and still make it a really great program, but not just have it so concentrated over those couple of months in the spring.

That was part of the conversation. The other part of it was ‘Let’s take a look at how we can expand,’” said Stephanie Hinkle, community relations director for MHCC. “Instead of just looking at discounted blood work, we wanted to enhance that and include an annual wellness physical. By combining the two, both the individual and their provider get a much clearer snapshot of what’s happening with that individual’s health.”

While people still have the option to choose basic blood draws, the Highway to Health program combines the basic lab package with a wellness physical at no out-of-pocket cost. That’s because, by combining the blood draws with a wellness physical, MHCC can bill a person’s insurance provider. If someone chooses to go with just the basic blood draw, however, it will still be a private pay situation.

There’s more changes than just introducing the Highway to Health, though. Another major change is expanding the timeline of the program.

“We wanted to really open this up and, instead of just doing this a couple of months in the spring, individuals are now going to be able to choose when and where,” said Hinkle. “They can make an appointment at any of our family practice clinics in Hanna, Saratoga or Rawlins. That’s going to be open throughout the year.”

Hinkle admits MHCC is getting a late start this year compared to previous years, but believes Highway to Health being available all calendar year will make up for it. This year, the two month period typically reserved for the blood draws will be made available to HF Sinclair employees and their dependents.

“We know that’s a large, large number of employees and dependents. Because of that, we’re going to be focusing on HF Sinclair staff in March and April,” said Hinkle. “We will then, effective May 1, move into the public.”

From May 1 for the rest of 2023, residents can go to the MHCC family clinic of their choice for either blood draws or the Highway to Health program. Then, in 2024, the whole calendar year will be available.