BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County officials have chosen the Health Alliance and Ohio Employee Health Partnership to manage the county's worker's compensation insurance for construction of Paul Brown Stadium. A Health Alliance nurse will be on the stadium work site during construction to administer first aid and refer injured workers to doctors within the Health Alliance network.
Alliance Laboratory Services also is performing drug screening for workers on the stadium project.
The county chose the Health Alliance because it can provide all those services "as sort of a single vendor," said Gary Berger, benefits manager for Hamilton County.
Hamilton County is self-insuring for worker's compensation coverage, which Commissioner John Dowlin championed as a way to save money on the project. Budget officials estimate it will save $2.5 million on the $400.3 million stadium project. The total cost of the county's contracts with the Health Alliance for the entire stadium project is about $310,000, Mr. Berger said.
Mr. Dowlin worked with Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, to get state law changed last year so Hamilton County could self-insure the project.
Health Alliance officials lauded the project as pioneering. "This is one of the most innovative approaches to occupational health care in the country and the first to integrate all aspects of care for one public-sector project," said Leslie Miller, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Health Alliance. "This is the wave of the future."
The Health Alliance includes Christ Hospital, University Hospital, St. Luke Hospitals, Jewish Hospital and Alliance Primary Care.
