Leslie Condre
800-897-4093
lcondre@noviacareclinics.com

Floyd Hindbaugh
574-535-6727
floydhindbaugh@elkhartcounty.com

(Elkhart, IN April 26, 2007) - Novia CareClinics announced today they have opened two on-site facilities serving the needs of Elkhart County employees. Beginning Monday, April 23, 2007, Novia CareClinics began offering the 880 employees and retirees on the Elkhart County medical plan, a full range of health and wellness benefit services.

The new on-site offices are located at 320 West High Street in Elkhart and at 117 North 2nd Street in Goshen.  Elkhart County is the first Government entity in the State of Indiana to contract for and provide this benefit for its employees, retirees and their covered dependents. This is the second Novia CareClincs venture into Elkhart County.  The first location at Concord Community Schools, has been open since February 19th. 

An alternative to traditional primary care relationships, Novia CareClinics are an on-site office located within an employees facility or close by.  Employees, retirees and dependents enrolled in the County's employee health insurance plan will enjoy the following benefits:
1 Convenient access to primary care physician services with no co-pays or deductibles.
2 The ability to receive commonly used generic prescription drugs.
3 Access to health risk assessments, educational programs and wellness initiatives which  are intended to improve long term health of participating employees

In addition, as an employer, Elkhart County hopes to see the following benefits from providing the program for its employees:
1 A healthier workforce, which should result in a reduction of medical costs over time.
2 A unique benefit, in the form of on-site healthcare, providing the County with an advantage as they compete to hire and retain the best employees.
3 An opportunity to have employees spend more time at work and less time at the doctor's office by providing greater convenience for employees and hopefully,  higher levels of productivity for the County.
"Obviously, the County has been searching for ways to continue to provide an excellent benefit package for their employees and retirees and still contain the rising cost of medical coverage," said Floyd Hindbaugh, Director of Personnel for Elkhart County Government.  "We felt with this clinic model - primary care with a special focus on wellness - we could not only impact the long term costs of health care - we could improve the health of our employees, retires and dependents as well."

Novia CareClinics establishes and implements wellness-based primary care clinics, which are staffed by physicians recruited from each employer's local community. These clinics are accessible to employees and their families at no additional cost to the employee. While on-site clinics have been available to larger employers (generally over 3000 employees) in the past, they have never been cost effective for smaller employers until now.

Novia CareClinics provide free evaluations to determine if implementing an on-site clinic would be cost-effective. It usually takes about 120 days for qualified emploers to open their clinic doors.

Visit www.noviacareclinics.com