Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — A new healthcare clinic dedicated to city employees and employees of self-insured employers of the area could soon be coming to Natchez, after action taken by the Natchez Mayor and Board of Aldermen.

City of Natchez officials moved to create a new employer-based health clinic powered by Vigilant Health during Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting.

The new healthcare clinic will be dedicated to city employees and to employees of other self-insured employers in the area, officials said.

The cost to the city for the clinic is based on the number of insured employees and their dependents utilizing the service — estimated to be approximately $6,000 per month, officials said.

Vigilant Health is a Jackson healthcare service that started in 2015 as a community-based university program for diabetes care management.

The purpose of creating the clinic is to ultimately save the city dollars on their self-insured employee health insurance policy by improving employees’ overall health with free healthcare services, city officials said.

Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson said Vigilant Health operates a clinic in Vicksburg and has delivered $3 million in savings to the City of Vicksburg in three years.

“What we’re discussing here is to follow a strategy that is already in place in various self-insured employer arrangements and also in the city of Vicksburg. … We’d like for Natchez to join that list,” Gibson said.

The Board of Aldermen voted 5-1 to begin the process of creating the clinic with Alderman Billie Joe Frazier voting “nay.”

Frazier said he was concerned that, with the city’s self-insured health plan, a city employee could get really sick and the cost overburden the city’s budget.