Months after the city enrolled residents in an optional telehealth program, Garland voters will decide this spring if they are willing to pay a fee for telehealth services.
The Garland City Council in August approved an agreement with Dallas-based MD Health Pathways to enroll residents in its Tap Telehealth program for a monthly fee added to their utility bills. Now, residents say the decision should have been theirs from the beginning.
“If it's going to be put, especially on a utility bill that most people aren't going to pay attention to, we should know about it. We should vote,” Garland resident John Laton Bowles said at a recent council meeting. “We should look at all the other options out there to do something like this."
A measure to “engage medical professionals to provide telehealth services” will be on the May 2 special election ballot. If it’s approved, Garland residents would be charged a separate fee of $6 a month for the first two years, increasing up to $9 a month in year five. Residents would be able to opt out.
The city can’t add a fee without changing an ordinance, a spokesperson said.
Whether voters approve or reject the proposition, the results will be non-binding, the spokesperson said — meaning the vote itself does not cause an action by the council but lets them know the “will of the people.”
Mayor Dylan Hedrick, who voted against the agreement in August, said the election is “a step I thought we should have done possibly from the beginning” to make more people aware of the service and the fee. He called the decision to partner with MD Health Pathways “rushed.”
“I was more against the opt-in, opt-out nature of it,” he said. “I was concerned about our elderly and our non-native English speakers or other people who may not be able to opt-out of it or are even aware of the program.”
Supporters of the telehealth program say it’s needed to close a health care access gap in Garland. The city has been without a hospital since early 2018, when Baylor Scott and White closed due to financial losses.
Dr. Dirk Perritt, CEO of MD Health Pathways, said it’s one of the reasons he started his company.
“I spent almost a decade in the hospital that is no longer here, that the city lost recently, and I've watched families come into the ER two in the morning for problems I could solve with a simple conversation," he told council members at last week’s work session.
“Those families often left with a $1,500 ER bill.”
He said as part of the pilot program, 10,000 Garland families have had free access via phone to a doctor or provider with no copay or deductible. According to Perritt, a little over a month ago a mailer was sent to 82,000 households, and 5,400 opted out of the program.
"The numbers tell a different story than the noise that you hear in the chambers," he said.
Perritt said he couldn’t “personally divert healthcare funds to run a political campaign."
"The families we serve, they don't have time to attend council meetings,” he said. “They don't have time to often vote. Many have never voted. They're working two jobs, caring for kids, caring for aging parents.”
It’s unclear what would happen to the city’s agreement with MD Health Pathways if the ballot measure passes. The city currently has an option to end the contract up to 30 days before an implementation date, and that date hasn’t been set yet, Hedrick told KERA.
KERA reached out to MD Health Pathways and has not received a response.
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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