Frontier Medical Group denies recent district funding as board presses for contract clarity

Frontier Medical Group told the Northern Nye County Hospital District at its Feb. 20 meeting that the clinic has not received operational funding from the district since September and described current staffing and telemedicine practices.

The statement from Queenie Manuel of Frontier Medical Group came during the district’s public-comment period. "Frontier Medical Group has not received any financial support for the operations from the Nye County Hospital District since September, '20 '20 '3 to current," Manuel said. Trustees followed with questions about phone access, hours of operation, telemedicine use and the status of county payments to the clinic.

Why it matters: The district’s interim operating contract with Frontier is due to expire March 30 and trustees said they want a focused discussion next month on whether to keep Frontier or consider other providers. The board also noted county payments that the clinic said it had not yet received.

Trustees and Frontier staff disputed whether the clinic has been answering phones and maintaining the contracted schedule. A trustee said he called the clinic multiple times without reaching staff; Manuel said calls are forwarded to staff cell phones and that providers and additional staff have been present in Tonopah on several days. Heather Sampson, who identified herself during the meeting, confirmed a patient was seen when asked.

The board raised concerns about telemedicine days. The district’s contract language, read during the meeting, limits telemedicine to no more than two days a week without prior written notice and acceptance by the hospital district; trustees asked whether Frontier had been logging telemedicine on additional Mondays in January. Manuel said the clinic has at times seen patients on Mondays and by telemedicine when needed and described operational changes and conflicting instructions given to staff since January.

Manuel described patient volumes and billing timing: she told trustees the clinic saw 170 patients in January and that telemedicine visits vary ("maybe 4 or 5 patients" without a provider on site and "around 10" when a provider is present). On billing she said insurers typically take 45 to 60 days to reimburse providers, and that collections shown for January reflect claims billed in prior months. "What we collect is your co payment. What we bill insurance company is 2 times the Medicare allowable," Manuel said, adding that cash-pay visits are $150.

Trustees also discussed possible use of REMSA paramedics to provide coverage when Frontier lacks providers. Trustee Don (identified in the transcript only by given name) said he had spoken with Kevin at REMSA, who would check with his medical director about what paramedics could do at the clinic; Don said REMSA would have the medical director contact district staff directly.

On county payments, trustee Charles reported two county checks for Frontier had been issued and mailed Feb. 12 and said the amounts were the short December payment of $9,722.22 and a January payment of $41,666.67. Charles asked Frontier to confirm their P.O. box to ensure the checks were mailed to the correct address.

Board next steps and direction: Trustees agreed to review Frontier’s interim contract and to place discussion and decision on the March agenda before the March 30 contract expiration. The board did not take immediate formal action on the contract during the Feb. 20 meeting.

Provenance: The board’s public comments and the Frontier presentation are recorded in the meeting transcript beginning with Queenie Manuel identifying herself as representing Frontier Medical Group and continuing through subsequent trustee questions and Charles’s report on mailed payments.