AS THE ABOVE EXAMPLE AMPLY shows, the cost of detection/prevention of a health problem can cost remarkably less than the price of trying to fix it later. Which is why the Floyd County government’s refusal to participate in a new wellness operation/facility continues to look like an a great example of “penny wise and pound foolish.”

The official opening of the Rome Redmond Wellness Center at 2112 Shorter Ave. means employees and their families of Redmond Regional Medical Center and the City of Rome have low-cost access to a wide array of basic services of the sort intended to keep all things health from descending into the pits of high medical bills.

For patients ages 2 and older the center offers primary, acute and preventive care plus occupational health, disease and chronic condition monitoring, workers’ comp treatment, management and wellness services plus blood-pressure checks, flu diagnoses, X-rays, lab work, vaccines. In other words, all the nickel-and-dime stuff that makes up a big chunk of routine wellness vigilance for comparative pennies on the dollar.

The objective, pretty obviously, is to stop scaring away the “covered lives” of these two entities from basic health activity because of the current high costs, long waits and so forth. It is sort of like suggesting that turning on the car headlights at night might keep one from running into things.

The county really needs something similar, as do a lot of larger employers, and it is very much “the coming thing” across the entire spectrum of health care. If the county government doesn’t like this particular setup or partnership then it should find another. It is the thing itself, not where it can be found, that is of value.