Image Credit: Advance Care Medical – Clarksville, TN
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
In Clarksville, a local urgent care center has been shut down for weeks leaving employees without paychecks and access to electronic records.
Advance Care Medical (ACM) had its doors closed on November 16, and according to employees, this shutdown was followed by weeks without paychecks. The corporate office has remained silent.
Healthcare Solutions Management Group, Inc., a publicly traded company, owns ACM. It holds two other healthcare divisions: HSH Surgical and HSH Medical Services.
The company
There are multiple medical group locations across Tennessee and northern Illinois, and more have been promised. One of those locations officially opened its doors in June, in Clarksville. According to their website, ACM is a comprehensive urgent care clinic serving families, individuals and veterans. In addition to on-site specialists who can offer referrals for permanent, long-term patient care, the center also offers primary care services.
“We have not been paid for eight weeks,” an ACM employee told Clarksville Now, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We tried to stay open for patients because we do not want to be responsible for patient abandonment. Our providers and our staff are extremely dedicated to the community, and we love being here for them, but we have to feed our families, so we had to temporarily close.”
Employees do not want to resign because they do not want to abandon their patients, and they cannot collect unemployment because they have not been terminated.
According to the records obtained by Clarksville Now, the company ended employee non-payroll benefits on October 4.
Employees explained that the company paid them over the last week using apps like Zelle and Cash App. There were no pay stubs and no way for employees to have taxes deducted from those payments. The office has also been relying on security cameras to calculate hours because there is no time clock.
The delay in paychecks was attributed to “corporate finance restructuring” by the ACM corporate office.
There have been attempts to obtain comments from ACM and HSMD.
ACM bills
Management at the local clinic made the decision to close the office. The source said that the corporate office responded by saying they would give checks as soon as they could, but that they understood why the decision to close was made.
The clinic is still offering medication refills; however, they no longer have access to electronic medical records, which has had an effect on nearly every service they offer. “They (ACM corporate) haven’t paid that bill, so we can’t even if we wanted to, see patients without pay.”
According to employees, the corporate office failed in the past to pay utility bills, resulting in electricity and water being shut off. At one point, employees said the water had been shut off for about a week, resulting in a temporary shutdown.
Many of the employees have taken on part-time jobs to make up for the loss of income. Some are at risk of losing their homes and vehicles.
In addition, employees do not have a way to prove their income.
“We don’t even have paystubs for the paychecks to be able to get a loan to be able to make it through this time with our families,” said one employee.
Employees: “we want them to know”
“It’s just gotten to the point where we don’t know what to do anymore, but we don’t want the community to think it’s our fault. This is completely out of our control, and we have tried to stay silent and not put corporate in a bad light, but the community is getting more and more frustrated with the fact that we are not open, and we want them to know what all is going on here.”
In order to provide whatever services they can for existing patients, employees told Clarksville Now that they are working in the office from 8 a.m. to noon.
ACM was asked by an employee on October 27 when they could expect to see paychecks and the reply indicated an internal problem with the company.
“I can’t ask anyone to stay or even believe in us anymore. Things haven’t gone our way. And it’s not fault of yours! You guys’ rock. We messed up,” said HSMD Chairman and Interim CEO/CFO Justin Smith in a text message to one employee.
Complaints have been filed with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Better Business Bureau.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
