Another rural University of Missouri Health Care clinic is hemorrhaging thousands of dollars annually, and MU Health officials are searching for a tourniquet.

The University Physicians clinic in Boonville has lost an average of $500,000 annually for the past five years, MU Health spokeswoman Mary Jenkins said. Now, the Columbia-based hospital system is calling for help.

Jenkins said MU has approached Cooper County Memorial Hospital about joint operation of the clinic, which employs five of the area’s seven general practice physicians. Located on the Boonville hospital campus, MU Health leases the clinic space from Cooper County Memorial.

"We’re working with the hospital to make changes to improve the financial condition of the clinic," Jenkins said.

Cooper County Memorial CEO and administrator Matt Waterman and Jenkins said keeping the clinic open is a top priority. Officials declined to elaborate on how the operating agreement would work, but Waterman said the clinic could improve its bottom line by getting rural health clinic status or hospital or provider-based clinic status.

Richard Royer, CEO of the Columbia-based health-care consulting firm Primaris, said such designations could increase Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements by 25 to 40 percent. He said it likely would be easier for the clinic to obtain such a status if it were operated independently or by Cooper County Memorial.

"The rural health clinic program has been in place for more than a decade and has been very effective in increasing the amount of primary care delivered in rural settings," he said. To qualify, he said, clinics must be located in rural areas with a shortage of physicians.

News of changes at the clinic has concerned some residents. About 1,600 patients visit the clinic every month.

"I think the board of trustees is going to do everything in its power to keep it here," said Julie Thacher, a Boonville city councilwoman. "I think they realize how important it is to the fabric of the community."

Presiding Cooper County Commissioner Eddie Brickner said it would be a terrible loss if the clinic closed or if the physicians were asked to relocate. However, he also wondered if the Boonville hospital was in a position to absorb any of the clinic’s operating losses. "That would be a lot for the hospital or anybody to take on," he said.

MU has been steadily streamlining its roster of money-losing rural clinics. Earlier this month, it divested itself from a clinic in Macon, and last month it announced it would close its Hallsville clinic but decided to keep it open for an additional year. MU also operates clinics in Ashland, Fayette, Fulton and Jefferson City.

Jenkins said the problem boils down to increased health-care costs and insurance payments that haven’t kept pace.