VALDOSTA — A local medical company is initiating a new approach to health care, one that provides wellness care and preventative medicine.

Airport Clinic Inc., located at 704 Gil Harbin Industrial Blvd., offers the health and wellness plan to individuals and families who cannot afford comprehensive health insurance or who have major medical insurance with extremely high premiums.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Graham has an apparent passion for low income families struggling with the financial burden to keep their families well. Upon restructuring the business in 2000, he found there was a great need for a medical clinic to provide care to the uninsured, which is more than 45 million in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We found that some of the population, who could afford insurance, were providing their family with a major medical policy with up to a $5,000 deductible,” Graham explained. “In most cases the working person was unable to pay the high cost of insurance and doing what most Americans are doing is not providing any coverage at all.”

He decided to try attracting the uninsured to his medical office to provide them with as much affordable health care as possible.

This new health and wellness membership will be available for an individual at $420 per year and a family at $660 per year. Once in the program, patients can receive a yearly wellness physical to include (depending on age) lab work, EKG, cardio stress test, vascular studies and more. Each visit to the clinic has a $12 co-pay with 60 percent off of lab work; during emergency visits patients pay for materials used at cost.

Patients also have access to providers at Airport Clinic for sick visits, school physicals, medical injections at a discount, workers compensation, preventative care for both men and women and diabetes, hypertension and weight management.

Graham’s idea was to increase health awareness in the uninsured in order to decrease their healthcare issues and save them money.

“When you know about your health, you can improve the chance to decrease healthcare issues down the road,” Graham explained.

He hopes the program will grow. As more members join, he will be able to increase the membership’s benefits. A larger membership creates more buying power so the members themselves will actually drive the cost of health care down to an affordable price range for everyone.

“The success to living a long life is to try to prevent a medical problem if at all possible, but most people cannot afford to be seen on a regular basis,” Graham said. “As you can see, our goal is to reach these individuals who cannot afford insurance and provide them with the best care possible if it is for weight loss, hypertension, diabetes or men’s and women’s health.”

Airport Clinic was established in 1989 and has made multiple changes over the years, always making an effort to provide the best service possible. About eight months ago, the company moved from a location on airport property along Madison Highway to the much larger location at the industrial park.

Graham has built a business working with industry to help them control prices for their employees and has passed on the benefits to the uninsured patients.

Some of the services offered are laboratory testing, pulmonary function test (PFT’s lung studies), EKG’s, cardiac stress testing, vascular studies, 24-hour holter cardiac monitoring, 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, audiograms and much more.

The clinic sees as many as 10 patients a day for weight loss alone, many with great success.

Airport Clinic also provides a minor surgical suite for wound repair and procedures. The office treats family medicine patients as well as industrial medicine patients and has been for years. Services are offered at a rate people can afford. The health and wellness membership gives anyone the opportunity to provide health care for the entire family.

Graham challenges Valdostans to look into his program if they need assistance. “If you are looking for a way to provide great healthcare at a real savings, then it is time to join today. With your membership, we can start anew innovation in healthcare. The more people that join, the more doors will open for added services. We have a voice in controlling the rising cost of healthcare.”



• Airport Clinic Inc.

CEO: Steve Graham

Phone: (229) 242-9003

Fax: (229) 242-0490

Location: 704 Gil Harbin Industrial Blvd.