Plumbers Local 5’s Medical Fund Health & Wellness Center is now up and running. The Center is designed to keep Local 5 members and their dependents healthy by providing free routine healthcare. “Our providers offer everything from physicals to school vaccinations, drug testing and flu shots,” says Local 5’s Andie Aeschlimann. “The philosophy is to promote the utilization of the center, to avoid the high cost of using emergency rooms for non-emergency conditions.” Appointment times are longer to establish a better patient-doctor relationship, “and hopefully catch conditions in the early onset and treat them before things become unmanageable,” Aeschlimann adds. “There is no copay, nothing goes towards their deductible, and we stock common, non-narcotic, drugs in house so they can skip a trip to the pharmacy.” The Center, located in Mitchellville, MD, where much of Local 5’s membership lives, is managed by Activate Healthcare.