Wednesday, February 19, 2025
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Cookeville’s Satellite Med Closing February 28

Cookeville-based Satellite Med will close its doors February 28.

Owner James Cates said the clinic’s walk-in urgent care has already been shut down due to rising costs. Cates said multiple insurance companies have kept the clinic on a reimbursement fee schedule from 2015. Cates said his attempts to fix the issue have been unsuccessful.

“I had to make the decision not to offer any care that was not the best and look at closing our doors, which (I) never wanted to do, so that we would not provide care that didn’t best take care of the patient,” Cates said.

Cates said the clinic’s family practice will continue to see patients and take any new patients who need care until the end of the month. Cates said the clinic cannot properly support its patients without employees, but those employees have to be able to work without worrying about whether or not they will get paid.

“We’ve been private from the beginning and we have no outside funding,” Cates said. “And if you don’t have outside funding and you can’t have reimbursement from the insurance companies then what can you do? They’re not going to let you provide care when you don’t have a building or staff or anything like that.”

Cates said he is working vigorously to find a way to get funding for the clinic. Cates said he plans to continue practicing medicine in Cookeville however he can.

“We actually have contacted several medical entities that are interested in working with us to stay open,” Cates said. “Actually we have one in our office right now that came up from Nashville that’s very interested.”

Cates said he and his wife are personally supporting the clinic and have done everything they can to keep it afloat. Cates said the clinic has no plans to file for bankruptcy or other use options that would hurt its vendors.

“I don’t have a credit card that would even work the drink machine at work because we’ve given all,” Cates said. “But there again, the Lord sustained us, He’s carried us this far, and we’re going to carry it through the 28. And after that we’ll see what we want to do.”

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