Revolutionizing Health Care in Minnesota
Tomorrow is a big anniversary for HELPcare Clinic and by extension for everyone who has come here for unhurried, affordable primary care services.
It was five years ago tomorrow that the seed of the idea that became HELPcare was planted in my mind through a seemingly random Saturday-morning coffee get-together with my high school classmate, Dr. Dave Strobel.
Dave and I had known each other for nearly 45 years, having met at Ellis Middle School as seventh graders in 1975. My wife Lisa and I became much closer with Dave and his wife Lorene in the last half of the ‘90s when we moved back to Austin and were in a small group Bible study together for several years.
When we met on Oct. 12, 2019 at The Coffee House on Main in Austin, it was just to catch up. Neither of us had a clue as to what was about to be conceived.
My First Revolution
I had been working in Public Affairs at Mayo Clinic since 2000, and the work I did there in leading Mayo into using social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn were what some called “Revolutionary.”
Last week I had an opportunity to do a presentation for my Business Networking International (BNI) chapter in Rochester and I had it professionally recorded.
If you’d like a quick review of our HELPcare back story and my revolutionary predispositions, along with how we’ve evolved since that fateful coffee meeting five years ago, here’s that video:
The presentation included a selfie I took with Dr. Dave on April 3, 2021 after I had just gotten notification that Western Governors University had accepted my final project and that I had completed requirements for my MBA in Healthcare Management.
When I took that picture, I joked with Dave that this would be our version of the iconic photo of Dr. Will Mayo and Dr. Charlie Mayo sitting on their porch, which was the inspiration for the statue called “My Brother and I” that you can see in the Feith Family Statuary Park across from the Gonda Building at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
We hadn’t yet come up with the HELPcare or HELPcare Clinic names, but we strongly felt there was a need for a primary care alternative in our hometown.
Since then we’ve grown to nearly 1,000 active members in Austin and Rochester, and with several employers having already adopted or considering Health Insurance with HELPcare plans, we expect to have more than 1,800 members by Jan. 1.
“My Brother and I”
Maybe it’s a bit presumptuous, but thanks to the magic of artificial intelligence image generation I was able to blend our 2021 selfie with that iconic Mayo brothers photo taken more than a century earlier. I think it turned out pretty well:
Unlike the Mayo brothers, in our duo only Dave is a doctor. I’m just a regular guy. And while we’re not related by blood, we are brothers in Christ and we’re confident in our calling to this work.
Mayo Brothers or Blues Brothers?
So maybe this AI image merge is a more fitting adaptation, based on the film featuring Dan Akroyd and John Belushi, The Blues Brothers, which came out when Dave and I were seniors at Austin High School:
Unlike Jake and Elwood, neither of us are paroled convicts, but we do strongly believe we’re on “a mission from God” and we’re grateful for the blessing of being able to work together in this revolutionary cause of helping people take charge of their health and their health care, and of making health care affordable by giving people options.
Twin Revolutions
When Dave’s description of the Pipe Trades clinic where he was working inspired me to pursue helping him create a clinic in Austin that would have membership open to anyone, I thought I was inventing something new.
As it turned out, what I was envisioning was a type of clinic called direct primary care (DPC) and this revolution already was starting across the country. It just hadn’t made significant inroads into Minnesota and was nonexistent south of the Twin Cities.
As I’ve since discovered, the DPC movement is the leading edge of a broader one – the Free Market Healthcare Revolution – which brings together providers, patients, and self-funded employers who believe that changing the way we purchase healthcare services is necessary.
That’s why I joined the Free Market Medical Association (FMMA) and attended its annual conference in Oklahoma City in April. In late July I accepted the position of co-leader for its Minnesota chapter.
The mission of FMMA is “to unite all of the 'Islands of Excellence' in healthcare and accelerate the speed and growth of the free market healthcare revolution.”
Our goals in Minnesota are:
- to draw more physicians and other health care providers, including specialists, into the free market ecosystem with transparent pricing for services, and
- to enable patients, employers and other purchasers of health care services to find affordable, higher quality care, including through employer health plans that have direct primary care as the foundation.
Calling All Revolutionaries!
- If you’re a member of HELPcare Clinic, you’re already part of this revolution. As we grow our membership, we’ll be able to increase the scope of services. Encourage your friends to join, and tell your employer about your experience here and the opportunities for savings on your employee health plan. You might be able to get a new health plan in which your HELPcare Clinic membership is included!
- If you're an employer, we'd love to show how you can improve benefits for your employees while also reducing your monthly premiums through our Health Insurance with HELPcare approach.
- If you're a medical professional who's frustrated and maybe burned out by the industrial health care system, we'd welcome the chance to talk with you about how you could be an owner in your practice instead of an employee of a large corporation.
To answer the call, contact us by email (or by phone at 507-418-8465) and we'll discuss next steps!
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We wish you much success going forward. I liked the comment: version of the iconic photo of Dr. Will Mayo and Dr. Charlie Mayo sitting on their porch, which was the inspiration for the statue called “My Brother and I”
Loved reading this, Lee! Congrats on all that you two have achieved. -- Michelle Fimon
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1 ReactionThanks, Michelle!