Med Man manages medical clinics so doctors can focus on patients

I am privileged to serve on the board of and be an investor in Medical Management, Inc., known as MedMan (http://www.medman.com/). In light of the theme of this issue of the Business Insider, I thought it might be interesting to the readers if I were to discuss this company.

MedMan is a medical group management company. What that means is that physicians and hospitals outsource the management of their clinics to us. The providers take care of the medicine; we take care of the everything else.  Administrators of the clinics are our employees.  All the non-medical staff in a clinic work under the direction of our administrator, who in turn reports to the physician or hospital owners.

We manage 25 clinics throughout the NW including Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Oregon and Alaska.  About half are physician-owned clinics and half are hospital-owned clinics. Collectively the clinics we manage take care of about one million patients. We believe we are the largest medical clinic management company in the Pacific Northwest.

Why would clinic owners want to outsource their management?  Because they are experts at the practice of health care; we’re experts at managing medical clinics.   We also provide strategic planning and other consulting services for medical clinics, and interim clinic management for those between administrators.

As America’s first medical group management company, we bring more than 35 years of experience to our clients.  And we bring the collective wisdom of our administrators to each.  The administrators meet together virtually each week to discuss and solve problems and twice a year they gather at MedMan University to be updated on the current trends in clinic administration.

These are interesting times to be in the business of health care management.  Our clinics are working to embrace the concepts in the Affordable Care Act including the notions of medical homes and accountable care organizations, two of the important mandates in the act.  But while we as a society are reinventing the delivery of health care, patients must continue to be served.

We believe at all times, but especially in times of turbulence and change, a successful business must be grounded in a strong and enduring philosophy.  Otherwise it is easy to lose your way as the environment constantly changes.

We are values and purpose driven.  This has allowed us to continue to grow our business in spite of the tremendous uncertainty in the health care environment.

Our purpose is to “create access through clinics that work.” By that we mean that efficient and effective health care providers best serve patients.  Our company is employee owned with virtually every employee (and all board members) having a stake in the success of the company.  Every one of our employees shares our values of integrity, respect, loyalty and information sharing.

These are extremely challenging times for health care providers.  I am honored and proud to be associated with a values-driven company that continues to do the important but unglamorous work of providing access to health care.

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Dr. Kevin Learned is the director of the Venture College at Boise State University and a member of the board of directors of the Boise Angel Alliance.  This blog post was originally published in Business Insider, a business magazine of the Idaho Statesman on February 19, 2014.