History - 1966

Two new Minnesota clinics came on the scene in 1966 -- Gateway Family Health Clinic Ltd. of Moose Lake, and Ramsey Clinic in St. Paul.

Donovan Peterson recalls that he joined MGMA in 1966 and MMGMA in 1967.  He attended the annual meeting in Boston in 1967.

The 1966 Annual Conference of the Minnesota association was held in Alexandria with Kelly Martinson serving as Chairman as he had done earlier in 1952.  Jim Vitali wrote on March 1, 1992 with the following information:  "The first meeting I attended was in 1966, accompanying Al Farley to Alexandria.  At that meeting I had the pleasure of meeting June Shaver and Virginia Kellen, among others.  Kelly Martinson was from the host city and he and his wife were remarkably kind and helpful to me, the newcomer.  We had a dinner and dance at the country club..."

Doug Ravnholdt, newly employed at the Winona Clinic, made this Alexandria conference his first meeting, traveling by train with Ephriam Moe, his mentor at Winona.  Doug acknowledges a great songfest and a demonstration of some promising leadership skills in the rearrangement of poolside furniture.

Minnesota's membership in MGMA increased to 26 with these additions from the prior year:  Jerry Popp of the Medical Block Clinic in Red Wing; and David Rotenberg of the McNair Medical Group.

The 40th Annual Conference of MGMA was held at the Leamington Hotel in Minneapolis on September 18-21, 1966, preceded by a conference session held at Rochester.  C. Warner Litten, FACCM was President.  Again, new attendance records were achieved.  Association membership at that time exceeded 650.  Ed Stevens in his history of MGMA notes with considerable satisfaction that over half of its association members were regularly attending the Annual Conference.

The Local Conference Committee (which included spouses of committee members) carried out much of the planning and execution of the conference.  In 1966, J. Roger Asplin and Will Youngquist were in charge of registration.  They developed for the first time a punched card system of registration.  Ralph Schmierer and Lyman Anderson were Co-Chairman of exhibits.  Stanley Allen was Program Chairman.  Bill Costello recalls the intensity with which Executive Secretary Ed Stevens pressed the committee on budget matters and hotel arrangements.  Having been assured repeatedly that everything was under control, Mr. Stevens (and the Committee and the Board) were confident as they assembled for the Summer Board meeting at the hotel site.  Imagine the jolt to all when the Minneapolis paper that morning headlined "Leamington Hotel Bankrupt."  The conference was a great success including the final banquet, featuring the famed Sheik's Sextet.  But the Sextets' manager was under great duress to get his performers back to Sheik's as the after dinner speaker continued.  Special Events Chairman Bob Newell came within seconds of losing his feature event.

The adoption of Medicare on July 1, 1966, was a major subject of interest and concern.  Ed Stevens in his history of MGMA recounts the highlights of the struggle.  He notes that "one of the early reactions of the association to the legislation called attention to the fact that medical care was again being tied to the occupancy of a hospital bed and that the refusal to pay in full for diagnostic procedures done outside the confines of a hospital was a serious mistake and could only result in the overuse of hospital beds with a proliferation of costs to the Bureau of Health Insurance and to the fund available for care.  Subsequent history has proven the validity of this criticism; yet the situation has never been corrected."  He also notes that MGMA was unsuccessful in getting representation by a group practice administrator on the Health Insurance Benefits Advisory Committee (HIBAC) which was "considered to be a policy-making body as far as the mechanics of the administration of the new law were concerned."

Administrative activity of the national association included the development of its first picture directory and the compilation and preparation of its first new international directory with a substantial set of data concerning each clinic member.

The Midwest Institute at Indiana University was held on April 27-30, 1966.  A total of about 117 people registered including 13 from Minnesota.  Moderator of the program was Edward Adomaitis, President of the Midwest Section of MGMA.

Subjects included on the program were work simplification, financial management, development of Medicare legislation, return on investment and the interrelationship of functional areas.