History - 1969

Four Minnesota groups were founded in 1969.  They are Emergency physicians Professional Association, Minneapolis; Doctors Hill, Haislet, Wavin and Wright, Minneapolis; Orthopedic Associates of Duluth and Southdale Family Practice of Edina.  Orthopedic Consultants, P.A. was formed from Moe, Carlander, O'Phelan, Hartwig and Nelson, which in turn started with Dr. John H. Moe's practice in 1944.

William Botnan, long-term Administrator of the Minneapolis Clinic of Psychiatry and Neurology, in his letter of September 7, 1991, gave us some nice recollections that tell something about the events of the 1960s and changes that followed, with these comments:  "The events which had an impact on our lives, in my opinion, were the birth of Medicare, the development of the computer, the various scanning machines, beginning with the brain scan and developing to the MRI and later the color scans in 3-D.  We saw medicine change from house calls by family physicians to group practice and then physicians moving their offices from core cities to the suburbs and sometimes moving satellites back to the core cities.

"We had very  few women in medicine not too many years ago, and soon women will constitute a third of the practicing physicians.  Also, I would regard the fact that M.D.s are traveling from the urban areas to the rural areas in large numbers indicates quite a change.  We should also note that the cost of an hour's visit went during these years from $25 to $200 in some cases."

Harold P. Danielson was President of the Minnesota association in 1968-69 and held the annual meeting in Albert Lea.  The Albert Lea paper had the following news item with pictures:  "Medical clinic administrators from Minnesota and other area states will meet in Albert Lea from Wednesday to Friday of this week.  The theme of ‘work simplification' has been selected for the meeting which will be held at the Inntowne.  Various phases of clinic administration will be covered during the program which starts Thursday after a reception and tour Wednesday night.

"In addition to administrators from outstate Minnesota, Millard K. Mills, General Manager of Professional Management Midwest of Waterloo, Iowa, and Norman K. Nelson of the Mayo Clinic will be on the program.  C.C. Lowery, Administrator of the Albert Lea Medical and Surgical Center, is Program Chairman.  Administrators from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kentucky have registered for the meeting."

We have a copy of the 1969 program, courtesy of George Lehigh.  James Vitali, in his 1992 letter, gave us the following insights:  "The Quadna meeting was held in the winter, I seem to recall that we always had a winter meeting and a summer meeting in those days.  At Quadna (1969), Dick Harding, who was the EDP manager at East Range Clinic, and I were on the program demonstrating what East Range clinic was doing with its new Honeywell computer.  We were trying to attract other clinics to come on board to do their patient accounting.  No one bit.  We were before our time.  Now look at what Jim Houtz has done with Cycare.  It was shortly thereafter that Dick and I worked out a ‘tape-to-tape' transmission of Blue Shield claims with Blue Shield of Minnesota.  We were really proud of that achievement and it may have been the start of tape-to-tape in Minnesota and other places.  The Quadna meeting turned out to be great fun with members bringing their families for skiing and snowmobiling.  We brought our children and our ski-doos and so did others including Donovan Peterson from Minneapolis.  Bruce McKinnon, St. Paul Ramsey Medical Education and Research Foundation, was there, and our teenagers had a great time with him on the machines way into the late hours."

The Winter Meeting was started in 1969 by June Shaver and Vivian Linquist.  They received official permission to proceed, with a reminder that the idea can be continued only if it does not interfere with attendance at the Summer Conference.  It was started as a small gathering of any interested members (and their families).  Program content was all valuable -- split about evenly between business discussions and recreation.  These were continued until 1976 when, apparently, the exigencies of clinic management unfortunately overtook the demand for outdoor expression.  That was in 1976 when, for the first time, an urban site was chosen for the Winter Meeting -- the Holiday Inn at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport.

Minnesota in 1969 had 36 members in MGMA.  These included new members Marlene Allers replacing Bob Newell at Physician's Clinic and John Strehlow of Southwest Clinic in Minneapolis.

The Annual Conference of MGMA was held in Denver on September 14-17, 1969, under the leadership of President Robert Starkweather, FACCM.  A major development occurred in January 1969 when the EMPEY case was decided, rejecting the IRS position on professional corporations.

Ed Stevens also tells us that insurance processing had been a hassle since the mid-1950s.  Thus, there was great interest in Stan Hager's article in July 1969, titled "Goodbye, Gertrude."  Hager's paper explained that the Everett Washington Clinic had redesigned the patient statement so that the patient would send an extra copy to the insurance company and obviate a great deal of clerical processing on the part of the clinic.

Association business of interest included:

• Dues increased to $150.00 for active members and $50.00 for inactive; and
  
• MGMA recruited an education director, selecting Richard V. Grant, Ph.D., FACMGA.
  
  

The Midwest Institute was held in Minneapolis under the general direction of Donald Denneson, President of the Midwest Section, with William Costello acting as Program Chairman.

Brian Charles of Texas was president of the ACCM.

Donald Denneson left the Austin Clinic for Portland, Ore., in 1969.  Donald is a Past President of both the Minnesota and Oregon State Associations of Clinic Managers as well as the MGMA Midwest Section.  The Austin Clinic has a long and interesting history starting in 1919 by Dr. C.F. Lewis, Dr. E.C. Rebman and Dr. C.C. Allen.  Clifford Hildreth was their first Clinic Manager, starting in 1933.  He was succeeded in 1945 by Edward W. Denneson until his partial retirement in 1952 at which time his son Donald succeeded him.  Don was succeeded in 1969 by Kenneth Nelson, who was succeeded 10 years later by John B. Milor, who was succeeded in 1983 by Richard W. Golly, who was succeeded in 1986 by Richard Graber who is the administrator in 1993.