The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
Optimistic Healthcare: Breaking Barriers to Access
What happens when compassion meets healthcare innovation? In this illuminating conversation, Mike Baker—CEO of Heritage Health, author, musician, and self-described "renaissance man"—reveals how community health centers are transforming access to medical care across America.
Baker shares the remarkable origin story of Heritage Health, founded by Lydwin Dirne who escaped World War II in Holland before settling in Northern Idaho. After losing a friend to diabetes due to lack of healthcare access, Dirne established what would become a vital healthcare resource serving 25,000 patients annually with over 125,000 visits each year.
The conversation delves into the practical solutions Heritage Health offers—sliding fee scales that make office visits as affordable as $25, foundation scholarships for those who can't afford even that, and street medicine programs reaching those experiencing homelessness. "We don't ever want the financial side to get in the way of getting the care that you need," Baker emphasizes, challenging the misconception that such centers serve only those with limited resources.
Baker's personal philosophy of "realistic optimism" shines through as he discusses his book "The Optimist's Way" and how creative pursuits like music and art help him become a stronger healthcare leader. His message is powerful: whether you're driving a Mercedes but recently lost your job, or facing any other life circumstance, community health centers nationwide stand ready to provide dignified, quality care.
The episode offers practical guidance too—listeners learn about the network of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) across America and how to find one in their community. Baker's urgent plea resonates throughout: don't delay seeking care because of financial concerns. "If you find a health problem, something concerning, get in. The quicker we deal with it, the better."
Have you or someone you know delayed healthcare due to cost concerns? This episode might just be the lifeline needed. Share it with someone who could benefit from knowing these resources exist in their own community.
This podcast is a proud member of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance or have a podcast and are looking for a supportive network to join, check out maydaymedianetwork.com.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Kindness Matters podcast. I'm your host, mike Rathbun. On this podcast, we promote positivity, empathy and compassion, because we believe that kindness is alive and well, and there are people and organizations that you may not have heard of in the world, making their communities a better place for everyone, and we want you to hear their stories. On this podcast, we talk about matters of kindness because kindness matters. Hey, welcome everybody, thank you. Thank you, thank you for showing up today, for taking. Thank you, thank you for showing up today, for taking.
Speaker 1:You made the conscious decision to take 30 minutes out of your time, out of your very, very precious time to listen to this podcast, and I want you to know that I appreciate you and I appreciate your being here and listening. And if you hear anything on this podcast that is inspiring to you or motivating or makes you feel a certain way, please, please, please, don't hesitate to share it with your family and your friends and anybody else you think that might appreciate a little uplifting conversation. I would appreciate that, and I'm sure your friends would too, or family or coworkers or whoever. I have such an amazing show for you guys today.
Speaker 1:My guest and I've been struggling for two weeks trying to come up with an introduction for this man and the only thing I can say is Renaissance man, right, he is a singer, songwriter, he is a author, he is a so many things and he's involved with a healthcare company that's doing some amazing work out there for people who really can't afford healthcare. And I mean, what do you say about a guy like that, right? Please welcome to the show, mike Baker. Thanks for coming on today, mike.
Speaker 2:You are so welcome. Thanks for having me, and that's you know. I love just this is Mike Baker, and especially when we're doing a podcast with two Mikes, so this is perfect.
Speaker 1:Well, Mike, yes, Mike yeah it is. It is perfect. I'm going to get like two separate tracks on here and they're both going to say Mike, that's right. So what came first? The singer-songwriter, the artist did I say artist?
Speaker 2:because I don't know that. I said artist, that's all right, because you're a visual artist too, right out there. Yeah, you're just fine um, so how did?
Speaker 1:how did Mike Baker come to be? Did you? Were you always a singer, songwriter? Were you always a visual artist? Were you always a writer? And then what, what? What happened? Not what happened. That sounds like it was a negative thing. You're good. What brought all this together?
Speaker 2:This is a great question. So I always love the chicken and the egg conversations, because you just never know. So, growing up for me, like I have always loved music, I've always loved to write, I've always had these connections. But, um, I have add and like, as I've been growing up and evolving with that, like learning what that means and how that impacts my life, like it's been interesting, like I I take a music lesson, I, you know, take piano lessons or guitar lessons, and I'd hit a wall and I would give up, you know, and I do that.
Speaker 2:So music and all that stuff, like I you know, without the the tools that I use, right, like they'd still be trapped in my head, and so it's been really cool to just sort of grow up. So I mean, I would say what came first was just the Mike Baker that you know I'm here, I'm just, I'm developing into a leader, I'm trying to do my very best to make the world a little bit better every single day, and so my work has really driven me into the world of healthcare through the lens of community health centers, which is just, it's a fascinating world. I love it and I've been doing that for almost 30 years and it's just. It's so cool to see what healthcare looks like when you're connected with people that are doing it for the right reasons.
Speaker 1:That's also needed these days. It is it is.
Speaker 2:I mean it's really important. And so I think for me that that also really lends to it's lonely. It's hard to be a leader there. I mean, I have to figure out how to take care of myself. And so for many years my board has always said Mike, you need to find an outlet, you need to do something other than work. And so over the last few years I've really evolved into having some other hobbies and some family situations like help me get into some of this faster. But you know, I play hockey and I create music and create art and do these other things, and it's just this, it's, it's almost the therapy for me to help me be a stronger leader. You know when I go back to work the next day. So I think it's all just evolved. Naturally. It's been pretty fun to watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would imagine Now, were you diagnosed as a child with ADHD, or were you diagnosed as an adult?
Speaker 2:So in high school, yeah, I mean was kind of the first time that that entered the vocabulary. I mean, I think just watching me growing up, people were like what is up with this guy? He's all over the place. You know, I think it was highly functional. As you go through it, I've been able to do a lot, but I didn't like how the medication made me feel in high school and so I didn't do much with that until later on. You know, within the last 10 years have I really done more on that side? But from the medication front, but it's been fascinating, you know, sort of just getting over the stigma of oh hey, I'm broken, there's something wrong with me, versus like okay, here's what I have.
Speaker 2:Let's figure out how to deal with it and how do I do something in the world and also learn how to cope and do it, and so that's a whole other adventure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the only reason I ask that I should put that question into context. When I was in middle school, I was diagnosed with hyperactivity. That's what they called it. I'm guessing that's the same thing as what we call ADHD today. Yep yeah, and they put me on medication. I couldn't tell you. It might have been Ritalin.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:But then eventually I just went off it and I continued on my life. They said I was cured am I cured?
Speaker 2:I don't know if that can be a thing but I wonder, nowadays, do I still have that?
Speaker 1:am I still ADHD? But I never wanted to go get tested. And now here I am. I just celebrated a milestone birthday and I'm like, does it matter? At this point it can even be a superpower.
Speaker 2:So you know, that's great. It's all how you use it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. It's all how you uh, it's all how you use it. Yeah, uh. So now you are, are you the president of heritage health? So I'm just your title yep, I'm the ceo.
Speaker 2:Um, we are okay. Yep, a private non-profit organization. Um, so my board of directors is my governance side, and it's really fun to work with partners as we try to solve some of these problems.
Speaker 1:And there's so many out there right Now, you serve us northern Idaho, I believe. Is that correct? Yep, yep, and there are layers. That's how I wanted to introduce you, there you go. Like the donkey and shrek layers leaders parfaits have layers, mike baker has layers, exactly um talk about adhd, holy crap um so how? How did heritage Health come about? Was it like we saw a need and we decided to do something about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's an incredible founding story. So the founder of our organization her name was Lydwyn Durney and she was in Holland during World War II. She was escaping World War II, ended up in Canada and then she ended up in North Idaho and just was part of our community. She's this incredible person, but she had a friend that passed away, a single mom. She had diabetes. She didn't have access to really good healthcare. She ended up passing away and Lidwin was just like we've got to fix this. This is a real problem. And so she started a volunteer clinic that operated a couple nights a week and they started really seeing patients in our community and then it just it grew so, um, you know, it ran from a free clinic to 1985 to 2004 and then it became a community health center and then I joined it at the end of 2009 into 2010 and since then we've just been having a lot of fun expanding, doing everything we can to provide medical, dental, mental health and substance use treatment services for our community.
Speaker 1:And it's so cool too, because when we talk about the health care system here in the United States, because when we talk about the health care system here in the United States, oh let's. My feeling is that those who have insurance through their employer, for example, are fine with it. It may be irritating a little bit for a while here or there, but as a general rule they're okay with it, whereas people who are self-insured, or they make too much money for Medicaid but not enough money to afford regular healthcare, find the system frustrating and demoralizing and all kinds of other words.
Speaker 2:So and these are the people that you reach out to, I'm guessing- yeah, I mean we provide care for anybody that comes through the door, but our goal is to I mean, our mission statement is to improve life, and so we all know the healthcare system's complex and crazy and we're trying to do everything we can to just make it easier to access so that we can identify problems earlier and engage people so that we can extend life. Right, we want people to live healthier, fuller lives. We know we can do that, but we also we've got to find a way to partner with people to get there.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right, right. And and I mean we probably don't always make the best choices when it comes to living healthier, do we? Yeah, we all have as a population mm-hmm, I just got on medicare because I just turned that magic age, yeah, and I joined the y. That's great, and now I go three times a week and I use the, the e-gym and and all that good stuff and I mean so that, and trust me, that's huge for me, oh it's it's perfect.
Speaker 2:I mean, really if we could just increase our physical activity, take care of our mental health and eat a little better. I mean the health impact of that is it's huge, and just being mindful and thinking through it it is. It's little steps. I go for a walk after dinner, you know. Connect with people, don't be lonely, you know. Listen to great podcasts, feed your brain, you know. Stuff like that, like these, are the keys to really getting through it.
Speaker 1:so it doesn't have to be complicated. Yeah, yeah, I love that. I mean the listening podcast part, exactly. Um, yeah, because I mean if we all did those things, you guys would have less work, and I don't think that would necessarily be a bad thing, right. Right, if you guys would have less work and I don't think that would necessarily be a bad thing, right.
Speaker 1:Right, if you guys weren't quite so, but it's. It's daunting, I would imagine, at times, to do the work that you do. I saw, and when we're talking about healthcare and you said you wanted to make it simpler for people, and that reminds me of a story I heard. A friend of mine was just recounting, just recounting. They had to have a surgery and they found a doctor in network out of a building, right, the doctor was in network and the doctor would be doing the surgery in that same building and the person found out after the surgery that, while the doctor was in network, the facility that she had the surgery done in was not in network. It's so confusing, and I don't think the anesthesiologist was in network either, even though they all worked out of the same building, you know, in roughly the same 5,000 square foot area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, there's the complexities within it. You know, we we really hurt the healthcare system and we need to find our way back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think some people were so hopeful when the ACA came through and and it was good because I mean, I had a pre-existing condition, my stepson had a pre-existing condition there was a real chance that neither of us would be, you know, get insurance if we had to go out and shop for it on our own.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's lots of good things. That was huge, but I don't think it's necessarily worked out as well as maybe everybody was hoping for.
Speaker 2:Very true, very true. We have lots of improvement. No-transcript, good look for something beautiful. Trust the strengths that I have, knowing that I can work through any problem. So when I, when I want, when I share that, hey, I'm optimistic about the future, because I really am. It's because I know that we can figure out how to solve health care problems. I know that we can find a way to take better care of ourselves and serve our communities better. It takes that optimistic outlook to help us kind of get into the mindset and that really drives you know, back toward kindness and happiness and all of the great things that we're trying to get to.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely. And you, speaking of looking on the bright side, you wrote a book called the Optimist's Way. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:yeah, that one really, like we talked earlier, it's sort of the the evolution of my work. But, um, you know, I was, I had been in a board meeting and and over the years, like people have just said, mike, you're too optimistic, you know, and that's that sometimes that I feel that in my heart I'm like, well, I know there were some bad things.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But so I really wanted to find a way to just tell the story about, like, when optimism is good, so I get it. Like there's a thing called toxic positivity, like if you were just always sunshine and rainbows, and there's no substance to it. Right that that doesn't feel good either, but there is, and I call it realistic optimism, right, like it's based on reality. I know that when a business challenge comes, when a health challenge comes, when something comes at me as a father, I know that I can have an optimistic outlook on it, like I know that we're going to solve this problem. It doesn't change that it's going to be hard and we have a lot of work to do to get through that process.
Speaker 2:But part of my job as a leader is to bring people through the mess, and I can, as a leader, if I'm up here saying, oh, the world's going to end like, that's not very inspiring, but if I can say, look, I know that there's a better place, come with me, let's do the work, let's get there, and so that's really what the book does. It's really it's sort of a daily reader. Um, you open it up and there's a good passage in there. Um, I hope to inspire people through that. And then I tied the music and art into that, um, just as a way to like sort of wrap all my worlds into one little project. And so it's been fun, it's been a had a great reception out there and just a fun project to get out into the world nice, well, and helpful too.
Speaker 1:So back to my heritage health. What is? How does this work? I mean, it's not free, mm-hmm, but it's affordable and you work with the clients. Is that the patients? Yeah, both. Okay, how does that? How does that work? I, I don't, let's say, I just lost my job and therefore my insurance, but I really need xyz, yeah, so we're here, come into a.
Speaker 2:My hair, go ahead yeah, I just say we're here all the time. So our goal is to make sure you have a. You have constant access to healthcare, whether or not you have insurance. Right, just show up, we're going to take care of you. We'll figure out how to how to fund it through the process. So we're, we're here. We take care of about 25,000 patients in North Idaho. People come see us about 125 to 150,000 times a year for all the different services.
Speaker 2:So we're a very busy place, but we do this and we're part of a network of independent community health centers out there, so you can find one in your community and they're all going to have a similar feel to them. We're here to take care of you. Just show up and we're going to do it. Now, if you don't have insurance, we offer what's called the sliding fee scale and so, based on your income, we take the office visit and we slide it down to an affordable amount. So most people pay about $25 for a visit with us. So you know it's similar to a copay that you know that people would have. We have, you know, things in place that if that's too much, we'll still work with you, but we don't ever want the financial side of it to get in the way of getting the care that you need, and so that part's great. So you just, you know, find a health center and show up with your health care problems and then establish that and work on improving your health as you go through the process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and even you even have some um funds. Uh, there's a scholarship, there's a, is it dime?
Speaker 2:foundation. So journey, uh-huh. Yep, that's our founder. So lidwin durney was our founder. So the durney foundation, you got it. Um, that's actually one of the reasons why it's no longer during. It used to be durney health centers. People really struggled with with pronouncing it. So the Dernie Foundation, you got it. That's actually one of the reasons why it's no longer Dernie. It used to be Dernie Health Centers.
Speaker 2:People really struggled with pronouncing it. So now that's actually why we're Heritage Health. But yeah, we have the Dernie Foundation. But again, we do different things to make sure that people always have access to care. So if you can't afford your co-pays, you know you can apply for a scholarship through the foundation and we'll evaluate that and do what we can to help.
Speaker 1:Just make sure you're getting the care that you need. Okay, perfect. And it's not just one location, is it? It's not just like a clinic in northern Idaho, somewhere you guys are out and about as well. We correct, yeah, we do some street work yep, we have a street medicine program.
Speaker 2:Um, so we have a. We have people in our community that are struggling with consistent housing, right, and so we're doing our best to make sure that you know we're we're connecting people with resources to help with housing, but along the way we're providing health care service. We want to make sure that our mission is to provide that health care, and then we work with our partners that come alongside of us and help us with other social needs, which is it's really fun to have these really cool partners in your community. But we are in all of the main service areas. Here in North Idaho we have one of my really good friends runs the health center.
Speaker 2:Another community health center up in Sandpoint, bonner's Bay area. It's called Keniksu Health. They're incredible. And then there's one below us, in just the county down from us, called Marieman Health, and then over in Spokane, washington, there's a place called Chaz, and so we are all friends, we all do the same work, but we serve our communities in different ways, and that's the magic of a health center. So people out there listening, you know they can go to you. Just Google find a health, find an FQHC. It'll take you to a website you can put in your address and it'll tell you where a community health center is nearby you I think we should put.
Speaker 2:I'll put a link to that in the show notes that's great, is it f?
Speaker 1:what was it?
Speaker 2:fqhc, fqhc. Yeah, but I'll send you the link. So foxtrot.
Speaker 1:quebec hotel, california. Yep, yep, sorry. H-c Hotel, california. You're spelling it phonetically and I think that's one of the cool things too really is all the networking, the connections of it, and you may be connected to a food bank if one of your patients is having trouble getting fresh food or a shelter, or there are so many different organizations in every community that really want to help people, and I think people that maybe don't know. Do you find that to be the case for your patients? They don't know there's that help in their own community.
Speaker 2:We do, yeah, 100%. It's sort of this hidden secret in lots of communities and you know, we do a lot of outreach, we do a lot of marketing but they're just people that don't understand, or they don't understand that they would benefit from the services. Sometimes, and I think that you know, early on, one of the images that we worked on changing was that this was just for the poor people right like well, sure, we're here for anybody.
Speaker 2:But some people found themselves in a situation where they may need our help but because they weren't poor, um, they wouldn't come see us. They thought, well, well, that's not for me, well, we're here for everybody we have. Incredible, like my family goes to our providers, like so many people just use us as a resource because we're a really great place for healthcare. And if you don't have the resources, if you're not insured, we don't care, show up, we're going to take care of you care, show up, we're going to take care of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that talking about that, we're not poor enough or we're not poor, or what have you. There's a great story I heard. I was talking to a woman by the name of Susan Dearson and she works. She was at the time she was the executive director of a food shelf up near me. Now she's the executive director of a food shelf up near me. Now she's the executive director of a Meals and Wheels chapter.
Speaker 1:But she was talking about this story that happened to her where they were all working at the food shelf one day and, you know, cars would come and go. They'd come, they'd pick their, their groceries and and they'd go, but for the longest time this mercedes-benz was sitting in the parking lot and they started to. You know they're like well, what's the story with that? They got curious and and eventually one of the employees went out and one of the volunteers went out and talked to him. And they came back in and said to Susan, you need to talk to this person. And Susan went out and the gal said I've never found myself in this position before. My husband and I used to make really good money until about six months ago, when we were laid off both of us at the same time, and now we need your services and she was embarrassed to come in. She didn't want to come in because she was driving a Mercedes-Benz, right, and I just think that's so sad's sad to me I think it really points back to the whole.
Speaker 2:You never know what battle anyone's facing and we're all a couple paychecks from being the person that needs help in lots of ways, and so you know the judgment side of it, where we we work really hard to make sure that it's very dignified process, like again, everybody's welcome here. You just might fall into this bucket where you need some help. That's great, um, but right, don't, don't use that as a reason not to come.
Speaker 1:Yeah because and I had, I personally have never been too proud. I know, when my wife and I first started our business, we also were laid off. On the same day I went back to work. I found a job fairly quickly and then was really really really bad at it. It was in the mortgage industry. I knew nothing about the mortgage industry, but at any rate, another story for another day. By the end of 2005, I was looking for a job again.
Speaker 1:I was so tired of looking for a job and so we decided to start our own home cleaning business, cue the, you know, the self-insured part. But we made so little money that we qualified for basically the Minnesota version of Medicaid. I'm like I don't care, and at one point we were so poor how poor were you that we actually qualified for the free version, I mean we didn't pay a dime and then eventually, as we started to get back on our feet, we qualified for Medicaid.
Speaker 1:but the part where you pay a monthly fee and then, full on, go fend for yourself health insurance right.
Speaker 2:Yep, oh, that's what those problems are for.
Speaker 1:Before we knew anything about brokers and all that good stuff, yeah, and that is I mean, I don't know how I found out about it, but it literally saved my bacon one time, nice scar, yeah. I bake in one time, nice scar, yeah. So yeah, you know, if you need something, there is help out there for you, right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, I think for me that's the hardest thing is we find people that put you know, they find a lump or they have a concern, and then they put it off and they don't come in. And you know lots of reasons. I don't ever want that reason to be. I can't afford it. You know, like if you find a health problem, something that's concerned, yeah, get in the quicker that we deal with it, the better. You know you've, you know we have people like I felt this lump like a year ago, and now we come in and it's, you know, it's progressed to something that's really really hard to treat. And so you know, for us, just the financial side of everything we are here, and you know community health centers across the nation, like that's what we're here to do. We want to take care of people that need the services so that we can just keep our communities strong. And you know, be there for our communities, it's an incredible program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's. It's so fantastic what you guys do, what you do and I. There will be links galore in the show notes of this episode Mikebakerhqcom, myheritagehealthorg, maybe even a link to the Optimist's Way. Thank you so, so, so much, mike, for taking 30 minutes to chat with me and give us all a little hope that there's a solution out there.
Speaker 2:You're welcome when we're all feeling so down. Yeah, it's definitely. You know it is hard out there and I think if we can just continue to wake up every day and it's okay to have bad days and say, look, today's not the day and I'm just going to be down, that's okay. But you know, find that rhythm and find that spot and if you can't find something beautiful in your life, go serve somebody, go do something else. You'll find it. There's beauty out there and that's something that helps lift your spirits and gets you back into the groove where you can look at tomorrow and know that it'll be a better day. So love your podcast, love your work and thank you so much for having me here today. It's a real honor.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Take care and we'll be in touch. Take care, thank you so much. Take care and we'll be in touch.
Speaker 1:Take care. I want to thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this episode with my guest, mike Baker, such an interesting guy. All of his links will be in the show notes. Please hop over there and take a look, maybe while you're listening to the episode. But I hope you leave this episode inspired or motivated, or just feeling uplifted and maybe a little bit better about the way things are in the world today. If that's the case, if you feel that way, you know what? Go ahead and tell your friends, your family, your co-workers, the deli guy at the grocery store, whoever, that you found this great podcast called the Kindness Matters Podcast and it makes you feel pretty good when you listen to it. I would really, really really appreciate it. I'm always striving to offer you a better podcast, so you know, give me some feedback, leave a message wherever you're listening to this podcast, leave a critique, a thank you, whatever the case may be, and just let me know how you think I'm doing. And also, please feel free to check us out and follow us or subscribe to us on our socials like YouTube, facebook, instagram, linkedin, tiktok. For heaven's sakes, I would appreciate that too.
Speaker 1:This podcast is part of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast, let's say and you need some production assistance, or you already have a podcast and you're just looking for a supportive network to join. Check out maydaymedianetworkcom and make sure you check out the many different shows they have, like Afrocentric Spoil, my Movie Generation Mixtape In a Pickle Radio Show, wake Up and Dream with D'Anthony Palin, stax O'Pax and the Time Pals. We will be back again next week with a brand new episode and we would be honored if you would join us. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. I am your host, mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
