The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 58 - Changing the Healthcare Game: Salt Health’s Innovative Model
Imagine healthcare where your doctor actually has time for you. Where prevention matters more than prescriptions. Where medical care, fitness, and wellness seamlessly integrate under one roof. That's the vision Jordan Cash and his team have brought to life with Salt Health in Northwest Arkansas.
The traditional healthcare system is fundamentally broken. With physicians pressured to see 25-35 patients daily and appointments averaging just 6-7 minutes of face time, it's no wonder both doctors and patients feel frustrated. "We often refer to it as sick care instead of healthcare," Jordan explains, highlighting how our system waits until we're already ill before intervening—exactly when treatment becomes most expensive and least effective.
Salt Health's direct primary care model flips this paradigm. Members pay a monthly fee for access to comprehensive care without copays, deductibles, or rushed appointments. But what truly sets them apart is their holistic approach: a primary care physician, nurse practitioner, dietician, and health coach all work together as a team, with a full fitness facility and spa amenities included in membership. This integrated wellness ecosystem addresses health from every angle.
The model particularly resonates with adults between 35-50, who find themselves at a crucial intersection—concerned about their aging parents, setting examples for their children, and increasingly aware of their own health. These individuals recognize that investing in prevention now costs far less than treating chronic conditions later. As Jordan notes, over 90% of America's multi-trillion dollar healthcare spending goes toward managing chronic diseases that often could have been prevented.
Northwest Arkansas proved the perfect location for this healthcare revolution, with its community emphasis on wellness, outdoor activities, and health-conscious living. The response has been so enthusiastic that Salt Health currently maintains a waiting list for new members.
Ready to experience healthcare that truly prioritizes your wellbeing? Visit salt-health.com to learn more about membership options or specialized health packages designed to identify problems before they become emergencies.
Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Safran, with my co-host, matt Morris and our permanent guest, rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business the B-Team Podcast Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, josh Safran, with my co-host.
Speaker 2:Matt.
Speaker 1:Marr, you saw the look away there.
Speaker 2:right, I confused him. You didn't confuse me, no no, I confused. Matt and my permanent guest. A little pause there, rob Nelson. Well done, bobby, bobby welcome back back.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you. And uh, we're here every thursday for all things bentonville, business and bourbon. Before we get into the ray finkel shirt, because we do have to talk about that for a minute or two, because that's, that's the money, it's a classic shirt. Rob was responsible to bring in a bottle of bourbon today and he claims he brought in a good bottle. And, matt, this is a good bottle. Yeah, that's a good, but the problem is it's open and I'm not really sure what's in here. And and last time he brought in a bottle it was that Infinity bottle, that crap. So I'm going to ask you to try this first, because you feeling good.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm feeling good. I think I might have been over there when he opened it, so I think it's legit. Yeah, matt remembers that's probably where we left it off. Yeah, do you want to try?
Speaker 1:that first before we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to do a little taster.
Speaker 1:Normally we all drink these together, jordan, we're not really sure if Rob did something here to the bottle.
Speaker 3:I'm concerned that that's your reputation.
Speaker 1:Josh just likes drama. The viewers they get upset when he's not here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's because they love him, haley and your mom, they're big fans, that's right. And my friend from Hawaii I forgot. I was like don't forget the third one.
Speaker 1:Alright, so let's try this. Oh, thank you much, Alright cheers, cheers, cheers.
Speaker 2:This is one of my favorites, you turned me on to it. One of my favorites, you turned me on to it. It's good he's turned you on to it. I mean, josh only hears what he wants to hear.
Speaker 1:ooh, thank you yeah what's the proof on this? Matthew? It's up there. Yeah, it's got a lot of heat on the back end.
Speaker 2:It's got a lot of flavor though here it says let me see it I got old eyes, you know I can't see it it comes for all of us.
Speaker 3:Man, right, when I hit 40, it was like my eyes just quit.
Speaker 1:I had the best vision ever, and now I can't see two feet in front of me, it's a, it's 108, it's not no, it's not bad, that's good though you need glasses, yeah, for reading like if we were sitting in front of my computer.
Speaker 2:I got my glasses on there. Okay, maybe you should start wearing them during the podcast. Yeah, some of those we could get them some of those bottle caps. We could call them bottle caps, mr magoo glasses. Josh is too vain to put a pair of glasses on.
Speaker 1:No, no, well, actually I forget him when we go out to restaurants. Emily has to read the menu for me. Yeah, it's pretty's pretty bad. You're one of the guys with the flashlights? Oh yeah, I'm that guy. I used to make fun of that guy. Now I'm that guy. It happens really fast. What's this with the Ray Finkel shirt You've been holding out? That's a great shirt. I just brought some of the good stuff today. That's good.
Speaker 2:What kind of movies Top cook?
Speaker 1:Are you like a rom-com guy? My wife's telling me I have to be a rom-com. What's the rom-com Romantic comedy? Who knew I didn't know. She doesn't have to be a rom-com guy. Is that you, Bobby?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think he is what he needs to be. I think Angie's probably the rom-com.
Speaker 1:Anyway, we're here on Thursdays for all things Bentonville, business and bourbon and Jordan's here, the man Salt Health. That's me. It's like a. I didn't even know what this place was. I've driven past it because it's by the Jen's Place, and then Jordan's a member of the Jen's Place and we did a member event there, which was amazing. Yeah, and the feedback we still get to this day is it was one of the best member events we've ever done. Let's do it again. Yeah, we need to. It's been a couple of years, right? Yeah, at least, because everybody was blown away. So give us the background. Like, what is Salt Health?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so amazing question. You know Salt Health was meant to be an innovative, disruptive solution to the traditional health care system. I've been working in healthcare for almost 20 years now and we often refer to it as sick care instead of healthcare, and so for us, we wanted to create an environment that could actually partner with people to get healthy and to do it in a way that would put as many resources as possible in one location and working together with one team. So we are medical, fitness and spa all under one roof. We have a full primary care medical office that includes our amazing team, our chief medical officer, our partner. So my wife and I and Dr Herbst are the co-founders of Salt Health and Owners, and Dr Herbst is amazing. She is our physician and chief medical officer. We have nurse practitioner, dietician, health coach. Then we also have personal trainers. We have a massage therapist, esthetician just resources all in one location to help partner to you and, as we say, live life healthy.
Speaker 1:So for those that aren't familiar or typically on a general practitioner getting their flu shots, going in for their physicals, the whole nine yards following through with health insurance, like the difference between the two, is what I can do. All those things with you.
Speaker 3:No, that's a great question. So we are what's called the direct primary care clinic. What that means is we work directly with the individuals and the consumers, so we don't go through insurance. That includes government payers as well as private insurers. So basically, what you're paying for is the access and the expertise. So for a monthly fee you can come and have your appointments, with no copay, deductible coinsurance, no office visit fee. You just have the opportunity to come in and have that primary care team help, partner with you, take care of you. There's cash pricing available for labs or advanced testing or we can actually say, send those to Quest, for instance, and you can run those through insurance if you'd like. But the individual care, that partnership and those appointments are what are included in that direct primary care arrangement. But we are a full direct primary care arrangement. But we are a full-blown primary care office.
Speaker 3:That means handling the acute care needs. You know those urgent things that come up, whether you're just having, you know, not feeling well for the day, first signs and symptoms of that, or whether it is. You know, wellness, whether it is management of chronic disease. You know annual physicals, all that good stuff, anything that you would go to your general practitioner. Primary care, family medicine there's lots of terms for it.
Speaker 1:We are that primary care setting so bobby was sick for 10 days. Never sick before, right, you were sick never, that's it? So like he could have come to see you guys as part of this and absolutely diagnosed medicine all that he needed you guys, you should have come on by.
Speaker 2:I flew a man, it was rough, it smoked. You smoked me, yeah, and usually I don't get so this was a tough season, I will say.
Speaker 3:I mean, the combination of uh, illness from, you know, young to old, was pretty severe. Yeah, so you were not alone. Uh, that doesn't make you feel any better. Yeah, uh, but we have again a great team. But we even, you know, take it another level. We'll do IV nutrition Love me a good IV.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we treat a little more medical than you know a lot of places. We don't necessarily say, come in and pick your own cocktail. We like to have your labs in place, know what supplements, what prescriptions, all those things, and then, as we've established that care with you, it just gives us an opportunity to provide even a more personalized IV experience than those traditional settings.
Speaker 1:The folks in town that would work for a consumer products company or a Walmart or something that have, like, their core insurance covered by their company. They would have to pay above and beyond, right? Or can HSA cover what you guys do, yeah?
Speaker 3:good question. So there's funny rules with HSAs and direct primary care. You know the official response is that you need to verify with your individual HSA plans because there's so many different ones. So some HSAs will cover things like massage therapy, some will cover supplements, others a little more strict. So you have to kind of be willing to do a little bit of research on your end with that HSS. But it is HSA, but it is above and beyond that is true.
Speaker 3:And I will say the majority of our customers overwhelmingly have insurance what they're looking for is better service and better value. And so for us you know perfect example, bob you could have called the primary care doc and been sick and they might've said, oh, you got your first next appointments available in three weeks. Why won't he be sick in three weeks? And then again you might not have seen that individual for two years. And so for us it's about a continuity of care over a long period of time. And even if it's a telemedicine visit which we do and we have after hours portal for our members as well you're going to get one of our providers. We're not farming out that telemedicine visit to some PA in Kentucky, which a lot of the large health systems and groups do so, you would not recommend me with a company that I pay half my benefits to not do like UnitedHealthcare or Blue Cross, Blue Shield you would not recommend.
Speaker 1:Hey, get rid of that and come see me. You would add this on as supplemental.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I would look at it. It depends on each individual. I actually had the conversation this morning with a friend of mine who was around my age, self-employed, and you know everybody needs some form of insurance is what I would recommend, kind of as a general statement. Catastrophic, catastrophic is a perfect example. If you're pretty good health and you know you haven't hit your deductible in the last four years, that's probably a pretty good sign that you may not need like the most aggressive insurance plan where you're paying these insane premiums and you're never even going to the doctor. Because that's actually the disincentive with the traditional system is, every time you go, you pay, and you've already paid the premiums, and so I love to give the example of, like the difference between health insurance and auto insurance. You know so you, you pay your auto insurance, you're you're really only paying for that catastrophic. That's the only. You need new tires, you need a new transmission, you're paying, and so for us, uh, all the costs that is associated with health care is skyrocketing, and has been for the last 15, 20 years, and people are incredibly frustrated with it. There are ways to kind of hedge your bets, to say you know what, instead of just putting all my money into premiums which I'm never going to use. Just lower what you.
Speaker 3:Okay, there's an option where you can say well, I'll take a little bit higher deductible and with that savings I might apply that to a monthly membership at Salt Hill and then we've got a full fitness center, fitness classroom. We've got virtual on-demand classes as well as in-person, and then our spa is pretty top-notch. It's got infrared sauna and steam and our cold air, and that's all included. It's all included with the membership. Yeah, so you can come every day, even if you don't have an appointment that month. You're still there and available.
Speaker 3:You need to, you know. Just maybe you don't want a full appointment but you want to have a, you know, a 15 minute check-in. Or you just want to send a portal message about hey, I've been on this new supplement for X amount of time or this new prescription for X amount of time and you know I'm having this impact. My appointment's not for three more weeks. But I kind of had a question. You just send that into the portal. Our team will respond to you. Uh, if it needs to be seen more urgently, we'll work you in. If not, we'll keep your appointment and then just keep come use the facility as much as you like.
Speaker 1:So I mean like guys like yourselves that don't work for a big company. You guys work for yourself to some degree, like this is something that would make more sense for you. Yeah, I mean angie we.
Speaker 2:She came to the members event a few years ago and she's been talking about wanting to join for quite some time and I think for a while we were even on the wait list.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:That's a good problem to have for you guys. It's a good problem. I mean, we don't love that there's a wait list because, man, we want to help as many people as possible. The whole thing is, if we throw in a whole bunch of people all at one time, we're going to fall right to that same trap that everybody else does, which is not having enough time to spend with our customers, and so we call them our patients, we call them members because they are a member of the Solve Health community.
Speaker 3:But as we do that, you know the traditional primary care office you're looking at a six to seven minute appointment like actually face to face with your physician or PA or a practitioner, and so for us, you can't get to like the root cause of what's actually going on or to actually learn about what's going on in their life, from a diet, lifestyle, sleep, all of those wonderful things in that short of a time, and so our appointments are much longer, which means that we have to limit that.
Speaker 3:What would be a traditional call the patient panel, and so for us it's more about. You know that quality have to limit that. What would be a traditional call the patient panel, and so for us, it's more about that quality of time and that quality of interaction rather than the quantity of members. I would love to double my membership tomorrow as a businessman there's no question about that but I'm trying to balance with the team what works really well to ensure that we keep having that. Is there still a wait list now? There is a wait list now we're actually recruiting another physician, which we're really excited about.
Speaker 1:Still on the wait list huh, you know, I think we, because Matt jumped past you when he's already in. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I guess maybe I could jump in on the back. Well, did Josh not tell you that the host and co-host got on but they didn't have room for the guest? Oh yeah, that's fine, but he said he's hoping if they get this new guy hired they can keep it.
Speaker 1:Matt and I have been going every day.
Speaker 3:I'll put it to you this way If Angie wants to be connected, I'll make sure that she gets prior. I appreciate it. I appreciate it, yeah, because these guys are hating a little bit on you.
Speaker 2:You've got one person in your corner, man, all right, I got you, no, but I I will say like we, I went to the event and and I absolutely love your, I love everything about your guys's I guess. I guess you're the the program that you have, because to me it like it brings you back to when we were all kids and you could like call your doctor and talk to him and and I don't know. I just think medicine in general has become you're just like you said, you're a number and that's it, whereas you don't have any personal connection and they don't really have time to find out, probably really what's wrong and they just throw a prescription at you.
Speaker 3:You know it's, it's funny, funny. You know, again, I worked in the traditional system for many, many years, so there's a lot of great work done there. So I'm always like not one to bash that With. That said, there are so many things that are just set up against physicians and healthcare teams in the system. It's really the system and the structure that makes it difficult to succeed. And so one of the examples you just gave is so true.
Speaker 3:I mean, a lot of us grew up with you had a family doctor. That family doctor took care of your parents, took care of you, maybe your grandparents, and they were in the community forever. They'd see you in the hospital. Maybe they even delivered babies for you. You know all those different things. Everything's become super sub-specialized. So for most primary care they're maybe only seeing outpatient, or they're only seeing inpatient now, or they're no longer doing like scopes or delivering babies. There are a few still doing it out there, but it's super rare. So that environment of oh hey, my doc is going to see me in the clinic and then if I get admitted to the hospital they're going to come check on me, it's gone. They just don't do that anymore, which is huge. And so that continuity of care and that communication. Of course they'll tell you oh, we've got electronic medical records. Well, they don't talk. I'll just be honest and tell you you know the hospital in Fayetteville and the hospital in Rogers. They're not communicating with the systems like you would think, and so it just creates barriers for communication, workflow and that continuity of care. And so this is it is it's kind of like the old school.
Speaker 3:The method is I love to give the example of our dietician. So we hired a dietician day one. So we opened in a temporary clinic in September of 19. Before we saw our very first member, we had a dietitian on the team. We were very much committed to that diet, lifestyle, nutrition being a part of what we do. But most docs would say, oh yeah, have you ever? You know, if they even ask this, have you ever met with a dietitian? Well, the conversation stops there because they don't know a dietitian and they don't know who to send you to. Our model and concept was Matt. We're going to take you down the hall and you're going to meet the dietician. I like how he called you out, matt, and told the rest of us.
Speaker 1:He's right here. I can reach out.
Speaker 2:He knows, with guys especially, that's what you have to do.
Speaker 3:This is what we're going to do and you're going to feel that Like in a year you're going to come thank me for all of this. And that's what's so good.
Speaker 2:Mid-40s to early 50s.
Speaker 1:Oh, the old guy. But you're right, it's serious.
Speaker 2:But he's in better shape than you and I.
Speaker 1:Well, but my dad died at 58, and I'm 53. And it's one of those where you start to think about these things and you're reading about what should I be eating and not eating, and how much should I be sleeping. I got this stupid aura ring now that tells me every time I do something what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. And I was laughing when you said that I went to see my general practitioner recently. They walk in, they take your weight, they take your height, uh, but we're in a shirt, yeah, and they're like you're typing on the keyboard and they get those, okay, and he's like let me check your heart, let me check this, all right you need anything else.
Speaker 3:I'm like, yeah, like I, can we talk? Yeah, it was miserable.
Speaker 1:I was like it was like he's just running through to get to the next guy. You know, I like him, he's a good dude. But it was like I I didn't feel like I want to go for my annual checkup, yeah, and I felt like he was just trying to get through to get to the next guy. Well, so again Did you laugh and cough.
Speaker 2:No, no, and it's like you said. I think deep down he doesn't want to do that, but he knows there's eight people waiting that are getting more frustrated and there's more coming in, and it's just. It took me 45 minutes late because he was running through everything and it's like you said. That's why you don't want to take on too many members, because then you're going to turn into that.
Speaker 3:So I told you beforehand that we did start a Solid Health podcast here with podcast video, and my wife actually interviewed me recently and I kind of went into a deep dive of the system and the structure of how physicians are compensated, how there's several different incentives and how those incentives are aligned. I won't bore you with all of that, but it really is a complicated system. And so in order for that physician to be successful, they've got to see, you know, 25, 35 patients per day to really be financially viable. How many? Oh, 25 to 35 for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah Times 10 minutes each, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so the problem is is, you know, again, the docs don't. They'd like to spend more time? Yeah, and the problem is is they then have the documentation of those 25 to 35 charts? And so they have, they're burnt out. I mean, it's one of those fields. We were talking about physician burnout 15 years ago. You talk about it today. It is next level. So during COVID there was a mass, you know, early retirement of physicians and we're really in a position where you know the future could be a major shortage. They're predicting that. So I applaud. You know places, like you know, here locally, the Alice Walden School is getting ready to open up.
Speaker 3:Which is right right, like what you're doing. It's very preventative, yeah, so we're excited about some of those opportunities. We hope that there's going to be ability for students to come check us out. We are a blend of functional medicine and primary care. Functional medicine is about getting to the root cause of a disease. It is a more natural approach Again, throwing in diet, lifestyle into those things beyond just the immediate fix. And so, yes, it is in that concept and in that same way. And so for us, we love that there's more people interested and I will admit there is a lot of momentum right now nationally, which is awesome to recognize that you know everything that's in our food, our water sources, different things like that. It's okay to ask questions, it's okay to look into them, see if there's things that we can do better, because the fact of the matter is that Gatorade that we drank from the glass bottles is not the same Gatorade that my kids are being served today.
Speaker 2:In the plastic ones.
Speaker 3:It's not, and it's more than just the material that it's in. Look at the ingredients list, and so I'm not trying to harp on that too much either, but it is one of those things where you have to be more aware, and it's funny, you're talking about the age. Our target market has actually become pretty honed in in that 35 to 50 range.
Speaker 2:And it is, you're out. Yeah, you missed it, I'm out.
Speaker 1:You're having it, I'm not. Yeah, you missed it. I'm out. You're having a good time.
Speaker 2:I'm not putting my membership over to Bobby here. I'll just send you out to Pastor. See you, dude, been nice to know you.
Speaker 3:I'm going to give my membership to you, bobby. Hey, but as they said, you're more fit and you feel it young, so don't let them get you on that. Thank you, age literally daily. The biggest contributors as to why people are looking in that 35 to 50 range, number one the parents. So the parents either passed away young and it made them think, or they're not aging. As well as that, you personally want to age. So if I'm sitting here I'm 42, I'm saying, okay, my dad's 72. He's actually doing terrific. He just had a hip replacement and he's kind of rocking it. But I definitely look at. I want to be as active as he is at 72. That's like phase one. Phase two is my children. I grew up eating pizza and Lucky Charms for breakfast. That's just kind of what. No, maybe, so my lifestyle changed.
Speaker 2:We'll get into that. Today was probably the worst meal I've had Bunch of subs, samples Because you lost like 40 pounds no 50.
Speaker 3:Good See, you're on a path that's a good point.
Speaker 1:You're on a path. He doesn't even need to come see you now.
Speaker 3:He doesn't need to see me.
Speaker 1:He needs to come see you yeah.
Speaker 3:As a parent, I've got two girls, nine and almost 11. I want them to be much healthier than I am. And so then I'm saying, okay, well, I need to get myself in check. So it's like, okay, I'm seeing what, what is going on with my parents. I'm seeing I want my kids to live healthier than I do. Uh, well, I also need to prioritize my own health. And so that sweet spot is kind of where it hits three generations, uh, and you've got a lot to live for and a lot to take care of and a lot of responsibility.
Speaker 3:And so you mentioned business owners, you mentioned high executives. Stress is an absolute killer. You got to take care of yourself and even you know small changes in your life could make a big impact or some preventative screenings. We do one of our. So we mentioned the wait list. Obviously we opened something in April of last year that's new that we're really excited about, that are like short-term packages to where they can be more targeted approaches, maybe somebody who doesn't need full membership or somebody who's on the wait list and wants to tackle something first. One of those is our heart health package, and what it does is looks at an advanced lipid, advanced cardio panel with labs, but it also does ekg, a fight or flight measurement, a variable heart rate, as well as a carotid artery scan. You had your heart checked no, but I'm signing up you need that.
Speaker 3:So I mean I would say, just as our age, yeah, everybody, all four of us.
Speaker 2:It's something that you should absolutely do my wife signed me to get the other thing checked too. Which one the? What the back door is giggy jordan you guys do that there.
Speaker 1:No comment, jordan's got big fingers too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they don't let me on the medical side we're both of his hands supposed to be on my shoulders as he's coughing he's done it and he's not ready.
Speaker 1:He stopped coughing from the flu.
Speaker 2:He's done it and he's not telling us.
Speaker 1:I think Jordan, can we do a free rectal exam from? Bobby on the podcast we can, we could no. Would you like male or?
Speaker 3:female Female.
Speaker 2:If I have to do it.
Speaker 1:I do want to come back to because when the Alice Wallen thing started coming, I didn't understand that in that industry. And then somebody said to me why should you go to the doctor when you're sick? Why wouldn't you go to prevent yourself from getting sick? And I go. That makes a lot of sense. But like nobody has ever thought that way, like you probably went to the doctor or thought about going to the doctor when you had 102 fever for 7 to 10 days, but we don't go to the doctor when you had 102 fever for seven to 10 days, but we don't go to the doctor in advance to ensure that you're physically fit and not having to go through all these issues, which it's just. It makes a lot of sense to be thinking that way and historically, people have not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a mentality. Yeah, it's like it's yeah, we're. We're always behind the eight ball, the way that we've been doing it.
Speaker 3:Let's be honest, though I mean it's about it been doing it. Let's be honest, though I mean it's about it's about time, right, I mean. So if something's not like burning in your life, that's a problem that's causing you to slow down.
Speaker 2:You don't slow down and do it. He does have that burning, though as well.
Speaker 3:It's from the bourbon we're drinking, but but no, it is a. It is a different mindset and again I look at it as if you look even from a cost standpoint, because you can connect with people a lot of times when you start talking about money. It's hard again to invest today if you don't immediately know there's a problem.
Speaker 3:But when you have that stint, that needs to be put in you're going to pay out the nose, and if you could have delayed that by 15 years and not to money, you'd have money to be able to invest in other projects differently. So it really is a prioritization of health, and I tell people all the time over 90% of and you guys it's, you know the multi-trillion dollar GDP that is spent on healthcare, 90% of it is spent on chronic disease. It is it's when you're already to a point where you require that, and so if more time, money, energy was invested on the front end, then the amount spent overall by yourself and for your community and for the country would be significant.
Speaker 1:It's a no brainer, but we just haven't looked at people thinking that way just yet. That's why you're here. That's why we're here, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's honestly like you didn't ask this, but I'll tell you it's why we chose Northwest Arkansas. So I'm from Northeast Oklahoma, we were in Oklahoma City when we started Salt Health. I was working for a health system there and Northwest Arkansas, obviously growth economic engine for the state, all of those things are important. Growth economic engine for the state, All of those things are important. But there was a recognition of my wife and I, dr Herbst, that this was a community that cared and was excited about health and wellness. And so you're seeing that now again with the Walton School, for you know the medical school. But also there was a recent, you know announcement with the Cleveland Clinic and the cardiovascular partnership. But even beyond that, the trail recent, you know announcement with the Cleveland Clinic and the cardiovascular partnership. But even beyond that, the trail systems.
Speaker 3:You know the food and restaurants here I mean you can go to a and gluten-free is not end-all, be-all. Don't leave here thinking, well, if I eat gluten-free, that's healthy. Sometimes they just throw in more sugar, you know, for gluten-free. But having restaurants like you know some of the ones downtown in Bentonville that have dedicated gluten-free menus or who choose to use more natural, local ingredients instead of the, you know, soybean oils that are just homemade, right, yeah, right. And so all of that was something we researched, you know, intently for Northwest Arkansas, and they were like bam, bam, bam. We just kept seeing thing after thing where we're like this is a community that will get the concept of prioritizing health. And so the great news was, within, you know, three years of us, you know, opening our membership, we had to actually close or pause membership.
Speaker 1:Thank God, you and I got in before they closed and here we go.
Speaker 2:Want to go tomorrow for lunch, after lunch, yeah, I mean here he said he's actually going to give me a free meal. I actually, I like, I mean I like that hot and cold sauna. It's amazing. Back and forth, it's good for a month. It just flushes all the toxins. The conversation doesn't end there. Stay tuned for part two coming next week.