Dr. Finck was again a guest on the Healthy Bytes podcast, a weekly discussion on health matters affecting Audrain County, Missouri residents from the Audrain County Health Department.
Today, during our special week of podcasts looking at farmer health and safety during National Farm Safety & Health Week we are concentrating on the overall general health of farmers. We welcome to the microphone Mexico doctor and Audrain County Health Department Medical Director Alex Finck; MD to discuss this important topic. During the discussion, we talk about what farmers need to look out for while working on the farm and what some symptoms of things like dehydration could be that farmers need to look out for while working.
Dr. Finck was recently a guest on the Healthy Bytes podcast, a weekly discussion on health matters affecting Audrain County, Missouri residents from the Audrain County Health Department.
This week, we welcome our medical director here at the Audrain County Health Department, and owner of Cornerstone Family Medicine in Mexico, Dr. Alexander Finck to the studio. In this episode, we talk about the Top 10 Healthy Tips for 2023.
Dr. Alex Finck joins the Am I Awake Morning Show on to discuss Cornerstone's new location in Fulton, Missouri to ensure residents are able to get the same care they can in Mexico!
Listen to the broadcast on the KXEO website: https://kxeo.com/2023/07/07/dr-alexander-finck-joins-am-1340-kxeo-am-i-awake-morning-show/
Cornerstone caught my eye because of Dr. Finck. He's a local person that came back after medical school came back to his hometown and that's kind of similar to what I did. My employees, what caught my eye for them to be introduced to him, is just the ease of talking to him, the ease of getting medical care. Most of my employees did not have a relationship with their doctor and he brings that to them which is very important in my opinion.
The savings for my employees or what I've seen from Cornerstone, is kind of hard to measure. But what I do know is that I don't have those ER or urgent care visits and and having health employees is very important. After going through COVID and everybody misses so much work, them being able to contact their doctor when they get sick and not have to worry about paying a doctor visit and things like that... So keeping our employees healthy is something you find really hard to put a number on, but I'm very happy with it.
So my investment with Cornerstone is that I've offered to pay half of my employees’ monthly bill to Cornerstone. I wanted my employees to have some buy-in and I didn't want to just blank it off for it to everybody but people that felt it and was important, I thought they would be willing to invest the other half. And it's worked. I think every one of them is happy. It's been a good fit for my company.
My favorite thing about Cornerstone is a patient is just the ease of doing business with them. I can text him. I can call him when I go in. It's so comfortable. It's just been a great experience for me. And as I'm getting older I'm starting to have issues, I'm starting to have to take more medicine, and he does a great job of explaining it to me. He truly cares. He remembers everything about me. I could never do his job cuz I just don't have the memory but he doesn't outstand a job in just the comfort of doing business with cornerstone is great.
So, the feedback that I've gotten for my employees is they appreciate having a relationship with their doctor. They appreciate having the ability to call or text or set up an appointment, and they appreciate the ease of doing business just like the experiences that I had. But every employee has been very satisfied with Dr. Finck.
I would recommend Cornerstone to any employer. It's a good fit. It does not replace my health insurance to my employees, but it allows me to maybe carry a higher deductible and it allows me to eliminate some of those expensive visits that employees have that make your premium go up every year. So I think it's just a great fit - not to take the place of health insurance - but to supplement it and to keep employees healthy and happy because that's the name of the game.
Well, I think when I first contacted Dr. Fink and I heard about the company coming into town, I asked that he would come out and speak to the employees and I just that he he said yeah I'll come right out.
His willingness to come out him Dr. Trina at the time but we got the whole group together. He talked about the practice and probably stayed there well over an hour answering questions doing those kinds of things that meant a lot.
You know as far as the business goes, what I offer to the employees was to pick up 20% of the tab. So for the for the monthly or the annual, whatever that was, I felt like that was important enough to have that one-on-one with your doctor. Some of them already had a physician which was fine. But, to be able to at least offer it to them... You know it's not a lot of money necessarily, but it helps. And I think it's engaging in being in the community having them here. I think that means more than the monetary value, really, to be able to have that one-on-one with a physician.
First of all, to be able to have the access to text Dr. Finck, or call the office say, "I need to come in" and being able to go in whenever I need to without having to worry about Bill. I don't abuse it. You know, don't go very often and then the prescriptions from them that are much much less than you know what our traditionally got from other other places. So but for me again you know the money is important, but the one on one interaction and having somebody here is more importantly made from the peace of mind safe.
Being able to offer the access and the benefit to my employees, I think that's a huge help for us. When we started offering health insurance it's hard to pay 100% of what your employees health care costs are and so when you have a business to run as a group. So that's where we started because once you start high and then if you got to come down it's not a good thing. It's so for me to be able to not only do that health insurance to help compensation. I think that means a lot to them for the ones that did sign on. And for the ones that did sign on, I've heard nothing but good things as far as accessibility and treatment and I don't go in and discuss their medical issues with him, but I've had a few of them come up and say, "Hey you know, thanks for bringing them in. They've really been nice. They've been great to be able to go to and those kind of things."
Honestly, I think they'd be crazy not to take a look at it. You know, no disrespect to the other physicians we have in town, they've done a great job. But, we've had such an up and down obviously lately with the hospital and the clinics that really to be able to have Dr. Fink here. He was raised here. You know his family's from here being able to have that trust factor. I really just think any employer in town. She'll take a look and if they're not taking a look I just think they're doing themselves and their team a disservice.
My wife and I both joined on and so for us to be able to have again that flexibility to be able to email or text or call. They're all the whole staff's very friendly. Dr. Frank gives you plenty of time when you go in there. You don't feel rush. You're not waiting a long time like a lot of the traditional offices that you got to wait and wait and wait or takes for a long time to get in. When you need a doctor. You need them now so you can't be sick and say I'll see you at 3 weeks. That doesn't work out very well. So for me personally just having that attention and giving us the time we need. Again. My wife and I are pretty healthy so we don't need it very often, but to be able to have access to a doctor when we need it, that's that's the important.
The Cornerstone Family Medicine clinic will open at 500 Market St, Suite 300, in July, serving all age groups.
The clinic offers a variety of primary care services including women's and men's health services, cancer screenings, weight loss programs, adult medicine and more, said Alexander Finck, a board-certified family medicine physician for the clinic.
There will also be a 24/7 telehealth line for members of the clinic to access at any time. What a person would normally visit for urgent care or unnecessary emergency room visits, can be solved through the telehealth line, Finck said.
It is a membership-based clinic, which means there is a $50 flat fee every month for adults and $20 for children. Insurance can cover lab fees, medication or medical testing.
"While it might seem foreign to some of your readers, it's essentially like treating health insurance like car insurance," Finck said. "So, you basically use your car insurance for things like wrecks and big things, but you don't use it for, you know, everyday maintenance and that sort of thing."
The family clinic also has a location in Mexico. Many people were commuting from Fulton to Mexico to visit the clinic, so they decided to create a location in Fulton, Finck said.
"My passion lies with rural medicine and I feel like, you know, rural communities should have the same access to quality health care as larger cities do," Finck said.
Read the full article at The Fulton Sun.
Cornerstone Family Medicine received the E. Warner Williams Business Service Award at the 37th Annual Commerce and Industry Dinner October 25th.
Cornerstone Family Medicine brought a unique approach to medical care, called “direct primary care”, to Mexico in the summer of 2021. Under this system, patients are charged a flat monthly fee for 24/7, direct access to their doctor, wholesale prices on medications, cheap labs, and imaging (often beating insurance prices). Initially, Cornerstone opened its doors in 2021 under Noble Health. As Noble Health closed the hospital in March of 2022, Cornerstone had to transition to an independent, self-employed clinic nearly overnight. Most admirably, they promised all former Noble employees three months free medical care at their clinic and guaranteed their nursing staff back pay for the time they were uncompensated by Noble. Alex Finck, MD summed up their determination in one word: community. “It can be your family unit, colleagues, or your town, but those around us – the touchstones of our hearts—drive us to endeavors we otherwise wouldn’t achieve. Community – and the leaders within them – allow us to overcome the most persistent eventuality – change. Our community brought us here and is our North Star for every decision I make for our clinic.”
"Without you here, without you supporting us, and without you welcoming us with open arms and embracing us, we wouldn't be here operating as a clinic. I'm just so incredibly proud to be from Mexico, for Mexico, treating Mexico."
Dr. Alex Finck during his acceptance speech
Watch the full speech on the Mexico Chamber of Commerce's Facebook page.
