Healthcare Rebel Alliance: Q&A with Dr. Ben Aiken, Lantern Health

Nick Soman, Decent

So my friend Ben, my first question to you is, who were you before all this, and then how did that guy get into healthcare and eventually DPC?

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Ben Aiken, Lantern Health

Yeah, I guess before all of this, I was a somewhat nerdy kid who was interested in international development and healthcare work in very underserved settings. And so I thought that I would live internationally. I was interested in infectious disease, tropical medicine, hygiene, those kinds of things, doing a public health degree and then thinking about doing a medicine degree. That's in essence who I was before, and some of that was a little bit of business and international studies.

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But as I got into medical school, I realized that I liked variety, and family medicine probably has the most variety. I also thought about my grandfather who was a family physician and practitioner. He was not alive at the time, but I thought about what he had done and the influence that that had on me when I was younger. And then I realized that the people going into family medicine and primary care were very much my people. And that there was a striking opportunity for primary care to reclaim its place in our national healthcare system. So it fit on all of those levels and I started to drive towards it. As I was finishing medical school and then also in residency, I think with that idea that there was this passion and drive towards primary care reclaiming its place. I felt like I quickly saw kind of the status quo dysfunction and also kind of a lack of sustainability and lack of incentive alignment in status quo primary care.

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Then as a resident I spent time looking for alternative models and was exposed to various models, but specifically exposed to direct primary care style models in two places. One, the first practice in our community had opened and I got to spend some time in Direct Primary Care practice. I got to spend some time with those young physicians who were kind of trailblazing in my local community and had an influence. And then secondly, I spent some time with Iora Health in its earliest days in Las Vegas. This is prior to them even serving Medicare Advantage focused patients, they were serving casino workers. Those two experiences combined to really shape my drive towards going into Direct Primary Care.

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Nick Soman, Decent

I really love that. And when you think about the somewhat nerdy kid who was interested in international development and possibly tropical disease work, what do you think he'd think of what you're doing now? What would he be proud of? Are there any areas where you think he’d feel you'd miss the mark?

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Ben Aiken, Lantern Health

I was shaped by an influential mentor when I was in public health school in a couple different ways. And one was kind of this concept that when you leave, nobody notices when you are gone. And so the majority of international development and infectious disease work tends to be the well-off and educated academic from the United States going to another country that is less well served, and very quickly in many instances those relationships become somewhat dependent. And so it's not necessarily training the trainer and kind of facilitating the community led initiative. That doesn't mean it's not meaningful. But the holy grail is kind of where you go and you share what you've learned and you grow something that's community led and when you leave, it just continues. 

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And so that mentality started to develop for me in public health. I think (young me) would be pleased with the fact that most of the work I'm doing right now is local, community-oriented, ground-up work in my own community. Even though it's not in a setting that is as underserved as some of the settings I spent time in, I do think that there is a clear need and this is my own community, so creating change is really meaningful. I think there is an aspect of being able to meet the most underserved in our communities that I'm not doing as much of now as I thought it might be. And so I don't think I’ve missed the mark. I would just argue that I have taken a risk to drive towards Direct Primary Care, prove its value so that ultimately it is available to the most underserved.

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Nick Soman, Decent

That's a really good answer and one that resonates for me personally too. I think we both want to serve everyone and you have to walk before you can run, right? You're someone smart and thoughtful and you make considered decisions and you made a considered decision to go into DPC. What's been the biggest thing that you could honestly say surprised you about becoming a DPC running and building Lantern Health?

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Ben Aiken, Lantern Health

Yeah, it's a really good question. There have been various surprises. I'll speak to two that feel on first pass to be large. One would be just the degree of positive feedback that we have received from our patients, our members. So I knew that the experience would be better, and our ability to impact lives would be enhanced. But I didn't expect the kind of life-changing feedback from folks to the degree that we have received it. And that's been very affirming and really helped fuel kind of, continuing to steer into the risk of trying to pull this all off. 

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The second thing has been just kind of affirming across the board like running a small business has a lot of different pieces. And even when those things are simple, they take time. And so I think just being aware of the time demands. Some of it is busy work, I think in all work, there are some elements that you don't like more than others. That certainly is the case here. Humans are complex beings, and we all have our own needs. So I think managing a team has its challenges, but that's not the worst part. I like that, because that's something that we really, really emphasize. I would say it's some of the more nitty-gritty, like I run my books on a weekly basis.

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Nick Soman, Decent

Unavoidable business crap. It's my least favorite, too. One more question for you, and I know we're coming up on time. Who else do you admire in health care?

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Ben Aiken, Lantern Health

Yeah, also a really good question. There are, I would say, I have a general admiration for almost everyone that is doing direct primary care. So that's just a blanket statement. I'm in the mix with a lot of really thoughtful, inspiring people. We don't all agree on everything. People are trying in different ways, but I admire everyone in the space that is trying to do primary care differently and has taken a risk. So that is a motivator for me and there are too many names to share in that regard. 

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I think I admire folks that are trying to create value in the entrepreneurial, broader healthcare ecosystem and doing that gracefully alongside the inherent drive towards being financially successful in that same ecosystem. And you are one of them in that space. Dr. Will Poe is another person that I admire who is in that space and really trying to instantiate change in a compelling way and kind of get past the challenges is not easy to do, but you all come to mind. I also admire Mr. Harris Rosen, the owner of Rosen Hotel in Florida. As being one of the kind of national leaders of creating incentive aligned, employee focused health benefits plan for the last 25 years that has created significant change for his team as well as the local community there and is now an example that many many others can learn from. I admire the Health Rosetta team for helping to tell his story and share more broadly. 

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So that's the last on the healthcare front,  and then the final person I admire and this I guess is me seeking examples of how we can leverage a capitalistic approach to business and growth and healthcare in a way that has more of a social bottom line impact and that would be a Yvon Chouinard who's the founder and CEO of Patagonia.He is someone who is bullish, I don't always agree with his tactics, but nonetheless he has run an incredible really successful business that makes very high quality products, has a team that seems to really love working for him, and is leveraging his business to really create change with the environment as a specific focus of theirs in a way that seems to just be totally different and not focused on enhancing his own pockets. I find that to be quite refreshing because the status quo for me at least in my experience in the entrepreneurial world which I love is that there is more self focus than I would have anticipated.

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Nick Soman, Decent

This idea that you worked really, really hard, so now you can be rich and you don't have to feel bad at night. It reminds me a little bit of that meme of the Lord of the Rings where, you know, somebody's looking at the ring and saying, well, why shouldn't I have, you know, all of this power? I think the opportunity to continue to do good is a better motivator.