Family physician cuts out the middlemen insurance companies and large clinics

MINNEAPOLIS — Dawn Streitz walked into an art gallery to get her blood pressure checked.

She wasn't confused. The gallery is attached to her doctor's office, a converted storefront in a northeast Minneapolis industrial building where Dr. Sam Willis has launched an experiment in practicing primary-care medicine.

In art terms, you might say Willis leans toward minimalism — as in minimizing health care costs for his patients, and simplifying their dealings with the byzantine medical system. Rather than ask for proof of insurance, he offers monthly memberships priced at $60, much lower than the average comprehensive paid-through-employer insurance benefits.

In return, patients are guaranteed same- or next-day appointments and a high level of personal attention (when was the last time a doctor spent half an hour with you if he or she wasn't performing your heart transplant?). Per-visit charges are also low, at $36. Patients can choose not to be members and pay $100 per office visit.

Streitz, 42, is an accountant for the restaurant Azia. This was her third visit since Willis opened the practice in mid-August.

"I'm trying to quit smoking and get my blood pressure down," she said. "I hadn't been to a doctor for years before him, but I can really talk to him, and he really talks to me, too."

Most of Willis' patients come from un- or underinsured demographic groups — including artists and other self-employed workers with low or unsteady incomes, some of whom were denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. A few weeks ago, he was treating 30 patients, and the number is now up to 50.

His practice is one of a relatively small but growing number nationwide that are trying not only to lower costs, but to get back to practicing medicine that feels personal. And it is rare for more than its business model: The number of single-doctor family practices in Minnesota is less than half of what it was 20 years ago, from 89 in 1990 to 36 in 2008, according to the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians.

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To judge by his demeanor, Willis might have been born with an ideal bedside manner. He is warm but not casual, thoughtful but not distracted, articulate but not academic. With his tall, lean frame clad in jeans and a sweater and freckled face, he looks about a decade younger than his 34 years.