Member Highlight: Dr. Haverkorn of River City OMS

FMMA Member Highlight​

The purpose of our member highlights is to shine a spotlight on outstanding individuals who form part of a groundbreaking network as members of the San Antonio Free Market Medical Association. For our December issue, Shankx Web Development chose to sit down and chat with Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon, Mark Haverkorn, whose clinic River City OMS, recently had an Open House and one year celebration. Congratulations, Dr. Haverkorn!

​​Joining the F​MMA

Dr. Haverkorn joined the FMMA in fall of this year after hearing about the FMMA from the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. Dr. Haverkorn also belongs to the American Dental Association, American Medical Association, American Association of Oral Surgeons.

Locally, Dr. Haverkorn and his wife (also Dr. Haverkorn!) serve as board directors in the San Antonio chapter of the Christian Medical Association.

​Why did you join the FMMA and how do you believe it will help your business?

​"I joined the FMMA to get the word out. I really believe in being transparent about prices. We have all of our prices posted on our website and Facebook. Currently, River City OMS is the only Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery center with prices as low as ours. I’m hoping that other surgeons will follow and do the same and that coming together through FMMA will help."

What problem does River City OMS solve?

​"There’s three groups of patients we deal with:

We’ve got patients who don’t have insurance or who do not have a lot of money, we obviously help them.

We’re the cheapest oral surgeons in the state of Texas, probably in the whole country. The going rate in San Antonio for four wisdom teeth removal is about 3 grand, I do it for $1,000.

The patients who want higher-end treatments

You see the commercials that say, “Come in take out all your teeth put in implants in a day!” What they don’t tell you is that it averages $25,000 per jaw, about $50,000 for the mouth. But we can do it for $40,000, that’s 20% off.
We can help the high-end consumers, we can help the folks who are just looking for an affordable way to get care.
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Then, in the middle, patients who have insurance and a job are a little more hesitant, but they come out ahead too.​

We had a patient who had two impacted wisdom teeth removed. Our prices are $675. That patient submitted a claim to their dental insurance and got $475 back. That means their out of pocket was a little over $200 to have two impacted wisdom teeth removed.
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$100 a tooth? You will never find that kind of a deal like that. The dental school charges a lot more than that and they have students in residence who are doing it. The clients who come to us and try this do well!
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Problem wise, I think we help out people who just cannot afford to get treated. All the time, we have patients who walk in. They've been to a couple of other places and they couldn’t afford it and they were just going to have to deal with their problem until they could take care of it.

​Some will fly down to Honduras or Central America to get surgery at a discount, but then you have patients that don’t want to do that, but don’t want to fork out 50 grand so when we come a bit lower, that helps them too."

Are people wondering what you’re doing to the market?

"No one’s angry, but I think a lot of people think it won’t work. In dental school, everyone wanted to be fee-for-service, which we are, but they wanted to be FFS with ridiculously high prices. Like $3,000 for a crown. No one ever talked about being fee-for-service at a price people could afford. They’re intrigued by it."

Who is Dr. Haverkorn?​

What do you enjoy most about volunteering?

"Giving back. I’m very fortunate that my wife is right on board. We’ve always liked to do charity. We like giving things away and trying to help people. This Wrappin’ Jack will be at Fiesta Texas and we’re collecting donations and sponsoring that. It goes to Family Services Association that started in 1903 serving underprivileged families. The average family makes less than $10,000 per year."

What’s one thing - either industry-related or not - you learned in the last month?

I learned about where the name Camp Bullis came from! There’s a colonel in the army that was fighting on the border in the 1800’s in the Indian War. I was always interested and then I found an article about it.

What's something about you (a fun fact) that not many people know?

​"I’m a Cattle Rancher! My father-in-law was a rancher so he taught me. My pickup truck is actually used for that."

Does RCOMS sponsor any entity?

"We sponsor a football team! South Texas Rangers. Cops, firefighters, paramedics, everyone on the team is an active officer or relative. They’re growing. We also have a small ranch and we sponsor a local 4-H chapter. We also sponsor a couple of events the Christian Dental Association does every year."

Explain your passion for oral surgery and how it is represented in your company culture.

"My passion for oral surgery started from seeing my dad, who was also a surgeon and then discovering there was a lot of variety in this field. We do trauma, pathology, cancer. Some do cleft!"

What's the last book you read?

"I really enjoy non-fiction. The last book I read, was Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. An Indian tribe in Oklahoma is given a reservation that everyone thought was worthless, but they found oil. They were the wealthiest people in Oklahoma. People came in and tried to take advantage and there were murders. It’s an interesting story!"

Interview brought to you by Shankx Web Development and Consulting. For more information, please visit https://shankx.com/

About the Free Market Medical Association

The FMMA was founded in 2014 by Jay Kempton and Dr. Keith Smith based on their mutual desire to fix our broken system. They founded the FMMA based on three pillars.
 1. Price is not a product.
 2. Value is mutually determined and requires transparent pricing and quality.
 3. Cash is king, the equality of price is critical.

​The FMMA connects true buyers and sellers of healthcare, educating and motivating them to work together based upon a mutually beneficial relationship built on the pillars. To learn more, visit www.fmma.org/sanantonio or contact sanantonio@fmma.org.