Smart Moves: Local barter organization lands a healthy solution for small business health care reform

According to barter broker, Rich Creyer, with Fayetteville-based Local Trade Partners (www.localtradepartners.com), his organization is a first in the nation to open dollar for dollar trade with a hospital.  With the recent addition of Physicians' Specialty Hospital in Fayetteville, Ark., Creyer said his community-based local currency program has broken ground on what could be a major impact on the health care crisis for small business owners and entrepreneurs in Northwest Arkansas. 

Creyer believes this could be a model for communities nationwide.

"It's not uncommon for a local barter organization to have a few doctors, dentists, and chiropractors among their member businesses," Creyer said. "There are a few hospitals around the country who will let people pay off debt for services rendered when cash and insurance are not options. That kind of barter is usually much like community service -- working hours in trade for the debt doing clerical, janitorial or kitchen work."

What Local Trade Partners (LTP) has done is create a dollar for dollar credit line where any one of the 400-plus trade members can walk in for immediate or scheduled care and services.

"As far as I know that hasn't happened anywhere else yet," Creyer said. "I can't find any other local currency group in the nation that has successfully launched such a program." 

What makes this development such a powerhouse play is that many small business owners struggle to sponsor their own health care plans. In fact, some say one of the biggest issues among small business owners is their lack of affordable health care coverage options. Often they go uninsured or under insured and hope for the best. 

According to the National Coalition on Health Care, health care premiums have risen some 131 percent since 1999. The Kaiser Family Foundation states that in 2009, the cost of covering a family of four rose to almost $13,400 per year. Kaiser is a non-profit leader in health policy that focuses on major health care issues in the US.

"I believe there are hundreds of thousands of small and solo-preneur businesses in America that find it impossible to cover that premium," said Creyer. "That's certainly what motivated us to seek these health care options."

The Physicians' Specialty Hospital (http://www.pshfay.com/) is revered as the official healthcare provider of the Arkansas Razorbacks, the sports arm of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The facility offers in-patient care along with specialties in advanced spine surgery, urology, podiatry, general surgery, orthopedics and sports medicine, gynecological surgery, weight loss surgery, pain management and plastic reconstructive surgery.

Walter Beadle is the business development officer at Physicians' Specialty Hospital (PSH), and the person who had to sell the idea to decision makers in his organization. "The concept was difficult to convey," Beadle admits, "but once there was understanding, inertia took over."

The idea that PSH would have immediate and exclusive exposure to more than 400 local business owners was a draw, he said. In a competitive market with less than 350,000 people and around 6,000 small businesses, the move could have a significant marketing impact.

"The synergy will allow Local Trade Partners and their families to receive hospital services they otherwise might be delaying due to their own financial issues."

On the flip side, "The virtual currency allows the hospital to obtain goods and services more efficiently than the traditional purchase order/invoice system." Items such as internal signage, catering events and meetings, and vehicle maintenance are on the top of the list, he said.

The Local Trade Partner organization was developed by Rolf Wilkin, a long-time Northwest Arkansas resident and pizza entrepreneur, with 13 Eureka Pizza locations throughout the area. He tells the story of wanting to trade pizza for tires for his delivery vans early on. "My tire dealer said he just couldn't use that many pizzas!"

Now an organized, sophisticated membership bank of local, family-owned businesses, members earn trade credits they can spend at any of the 400-plus member businesses. By partnering with a national trade center, they open the doors worldwide. LTP is a member of International Reciprocal Trade Association (http://www.irta.com) and follows its Code of Ethics for Professional Trade Exchanges.

"I believe we're offering our participating businesses something few other barter organizations can," Wilkin said.  Members can do business on trade with private practice physicians, optometrists, dentist, oral surgeons, orthodontists, plastic surgeons, audiologists, podiatrists, psycho-therapists, chiropractic, acupuncture, even hospital care and emergency services-- all accepting Local Trade Dollars as payment.

"It's the LTP PPO, so to speak," he said. 

"Not only is this a tremendous advancement for businesses in our group, it's a novel, eye-opening solution to the health care cost problem," Creyer said.

Using excess inventory that would normally be discounted below acquisition costs, LTP enrolled businesses can sell retail to retail to other participating businesses.