Richard J. Carlson (known to us as Rick J. Carlson), a renowned health consultant and one of the prime architects of the "Health Maintenance Organization Program" (HMO) died of a heart attack on Friday, February 13, 2009.  Rick, who lived with his family in Aspen, Colorado for twenty years had an impressive, illustrious and full career.

Born in Minneapolis, MN in 1940, and a graduate with us in the Class of 1958 at St. Louis Park High School, Rick went to St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN; and then went on to receive his JD at the University of Minnesota.  We had difficulty finding Rick, in order to invite him to our 50th Class Reunion.  However, in a search effort by others, this notice about Rick came to the attention of our other classmate, Richard W. Carlson, who passed this information along to us.

In 1968 Rick J. joined the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies (currently Interstudy of Minneapolis, MN) as a research attorney where he drafted the legislation which initiated the health maintenance organization movement across the country.  Following this work he was invited to be a Visiting Fellow at the "Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions" in Santa Barbara, California and during his 18 month tenure there he published his first book, THE END OF MEDICINE, which was a seminal book in the health field.  His work at the Center on issues pertaining to law and justice led to his writing his second book, THE DILEMMAS OF PUNISHMENT in 1976.

While living in California Rick served as the chairman of the California governor's Council on Wellness and Physical Fitness and became the first director of the California Trend Report Project.  Over the years Rick worked as a consultant to major institutions in the healthcare industry, such as the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Associations of America, the America Hospital Association, the Health and Human Services Administration, the MacArthur Foundation and others.  In 1978 Rick authored THE FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE and in 1985 co-authored with Clement Bezold THE FUTURE OF WORK AND HEALTH.  From 1987 to 1990 he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of NewHealth Centers/PPP Inc., which worked in the development and establishment of Primary Prevention Program Centers and state-of-the-art risk assessment systems.  In addition Rick was "Of Counsel" to Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C., a law firm with offices across the U.S..  Rick also served as the President and CEO of HealthMagic, a healthcare technology company headquartered in Denver and was Vice Chairman of Age Wave Health Services located in the San Francisco Bay area.

In 1987 Rick co-authored ISSUES AND TRENDS IN HEALTH with Brooke Newman and in 2002 co-authored with Gary Stimeling THE TERRIBLE GIFT, an assessment of the promises and perils of biotechnology.  In 2001 Rick became Clinical Professor of Policy Programs Department of Health Services and Affiliate Professor Department of Pharmacy, School of Public Health at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Rick's enormous body of work was an impressive accomplishment, but his absolute greatest achievement in life was as an extraordinary loving, devoted, wonderful father to his four children: Blue (Gyorgy), Joey, Josh and Rebecca, and his step-children Nikos and Samantha Hecht.  He will be dearly missed at the Aspen Ice Garden where he spent many an hour proudly watching Blue and Joey playing hockey.  And, indeed he will be missed by the hundreds of people he deeply influenced and touched personally.

Rick's professional associates were shocked at his sudden death, for Rick was to them a living reservoir of experiential knowledge of the health care system's experiment with managed care.  He had seen the good and the bad -- and was not afraid to point out the ugly, even in his own contributions to the system.  Rick was often introduced as the architect of the HMO Act and the guy who "named" health maintenance organizations.  Rick would often retort at such introductions with, "I am still living that down!"

Despite his ability to effortlessly list (and list and list) the failings of the current system, he was a close advisor to many of the biggest players in the business.  His Rolodex was deep and full of friends -- he often counseled others on the importance of actively cultivating and investing in one's network.  He was always early.  He was always followed up.  Rick said it was because he was Swedish; but most others never met any other Swedes like Rick!

Rick J. Carlson was extremely excited about the changes on the horizon for the health care system and spoke often of what he called the "Next Health Care Delivery System" where innovation focused on service delivery and treatments were assessed for comparative effectiveness.  In the Next System, we would get back to managing the care of patients and use technologies to empower patients with the information they need to take better care of themselves.  It was for him the logical extension of what he and his colleagues had attempted to build in the 1970s.  We will never know whether or not Rick approved of the way the U.S. President and the Congress are conducting the debate on trying to solve the "broken" system of health care delivery in America today.  Rick's friends and colleagues loved to tell him that he was the one that got us into this mess and he had to stick around to help us get out.  However, as his colleagues survey all the lives he has touched and careers he has influenced and friends who will carry his memory, they believe maybe he's done just that.  Now, it is up to all of us to build the Next Health Care System.  We hope it is one of which Rick J. Carlson would approve.