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Healthcare Without the Usual Barriers | Clint Kuntz of El Rio Health
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Having health insurance does not always mean having access to healthcare.
You may have a good policy through work and still struggle to find a physician who accepts it. You may wait months for an appointment, become overwhelmed by referrals and benefit rules, or discover that medical, dental, and behavioral-health providers are all working from different information. For people without insurance—or those experiencing homelessness, poverty, or a health crisis—the barriers can be even greater.
In Episode 14 of The Upside Podcast, host Edmund Marquez sits down with Clint Kuntz, CEO of El Rio Health, for a candid conversation about the complexity of American healthcare and the work El Rio is doing to make care more accessible, connected, and human.
El Rio is bigger—and serves more people—than many Tucsonans realize
Many Southern Arizonans recognize the El Rio name but may still think of it primarily as a clinic for uninsured or lower-income patients. Serving people who face barriers to care remains central to El Rio’s mission, but Kuntz explains that the organization’s reach is far broader.
El Rio serves commercially insured patients, Medicare patients, Medicaid patients, uninsured patients, families, children, and anyone else who needs care. Its services extend beyond routine medical appointments to include dental care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, physical therapy, pain management, infectious-disease treatment, outreach programs, and more.
The organization began in 1970 as a small community clinic on Tucson’s west side. Today, it is one of the largest community health centers in the country. Kuntz says El Rio served approximately 135,000 patients in the previous year, and its recent expansion into northern Arizona could bring that number close to 200,000.
That growth was not simply part of a long-term expansion plan. When another health center serving northern Arizona entered bankruptcy, El Rio stepped in to help prevent tens of thousands of patients from losing access to care. Its network now reaches communities across the state—including the Grand Canyon.
Making a fragmented healthcare system easier to navigate
One of the conversation’s most important ideas is that financial hardship is not the only barrier separating patients from care.
Someone can have excellent insurance and still be unable to find a doctor, obtain an appointment, understand their benefits, or locate a behavioral-health provider. Kuntz describes El Rio as a place where patients can receive care while also getting help navigating the system around it.
El Rio’s eligibility specialists can help patients explore Medicaid, Medicare, federal marketplace plans, existing insurance benefits, and sliding-fee programs. Patients who qualify may receive appointments, prescriptions, and other services at significantly reduced rates.
The organization also uses a more integrated model than many patients are accustomed to. Medical providers, behavioral-health professionals, dentists, pharmacists, and other members of a patient’s care team can work from the same health record. Instead of forcing patients to repeat their history every time they meet a new provider, El Rio is trying to create a more connected experience.
That philosophy also extends beyond its clinics.
Kuntz describes outreach teams that travel into Tucson’s streets, washes, shelters, and community facilities to provide care to people experiencing homelessness. The objective is not merely to complete a single appointment. Teams work over time to build trust, address immediate health needs, and connect patients with behavioral-health services, housing organizations, and other forms of support.
It is healthcare built around meeting people where they are—sometimes literally.
Can technology make healthcare feel more human?
The conversation also looks toward the future, including the growing role of artificial intelligence inside the exam room.
El Rio has begun using ambient AI technology that can listen to a patient-and-provider conversation—with the patient’s permission—and prepare much of the medical documentation automatically. The system can organize the note in the format required by the electronic health record, capture details discussed during the appointment, and assist with orders and prescriptions.
Kuntz argues that the most valuable result may be surprisingly human: the doctor can spend more time looking at the patient instead of typing into a computer.
Edmund and Kuntz also discuss the larger changes facing American healthcare. Shifting public policy, financial pressure, workforce limitations, changing demographics, and rising demand will force healthcare organizations to reconsider how they operate.
For El Rio, the challenge is to remain financially sustainable without abandoning the mission that made the organization essential in the first place.
Kuntz does not pretend that the coming transition will be easy. But he believes disruption may force the country to confront problems it has avoided for too long—and create an opportunity to build something better.
Finding the upside in healthcare
This episode is about more than one healthcare organization. It is about what access really means.
It means being able to see a provider before a manageable problem becomes a crisis. It means understanding the coverage and assistance available to you. It means connecting medical, dental, behavioral, and pharmacy care instead of treating each as an isolated service. And it means creating pathways into care for people who may no longer trust the system at all.
Watch or listen to Episode 14 of The Upside Podcast to hear how Clint Kuntz and El Rio Health are confronting those challenges—and how an organization founded in a small Tucson community clinic is helping shape the future of healthcare across Arizona.
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