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Mentorship and Leadership Overcome Health Challenges Nationwide

“Decisions made in silos affect millions; the need for health equity is greater than it’s ever been.”
Ronald Rembert, Jr., MD – a family physician who has worked at and with federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in Illinois for more than two decades – now serves as a health care innovator and consultant on issues including Medicare/Medicaid compliance, clinical appeals, and health care utilization.
But Dr. Rembert said his experiences as both a mentee and mentor have been the most profound.
“Mentoring always comes full circle,” he said. “For example, on my first day of a surgery rotation, I walked into the office of my pediatric allergist, Dr. Charles Laster, one of the first African American physicians I’d ever met who encouraged me to study medicine, and he recognized and congratulated me on earning my white coat.
“On the other hand, one of my mentees, Dr. Carl Lambert, is now my personal physician at Rush University. You never know how the seeds you sow will manifest.”
Dr. Rembert has participated both as a student and mentor in the Chicago Area Health and Medical Careers Program (CAHMCP) and National Medical Fellowships’ Doctors in Clinical Trials (Dctr) program, supporting like-minded medical students of color in their journeys to become physicians and nurses.
“Mentoring got me to where I am today, and I wanted to pay that forward in hopes of replicating myself – to help others achieve their dreams of helping their communities,” he said.
After his father died at the age of 32, Dr. Rembert grew up in a single-parent home on the West side of Chicago.
“I was seven years old when he passed,” he said. “From then on I wanted to make sure others wouldn’t endure what me and my family had by providing better outcomes and access for patients.”
Dr. Rembert joined CAHMCP as a teenager, where he met his mentors Dr. John Bradley and Dr. Regnal “Reggie” Jones. He then earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois-Chicago and his medical degree from the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science before completing his residency at Rush University Medical Center and Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
“Working in Chicago as a family medicine physician you often see [a] greater need for quality health care across multiple generations and populations, especially from underserved and underinsured communities.”
Dr. Rembert also served as the director of the Today Care Program at Family Christian Health Center in the South suburbs of Chicago, helping to transform its walk-in clinic into an essential resource for health care services to the underserved recognized by the Chicago Tribune.
“We provided on-site clinical care, pediatric and obstetrics and gynecological services, a pharmacy, and even a dental clinic to more than 15,000 patients annually,” he said. “After they visited for whatever acute reason, we also established them with primary physicians to ensure continuity of care.”
Then came a meeting with the chief executive officer of a hospital Dr. Rembert was staffed at.
“He said the hospital paid Medicare $4 million simply because care was documented incorrectly, and the hospital should prepare for audits on an even greater scale,” Dr. Rembert said. “I was dumbfounded to hear that when patients were experiencing good outcomes.”
Dr. Rembert began working as a physician advisor performing and training others in clinical appeals, reviews of hospital systems, and Medicare/Medicaid compliance in under-resourced hospitals and health centers nationwide.
He also served as an assistant clinical professor at Rush Medical Center and, as co-chair of the Community Advisory Review Council overseeing grants for community medicine research projects at the University of Chicago, and joined NMF’s first DCTR cohort to learn more about clinical trials.
“I now work as a consultant to optimize the health care various organizations practice,” Dr. Rembert said. “I also work as a medical director with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas – all because I started my career working in FQHCs.”
Dr. Rembert is a mentor with I Am Abel Foundation and the Cook County Physicians Association, on the executive team of CAHMCP, on the Board of Family Health Foundation of Illinois, a member of Illinois Academy of Family Physicians, National Medical Association, and American Academy of Family Physicians, and a former trustee of American Association of Public Health Physicians.
Dr. Rembert is also a composer, singer, and saxophonist.
“Music is therapy that can transform people beyond culture and language,” he said.
Today, there is a dire need for more cultural value, Dr. Rembert said, especially in health care.
“We saw how disproportionately affected communities of color were and still are, with outcomes and access not getting any better after the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care workers of color need opportunities in which to thrive and continue to bring value to the broad spectrum of patient experiences.”
Working with organizations such as NMF allows him to help guide the next generations of health care leaders, Dr. Rembert said, including policymakers outside of global health facilities and organizations.
“Decisions made in silos affect millions,” he said. “The need for health equity is greater than it’s ever been.”