(2025-2Q) Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom TV show was founded in 1963 after discussions between V.J. Skutt, the private insurance firm’s CEO and zoologist Marlin Perkins.(1) The program, viewed by millions, won multiple Emmy awards and nominations for educating viewers about nature.(2)

The late Stan Brock (1936-2018) was a co-host of the popular TV program.

Brock’s experiences in the wild led him to found Remote Area Medical (RAM), a non-profit whosemission is “to prevent pain and alleviate suffering by providing free quality health care to those in need.” RAM provides “free dental, vision, and medical care through mobile pop-up clinics in the U.S.”(3)

Brock once explained, “My vision for Remote Area Medical developed when I suffered a personal injury while living among the Wapishana Indians in Guyana, South America. I was isolated from medical care, which was about a 26-day journey away. I witnessed the near devastation of whole tribes by what would have been simple or minor illnesses to more advanced cultures. When I left Guyana, I vowed to find a way to deliver basic medical aid to people in the world’s inaccessible regions.”

Policy Foundation Involvement

A decade ago, the Policy Foundation received a $1,000 grant to study a weekend RAM pop-up clinic in inner-city Memphis, Tennessee and policies in adjacent states. A Jonesboro Sun column (4) later described the scene:

“It’s early on a recent Saturday morning at Manassas High School on Memphis’ near-north side. Remote Area Medical (RAM), a Tennessee non-profit founded in 1985 has attracted more than 200 medical professional volunteers to a free clinic for the needy. By day’s end about 350 patients receive free dental, medical or vision care. Hundreds more receive care on Sunday at the portable clinic …. One volunteer said she’d been participating in RAM clinics for eight years. Another traveled with a group from Buffalo, N.Y.”

The Sun column explained Missouri once imposed regulatory barriers on non-resident medical professionals preventing them from volunteering at pop-up clinics. Analysts at the Show-Me Institute, a market-based Missouri think tank, argued the state needed reform. A catalyst was the 2011 Joplin tornado.

Missouri’s policy changed after RAM sent a mobile eyeglass laboratory after the tornado, leading lawmakers to later allow medical license portability.

Tennessee was a practice pioneer. The Sun column also noted that Oklahoma allowed medical volunteers to cross state lines to serve the needy. Other regional states taking action were Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina.

During the COVID pandemic in 2020, then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed executive orders that expand telemedicine options and provide immunity to certain emergency responders.  A Policy Foundation research memo published that year stated:  “A Volunteer Health Services measure patterned after border states would expand the supply of medical care by eliminating regulatory barriers imposed on non-resident medical professionals. State government should not prevent volunteer physicians and other licensed medical professionals from providing free medical care to Arkansans. Allowing Good Samaritans to help Arkansans would increase the supply of medical volunteers in response to COVID-19. It would also increase access to medical care in underserved rural areas of Arkansas once the outbreak ends.”

Policy Breakthrough: Dentists Act

The Arkansas State Board of Dental Examiners created a process to allow dental professionals with licenses in other states to volunteer in Arkansas with a “temporary charitable license to practice dentistry.”  Dentists pay a fee, submit required documentation, and then, if approved, volunteer in Arkansas. A RAM spokesman explained, “Unfortunately, no such process exists for vision or general medical professionals.” So medical professionals must still be Arkansas-based.

Enter the volunteers and an Arkansas private foundation. Needy Arkansans were about to benefit from the first-ever RAM pop-up clinic in Arkansas.

RAM’s First Arkansas Clinic

RAM held their first Arkansas clinic the first weekend of April in Fort Smith.  It was made possible with a $20,000 donation from the Fort Smith-based Degen Foundation to the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM) to support RAM.  “This initiative will provide free dental, vision, and medical care to those in need who lack access to or cannot afford healthcare services,” a press release noted. An ARCOM student doctor said the clinic would provide preclinical students with a firsthand glimpse into the reality and beauty of healthcare.”(7)  More than 200 volunteers participated in the clinic.(8)

Conclusion

RAM’s free pop-up clinics match licensed professionals with the needy who seek health care. The Policy Foundation first examined the need for this policy a decade ago. Arkansas still trails adjacent states (Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma) in restricting the ability of some licensed professionals from volunteering as Good Samaritans across state lines. But RAM’s first clinic held recently in Fort Smith offers hope that policymakers will revisit the issue.

— Greg Kaza

Sources

(1) https:///www.mutualofomaha.com/wild-kingdom/history

(2) https://www.mutualofomaha.com/wild-kingdom/article/wild-kingdom-earns-4-daytime-emmy-nominations

(3) https://www.ramusa.org. Since its founding in 1985, RAM’s work has been cited by CNN, Fox News, “60 Minutes,” The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other national media. The group has served more than 977,,000 individuals in need.

(4) Kaza, Greg.  “Medical Volunteers and State Lines.” Jonesboro Sun. November 1, 2016

(5) “Market Response To COVID-19.” Policy Foundation research memo. August 2020

(6) Interview with Eric Hutchinson (RAM) chief communications officer.

(7) Mitchell, George “Clay.” “ARCOM, Dengen provides free medical services at Fort Smith Convention Center April 5-6.” Fort Smith Southwest Times Record. March 23, 2025

(8) “More than 200 patients seen during free clinic held in Fort Smith; ARCOM, Remote Area Medical partner for event.” River Valley Democrat Gazette. April 13, 2025