How creative thinking can pay off for your practice
How creative thinking can pay off for your practice
Free money available here!
You live and work in a competitive environment where practices are all competing for fewer patients at lower reimbursement levels. In the past, the answer to such a problem may have been to pick up and move the practice to an area with fewer doctors. But there are other answers.
"If you can start to think with an entrepreneurial mind, then you can enhance income," says Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA, a consultant with Corporate Health Group in Hudson, WI. "They key is to look at who you attract as patients and go from there. What do you do best and what do you love to do best? That is the starting point."
Barlow points out that the development of sports medicine was largely the result of orthopedists who decided they liked working with athletes and were good at it. The niche was developed.
What are some areas for you to consider? Here are five suggestions:
- Urgent care.
Barlow says this is an obvious choice in less developed markets that traditionally rely on hospitals for emergency care. "One radiology practice in Waussau started up an urgent care center," she notes. "They didn’t do it to feed their own practice but because they saw a need in their area."
- Disease management programs.
According to Rick Lee, MHA, chairman and chief executive of Accountable Oncology in Alexandria, VA, this is the wave of the future. "Payers like to see physicians managing patient care because it is good, efficient medicine," says Lee. If you have an idea that will cut costs of treatment, then you should present it to payers. For example, medical oncologists often put lung cancer patients through several rounds of chemotherapy not because it works, says Lee, but because they are not discouraged from doing so, and it gives patients hope.
For example, you could get a payer to agree that hospice care is better and save that payer money. "Even if the payer doesn’t agree this is the right way to go," argues Lee, "eventually, it will see that you are saving money, and the vision of the payer and the practice will merge and you will be rewarded. Approach the payers, implement the practice changes, and keep showing them the results."
- Pharmaceutical testing.
Harvey Bickoff, MPH, chief executive officer of Marin Oncology Associates in Greenbrae, CA, says that doing research and trials for pharmaceutical companies has been a real boon to his practice.
However, he says practices considering this option must make sure they have physicians on staff who enjoy research and who are willing and able to lead the program, negotiate contracts and recruit patients. "We hire people just for the clinical trials," he says. The cost is about $100,000 per year in salary and administration. But the income is two to three times that every year.
- Legal consulting.
Bickoff’s practice also uses its expertise to help lawyers on their cases with expert testimony. Again, he says there are caveats to such a program: Your physicians must be recognized as authorities in their fields on at least a regional level.
- Leasing extra or unused space.
Subletting extra space you have in your office may be an option for a newly qualified physician looking to start a practice. Subletting office space evenings and weekends is a way to build a practice. For the practice renting out the space, it represents additional income earned when the property is not otherwise in use. Northwest Orthopedic & Fracture Clinic in Spokane, WA, has used subletting successfully, according to Leanne Mason, the office manager for the practice.
"Our practice is made up of surgeons, so the space is unused two days a week," she says. More than just collecting the rent on the space, the clinic also handles administration, accounting, and bookkeeping for the tenant for an additional charge and allows the sublettor to use the X-ray facilities for a fee. "That equipment would be idle otherwise," says Mason.
Bickoff says a practice is only limited by its creativity, and he recommends that you use any opportunity you can to network with counterparts for income ideas. Barlow agrees and suggests contacting local specialty associations to encourage them to do more to promote the business aspect of medicine. "You can even offer to hold a brainstorming session at a meeting," she says. "Your colleagues are really the best source of information."
"There are people who hear about ideas in other states," says Bickoff. "But they don’t want to spend the money on the long distance call to find out about it. Make the call. When you see an idea you like or hear about something that appeals to you, network. It pays off."
• Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA, Consultant, Corporate Health Group, Hudson, WI. Telephone: (715) 381-1171.
• Rick Lee, MHA, Chairman and Chief Executive, Accountable Oncology, Alexandria, VA. Telephone: (703) 658-1800.
• Harvey Bickoff, MPH, Chief Executive Officer, Marin Oncology Associates, Greenbrae, CA. Telephone: (415) 925-5010.
• Leanne Mason, Office Manager, Northwest Orthopedic & Fracture Clinic, Spokane, WA. Telephone: (509) 624-2226.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.