The status of
healthcare is not
what's in crisis. However, the attitudes and
mindsets of
many healthcare providers is! As a
generality, most
physicians haven't been adequately trained
in the
technical, administrative nuances required
to create
efficient business infrastructures that
yield successful
private practice models. The Solution:
Invest in
yourself! Attend practice
management seminars,
read literature, utilize the internet
to learn
how to create an ultra efficient business
model. Our
group practice didn't just appear on the
front cover of OrthoKinetic
Review out of dumb luck. We all work
extremely hard in
all facets of healthcare delivery to achieve
our
success. It's imperative that you consider
adopting a
similar mindset to achieve your success. I
think medicine's the easy part nowadays.
Customer
service, ensuring patient satisfaction and
the
establishment of efficient practice
protocols through
adoption and implementation of patient
friendly
policies is not. The solution: Take
every situation that occurs in
private practice
and create a win-win
for both patient
and practice. If that's not one of your
main
professional goals, you cannot
succeed!
Yes...compensation for
healthcare
providers continues to dwindle. Why do you
think this is
so? Since insurance carriers are in this
business to
make money, don't you think they will
continue
to reduce compensation for the services
healthcare
providers perform, as long as they
are allowed to? I
would...it's good business. The
solution: Physicians
need to wake up and not only understand, but
appreciate the inherent
value
of the services they provide. Once this is
accomplished,
they need to polish their brass balls and
use
them by avoiding participating with low
profit
generating managed care companies. With
two children
nearly college age, I can't speak for my
podiatric
brethren, but I certainly cannot afford to
work for
free. Absolutely don't
add more
non-profit patient volume. Rather,
reduce it
by de-selecting those
manage care
contracts that offer minimal profit margin.
Participation in low profit margin managed
care
contracts creates a practice's
economic death spiral,
for you continue to work harder and harder
for less
money. Quality of healthcare delivery
exponentially
decreases while the economic death spiral
spins out of
control. End the paranoia about what would
happen if
your neighboring colleague accepts the
contract you just
opted to de-select, for their office will
become so
inundated with high volume not for profit
patients, that
their practice death spiral becomes a
reality, while
you just freed up your schedule to provide
services to
profit friendly managed care subscribers, or
even
better, cash paying patients. Once a managed
care
company has no healthcare providers
to render services
for their subscribers, they will either
cease to exist,
or be forced to raise fees in order to
re-attract
participants in their plan. Sounds simple
enough...ahh
but there's that podiatric paranoia... why
is it so
strikingly vicious in podiatry? Can anyone
tell me?
Don't you all realize that the insurance
companies need
us a lot more than we need them? Cash is
king!
Regarding malpractice
tort
reform. It's all moot unless we adopt
what every
other civilized country has, a
loser
pay system! You want to stop
frivolous
lawsuits, oops there it is! The
problem: The attorney
lobbyists are one of the most powerful
special interest
groups in this country, which is run by...
politicians,
who are by and large...attorneys. How can we
wake up the
American public to this obvious conflict of
interest?
Oh...and what of socialized medicine. I
say...bring it
on! Give me a 1 payor system that provides
equitable compensation for the services we
provide. That
would clearly be the most efficient
healthcare insurance
model we could adopt. The problem:
The healthcare
insurance companies are also one of the
strongest special interest groups in this
country. The
amount of soft money politicians receive
from
these lobbyists is staggering. So, it is
highly unlikely
we will see any meaningful malpractice tort
reform, nor
a single payor system anytime soon.
Therefore, we need
to take care of what we have control
over...we need to
become lean and efficient in our healthcare
delivery, we
need to understand and appreciate the value
of the
services we provide, and we
need to
continue to do what we have always
done...practice good,
sound, defensive medicine. What...Back to
the treat 'em
like they were your own family theme all
over again! You
bet and that's the Mullen
Angle.
