While on a website obviously aimed at the college student age group, I noticed an ad for a book by a well-known author. Below a picture of the book’s cover were the following words: “All of the words, printed on paper. Classic!” This is an interesting signpost of the impact of what Joseph Schumpeter called creative…
Manage Your Practice
There’s No Profit in “Look What They Did To Us”
Many physician group leaders look at events and circumstances impacting their practice as something that is happening to their group. By definition, this orientation is external – on the something that is happening to them. Instead, in this context, group leader orientation should be internal: it should be on what they as group leaders, together…
Physician “Alignment” – When $X Does Not Equal $X
Valuation consultants’ refusal to opine at higher than the 75th percentile is taking the fairness out of fair market valuation and robbing you of your income.
Timing Exclusive Contract Negotiation
When’s the right time to begin negotiating the next renewal of your exclusive contract? When I asked this question at a national conference of medical group leaders, the majority response was from three to four months prior to the end of the current contact term; a few outliers said 6 months and one, out of…
Same Company. Two Different Experiences. One Big Failure.
I recently read that taken together, the value of all airline shares from the beginning of the industry to date would be a net loss. Is anyone surprised? On two recent connecting flights on the same airline, the customer experience was so wildly different that you’d think they were not only different companies, but on…
Using (and Used By) Public Information
What do you know, really know, about the people you do business with? For example, about your employees, subcontractors and the CEOs of the hospitals you deal with. A few years ago a friend, let’s call him “C,” told me the following story: C’s son, attending college in the East, was looking for a new…
The Traitorous Healthcare Collaborator
What the term really means is let the hospital hold all the money, let the hospital decide who gets to render the care, and let the hospital decide what those providers should be paid.
The Tipping Point – Captive Medical Staffs and Loss of Accreditation
As a result of the prevailing trend of hospital-centric healthcare, in which more and more physicians are contracted with or employed by hospitals, the medical staff is quickly reaching a tipping point. Soon, if it is not already taken place at your facility, a preponderance of medical staff members, or at least those who are…
Is Your Group a Vendor . . . or a Partner? – Podcast
If you want your group to have a future, stop being a vendor.
The Sole Restaurant Syndrome and Medical Practice Failure
If you owned the only restaurant in town, chances are that even in a recession, business would be pretty good. People would be flocking to you and you wouldn’t have to do much, if anything, to drive business.