If you’re a longtime reader, you know that my view is that almost all of the instances of a medical group’s organization and operation are related . . . that either they are managed in order to achieve success or they are treated silo-like (or even ignored), resulting in stagnation and failure.
In an educational setting (not a client engagement), I was asked whether a physician member of a group, a partner, could opt out of a new managed care agreement being entered into by the group. I was told that the carrier didn’t care if he did.
I found the question to be rather funny. The real question is not one of managed care contracting; after all the affected carrier consented. Rather, the real question is whether the group cares that it is slowly ceasing to be a group.
Letting each partner write his or her terms of partnership is not a long-term strategy for success, it’s a short-term strategy for failure.
Maybe your group thinks the partner’s question was funny, too. But ask yourself how many other “special deals” or “it’s just this once” you’ve let your partners cut, or, worse yet, the group has cut for them.
