“We’re screwed. The hospital won’t renew our contract.”
“My boss says that if I don’t take a 10% cut, she’ll have to find another associate.”
Medical groups and individual physicians often complain about the hand they’ve been dealt. They seek a strategy to deal with it. In some cases that strategy exists. In others they have waited too long before seeking help.
But what they generally don’t realize is that there are other grand strategies.
Instead of seeking a way to deal with the situation at hand, that is, the solution to the game you’ve been playing, you should consider directing energy toward changing the entire game.
There are examples of this all around, both in healthcare and outside of it. For example: Dermatology practices that have become medical spas. Anesthesia groups formerly trapped by hospital contracts have become larger players choosing which hospital contract to consider. Single specialty practices have become multi-specialty. OB-GYN practices have become women’s health centers.
Adjust your thinking: It’s your deck of cards. If you don’t like the game you’re playing, pick it up, go home, and find a new way to deal it out.
