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| Dear Friend,
I could've sworn that there was a hospital here last week.
Physicians are shocked to hear that their hospital “partner” in their ambulatory surgery center is shifting an entire service line, say, GI, from their facility to another, hospital-owned facility across town. Oops, there goes 50% of the cases in 62% of profitability.
But what if a large acute care hospital owned by a health care giant shifts the entire hospital away leaving only the emergency room and, one would suppose, a ginormous parking lot? How do you feel if you’d spent decades building a hospital-based practice at the facility or an office-based practice across the street in that new medical building, you know, the one with a 7 year lease you just signed last March?
If you can’t close your eyes and imagine that nightmare, you might try asking the physicians impacted by HCA’s announcement that they’ll soon stop providing all inpatient care at their 264 bed Plantation General Hospital in Plantation, FL, and will convert the large facility in an emergency room. Just like in the ASC example attached and above, HCA is shifting all of the hospital business to a facility 6 miles away.
Pick your partners wisely. Spread your risk among opportunities.
Sure, there’s strength in associating with a giant, but the giant doesn’t give a shit about you.
Is it trite to say “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket?” Maybe it is, but it’s still a stupid thing to do.
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| | | Business Life in the Time of Coronavirus Mini-Series
The coronavirus crisis caused a short term economic crisis for many medical groups. Our mini-series shows you the way out. Plus, many of the concepts discussed are applicable during both good times and bad.
[If you haven't already seen them, follow this link to watch our entire series.] |
| | Watch Tuesday's video here, or just keep reading below for a revised, more polished transcript:
When I was a kid, my dad used to let me sit on his lap and steer the car while he was driving down the road. We’re not talking just around the block, we’re talking miles. I couldn’t touch the pedals; I was five or six years old, but I was sure doing the steering.
It occurs to me that that same thing goes on within many medical groups. There’s someone who’s supposed to be doing the driving, the president of the group, say, or a managing partner.
But instead of actually doing the driving, that "leader" allows somebody else to grab onto the wheel of the group and point them in a different direction.
Bad idea.
What if my father wanted to go left and I wanted to go right? We probably would have gone somewhere in the middle. The car would have crashed and burned.
Many groups today have two drivers: The person who’s supposed to be driving and the person in the passenger seat. Or even worse, someone in the back seat who’s reaching all the way from there to the steering wheel.
Where's the group’s going? Who knows?
Don’t allow backseat drivers. If your group has a board, they establish broad policy. But someone must be in charge, and that someone must have the power to make decisions, and that someone can’t make decisions by running a constant consensus contest.
If you’re supposed to be driving your group, grab the wheel, put your feet on the pedals, and go.
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| | How to Deploy the Secret Sauce of Opportunistic Strategy
Webinar On Demand
They say that COVID-19 has changed the world, creating the "new normal." Many of your colleagues and many hospital administrators are running scared.
Others, leaders like you, know that crisis means opportunity.
Let me provide you with the strategic tools and insights that you need in order to seize opportunities, whether they’re in the context of your current business relationships, the expansion of your business activities, or the creation of new ventures.
You will learn:
•Defense as a defective default: It’s necessary, but not sufficient.
•Exploiting weakness: Drop the guilt and identify opportunity.
•Flat line negotiation is fatal: Understand its myths and limitations.
•Negotiation reality: Learn to identify and deploy on multiple planes to affect the outcome.
•Maneuver: Harness the power of maneuver, both in overall strategy and in specific negotiation strategy.
Others see a crisis and freeze in fear. Learn how to see the opportunities and obtain the tools to increase your odds of obtaining them.
The price to attend is $479. The cost of not attending is astronomical. |
| | | Wednesday - Criminals Go Phishing in Florida and Catch Unsuspecting Medical Group - Medical Group Minute
Watch the video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript:
You don’t have to have read any Hemingway or have had an uncle with a taxidermied marlin on the wall of his den to know about fishing for big ones.
And you don’t have to know very much at all to know about phishing for big ones. In fact, all you need to know about that thrilling online “sport” is encapsulated in the following story.
In accordance with its obligations under federal and state law, Orlando Family Physicians, LLC, announced earlier this year that an unauthorized person, that is, a criminal, gained access to the email account of one of the practice’s employees through a phishing email. Eventually, the unauthorized access spread to a total of four employee email accounts.
Although the practice announced that it is unaware of any misuse of the personal information about patients or other individuals, the following types of personal information were present, not necessarily all for any single person: name; demographic information; health information, including diagnoses, providers and prescriptions; health insurance information, including legacy Medicare beneficiary number derived from the individual’s Social Security number or other subscriber identification number; medical record number; patient account number; and passport number.
Several lessons can be drawn from the event:
- Although the details of the practice’s operation are unknown, the breath of information that was exposed by way of the attack is shocking. What is all of that information doing within email accounts? Where is your patients’ PHI stored, and where is it, really?
- Orlando Family Physicians discovered the breach and reacted within days. How quickly might you discover a similar breach? What processes do you have in place? What active security and privacy policies have you not only documented, but put into place? How long ago? When were they last revisited and revised?
- That shiny object dangling in front of your eyes might not be the Mercedes S-Class or that Patek Philippe you’ve always wanted. It might be a hook. Don’t open wide, unless it’s to call me to discuss how to avoid being caught with, well, to mix metaphors, your pants down.
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| | | Listen to the podcast here, or just keep reading for the transcript.
ASCs can be great investments for physicians. Oh, as long as they are real.
But if all they are are rainbows, unicorns, and clear blue sky, then you’d better stay away.
The problem, of course, is telling the difference.
Some seem to have a hard time doing so.
Late last month, three members of a family, the promoters of a fake surgery center scheme, pleaded guilty for their roles in defrauding investors.
But wait, the story gets better. The three initially settled a civil suit brought by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities that they defrauded 26 investors in an ASC scam. How much money they took is unclear, but the facility itself was never built. The trio agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle, $4 million of which was in investor restitution.
No sooner than the ink dried on the settlement, the family then conned 15 of the same investors out of $3 million in a second scam!
This time, the scamsters were charged criminally and, eventually, pleaded guilty. Two are facing years behind bars and one is to receive probation.
One thing’s for sure, their ASC has a 0% infection rate. Or, maybe it’s 100%. I guess it all depends on what exactly we’re measuring.
Simply warning you to do due diligence in connection with any ASC investment seems trite, but this case, which is humorous only because neither you nor I was one of the conned investors, illustrates why it’s not.
You might say it’s anecdotal, but in my practice I’ve seen multiple forms of ASC scams, from fake surgeries and fake patients, to patients who had surgery but didn’t require it, to surgery center promoters who, as did the defendants in the above scam, used surgery center proceeds to pay for items for their personal use.
The bottom line for you, as an ASC investor, is to carefully investigate the deal, and its promoters, on the way in, and on a periodic basis after the investment is made.
If you don’t, then don’t be surprised that some of the investment is sitting in the promoter’s garage. It’s that red Ferrari F430 Spider parked next to the blue Bentley Continental GTC Speed. |
| | | Calibrate Your Compass
Read our exclusive RedPaper to guide you through this evolving situation.
The coronavirus crisis caused a short-term economic crisis for many medical groups. Our RedPaper shows you the way out. Plus, many of the concepts discussed are applicable during both good times and bad.
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| | Help Us Help You With Helpful Content
What tailored content would you most like to see during this
time? How can we focus on solutions to your most pressing strategic concerns?
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| | | | We all hear, and most of us say, that the pace of change in healthcare is quickening. That means that the pace of required decision-making is increasing, too. Unless, that is, you want to take the “default” route. That’s the one is which you let someone else make the decisions that impact you; you’re just along for the ride. Of course, playing a bit part in scripting your own future isn’t the smart route to stardom. But despite your own best intentions, perhaps it’s your medical group’s governance structure that’s holding you back.
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| In fact, it’s very likely that the problem is systemic. The Medical Group Governance Matrix introduces a simple four-quadrant diagnostic tool to help you find out. It then shows you how to use that tool to build your better, more profitable future. Get your free copy Free.
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| | | | Whenever you're ready, here are 4 ways I can help you and your business:
1. Download a copy of The Success Prescription. My book, The Success Prescription provides you with a framework for thinking about your success. Download a copy of The Success Prescription here.
2. Be a guest on “Wisdom. Applied. Podcast.” Although most of my podcasts involve me addressing an important point for your success, I’m always looking for guests who’d like to be interviewed about their personal and professional achievements and the lessons learned. Email me if you’re interested in participating.
3. Book me to speak to your group or organization. I’ve spoken at dozens of medical group, healthcare organization, university-sponsored, and private events on many topics such as The Impending Death of Hospitals, the strategic use of OIG Advisory Opinions, medical group governance, and succeeding at negotiations. For more information about a custom presentation for you, drop us a line.
4. If You’re Not Yet a Client, Engage Me to Represent You. If you’re interested in increasing your profit and managing your risk of loss, email me to connect directly. |
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