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| Dear Friend,
I read a blog post by a guy who sells packaged compliance plans for physicians and healthcare facilities. He’s not a lawyer, but I believe he was formerly with the OIG and, upon retirement, started the business.
His post made me wonder whether the existence of form compliance plans (or, indeed, the concept of compliance plans in general) is bad for actual compliance.
I think that many people believe that compliance is a plan that can be bought. They’ve either missed the point or were misled. Compliance isn’t the purchase of a plan or even the adoption of a plan; compliance is an ongoing process, not a document or even a set point in time.
The process not only involves you vetting proposed arrangements in real time, but that you also regularly revisit arrangements that are in place to see if a compliance problem was missed or has arisen. The process as applied to ongoing operations can be accomplished using a “red team” to conduct what is essentially a mock government investigation.
Here’s your easy reference tool: Compliance isn’t the plan, compliance is the process.
If what you have is a plan without a process, you’re missing the mark.
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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:
Let’s talk about pacing around negotiation.
Just like in a car, we can go fast and slow. We can, depending on the car, quickly change the pace at which we’re moving forward. Or if we have good brakes, we can quickly change how fast we are stopping. And so on.
The same thing applies to negotiation.
It's a mistake to think that negotiation simply progresses over a number of equally spaced steps along some path from the first exchange to the signing of a document. It doesn’t.
Knowing how to change the pace of a deal depends largely on how much information you have about the other side and what their own pressures are.
For example, if you knew that there was a deadline for the renewal of a deal, or some pressure on the person with whom you’re negotiating (e.g., they are going on vacation), you could play against their timeline. You should also consider protecting information about your own timeline pressures.
But pacing involves more than just time pressure; it's also the notion of knowing when to speed up, and when to slow down. The ability to change pace is an advantage that smaller organizations have against larger ones, because they can make decisions more quickly.
You have objectives you want to accomplish in a negotiation. Start thinking, internally to your organization, how quickly to engage, when to slow down and when to speed up, when to push for an answer, and when to pretend that you don’t have a care in the world, that it doesn’t matter if you do the deal, or not. |
| | 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 - Taken the Wrong Job? - Medical Group Minute
Watch the video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript:
I knew that I had taken the wrong job after my first day at the firm.
More than thirty years have passed, so now I can laugh about it. But back then, I thought I was screwed.
The majority of the partners were probably geniuses, but they had little, if any human characteristics.
Perhaps they were cyborgs. I’m really not sure.
Have you made this same mistake? Either by taking a job with idiot savants or, even worse yet, by building a medical group comprised of them?
The rationalization is that are “great doctors.” Or that they have CVs as thick as the phone book. But they destroy your group’s relationships with “customers” of all stripes: referral sources, patients, hospitals, coworkers.
It’s like a great mechanic who smokes in your car. I had one once and never went back.
My old bosses made another mistake. They pissed off clients and didn’t do anything to protect their business.
Watch out who you work for. If they’re jerks, plan on how to obtain the benefit they are unknowingly passing along to you.
If you’re a group leader, watch out for who you hire. Take precautions that they don’t destroy your practice’s relationships. Have the contractual ability to discipline and terminate.
Me, I stayed long enough not to damage my resume and then began looking for a new job. The cyborgs found out and fired me before I could give notice. I took a huge book of business with me to my new firm. To this day, I am grateful to them.
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| | | Listen to the podcast here, or just keep reading for the transcript.
Whether you are an anesthesiologist, radiologist, pathologist or emergency medicine physician, picture a meeting of your national specialty association. Chances are great that you'd hear voluminous hallway chatter bemoaning more work and lower collections, what I call an increasing Workload-Reimbursement Gap™.
Chances are also great that you would hear next to nothing in the symposium presentations of any practical value in terms of bettering your economic circumstances.
There are two tragedies at play here, both of which scream the need for, at least on a metaphorical level if not actually, some type of group therapy:
First, the situation is symptomatic of incredibly low self-esteem: "They are doing it to us and we have no power to change."
Second, the complaining is a self reinforcing loop: everyone is complaining to everyone else who then complains to everyone else. Everyone being equally miserable means that it must be all right that we ourselves are miserable.
It would be far healthier and more profitable to question the basis of the system itself: Why are physicians working much harder for less money? Why is it proper that there are so many regulatory burdens interfering with physicians' abilities to own and refer to facilities? Why is it improper to benefit from the provision of care (e.g., self referral) but not from the denial of care (e.g., leading to insurance company profits)?
Why, simply because you are in a so-called personal service business do you believe that service -- actually, the expropriation of your services -- takes precedence over your business? Why should the fact that you practice at a not-for-profit hospital mean that you are required to provide charity care? I'm not saying that you can't choose to donate your services, but we're talking about being required to make the "donation."
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| | | 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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