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Dear Friend,
What's real?
Last year, while having dinner at a conference, I sat across from two women - I’ll give a quick shout-out to Judy and Devona without identifying them by their last names, in case they don’t want the shout-out.
We were talking about the people that we had separately observed at concerts who, instead of actually watching the concert, were filming the concert on their phones. In essence, they weren’t watching the concert live, they were watching a video screen of the concert.
Is that even watching a concert live? I’m not sure. It doesn’t seem to be. You’re focusing your experience on a screen instead of everything that’s going on around you.
Which makes me wonder if that same phenomenon of focusing on a very narrow object or viewpoint doesn’t also impact many in healthcare.
Someone else, not at that dinner, was commenting on the difference between the old Siegfried and Roy act in Las Vegas, which required Siegfried and Roy. Even though they had around 400 employees, Siegfried and Roy had to be there for every single performance. No Sigfried or no Roy, no performance. (And, a tiger actually took care of that.)
Compare that with the Blue Man Group, in which there are the original "Blue Men” who came up with the concept but who no longer need to perform: They have multiple touring groups of performing "Blue Men.”
Many people in healthcare, certainly many physicians, are hands-on like Siegfried and Roy. They’re not the equivalent of Blue Men, working only on the high-value concepts and then supervising those who carry out the work.
The problem with being so personally caught up in the delivery of the performance is that you lose sight of many of the elements around yourself, elements that impact your business. The classic example of this is medical group leaders who are shocked when their hospital contract goes out to bid via RFP: after all, they exclaim, "we deliver first class medical care."
Avoid the problem of the concert-goers who focus so intently on their cell phone screens, focusing on what they think is reality, but all the while ignoring reality.
Take time to sit back, open your eyes, and look at the bigger picture.
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| | Tuesday - Success in Motion Video: What Is Your Medical Group's Purpose?
Watch Tuesday's video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript: |
| | What is your group’s guiding principle? Does it need one?
What is the compass that steers your group’s decisions?
Is it that you’re simply a collection of individuals and that whatever some of the individuals want to do is fine? Does the "group" simply exist to coordinate scheduling, perhaps run an office, or do some billing and collection?
Or is there a purpose behind your practice? A purpose through which you run your business decisions?
Unless your group has a purpose, every decision is just going to be made on the fly. It’s just going to be an off-the-cuff, “what’s best right now” . . . but might not be best later.
How do you gauge whether opportunities are good? How do you gauge which ones to reject?
What do you base your decisions on? Just the economics as presented today, which may not be the economics tomorrow?
Every group has a set of guiding principles whether they know it or not. Some are just so jumbled that they make no sense.
Start examining what your guiding principles are. Then start building them out into a set of rules that help you develop a decision-making process.
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| | | Wednesday - Medical Group Minute Video: News Flash - Physician Dissatisfaction Highest Among Those Employed by Hospitals and Investor-Owned Entities
Watch the video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript:
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| Back in November, I mentioned the increase in the physician dissatisfaction index, which now tops out at 3.95 out of a possible 5. See my Success in Motion video, Physician Misery Index Jumps Up Due To Dissatisfaction.
The survey, conducted annually by the data technology firm Geneia, found that 87% of surveyed physicians say that it’s increasingly harder to spend time in an honest, engaged patient encounter, and that they’re personally at risk of burnout.
Drilling down into the data reveals some particularly interesting details that appear to counter the sales pitch used by hospitals and by corporate/investor-owned healthcare vehicles alike when courting practice acquisitions: "You just practice medicine and we'll do everything else. After all, you didn't go into medicine to run a business."
Close to all (91%) of hospital or corporate employed physicians responding to the survey reported diminished joy in their jobs due to increased demand for data reporting. That level of dissatisfaction far outpaces that of physicians working independently or with true physician-owned practices.
Practice sales make sense some of the time for some physicians. The rest of the time, they don't.
It's important that you vet any combination for far more than sales price unless you're taking the money and running.
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| | Thursday - Podcast: Why You Must Understand the Intersection Of Incentives And Negotiation Strategy |
| Listen to the podcast here, or just keep reading for the transcript
When most medical group leaders think about incentives, it’s usually in the context of structuring performance incentives for the group's physicians, or in the context of incentives that flow to the group itself pursuant to contracts with payors or facilities.
But, the issue of incentives is important in an entirely different way: the incentives that impact the behavior and thinking of the individual or individuals on the other side of a negotiation, whether that negotiation is a major contractual negotiation, for example, for a system wide anesthesiology or radiology exclusive contract, or whether that negotiation is simply for some position in the context of an already existing relationship.
If you understand the incentive then you’ll understand the person and why he or she is acting the way they are. In a very real way, incentives are the “super-drug” that controls human behavior.
Many mistakenly believe that preparing for negotiation, whether in the guise of a formal negotiation session or a day-to-day meeting, is restricted to boning up on the points you want to push for, to determining your "must haves" and your "like to haves," and so on.
But to be fully prepared, you need to spend hours and hours, sometimes even weeks, to suss out the details that underlie incentives that drive both opposite party and the people negotiating for it.
Incentives are often at the root of what appears to be wacky positions and whacky decisions. It explains why a CEO will scuttle a favorable deal for her employer when it's at odds with the metrics behind her bonus. It explains deals based on a short term world view versus a long term one. It explains border line (and over the border line illegal) behavior.
Understand the incentives to understand your contracting opposite and the people behind it.
Then, once you do, turn the microscope around and see whether the incentives driving your negotiating team are at odds with your own medical group's best interests.
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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 here.
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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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