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| | Dear Friend,
Here's how you can profit from a closed hospital.
Almost every day, the story repeats itself. Another bankrupt or closed or closing hospital. Often the infected facility is rural. But sometimes it’s not.
Recently two such stories caught my attention.
The first of the infected hospitals is limping along and about to close. It’s located in a rural community. It’s actively looking for proposals from someone who can take it over.
The second is a closed facility. It’s issued an RFP, looking for proposals from buyers to, they hope, reopen the place as a hospital (probably a bad idea), or to take it over and convert it another sort of healthcare facility – which is a tremendous idea, if, and it’s a big if, the situation is right.
For example, what’s the population in the community? What are the demographics? How many physicians are there? How many procedures are those physicians performing? Can those procedures be performed at a surgery center? And so on.
My point is that while the notion that I call The Impending Death of Hospitals (download my complimentary book by that name here) is impacting hospitals of all sizes (certainly small hospitals very hard), some of their physical shells are built out close enough to the specifications for another type of healthcare facility. That makes a conversion a very manageable project, whether it’s a conversion for a single facility or for a multi-facility “medical mall.”
If this interests you, start paying attention to the news. You’re going to see a lot more of these types of properties becoming available. Then, let’s talk about what’s involved its conversion to a facility owned by you.
It’s not a question of how to do it yourself, it’s knowing who can do it for you and with you.
Hope to hear from you soon. |
| | Tuesday - Success in Motion Video: Can You Make it Any More Difficult for Your Patients to Pay You?
Watch Tuesday's video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript: |
| | A couple of weeks ago, I went to the dermatologist.
It took some time for the practice to submit the charges to my carrier, to make the required contractual adjustment, and to send me my bill.
When I received the bill, it showed the office's phone number, and even the extension to dial, so that I could pay over the phone. I dialed the phone number and, as soon as the system (not a real person) answered, keyed in the extension number. Oops, that extension doesn’t exist.
I called back again and listened to the entire auto attendant recording. There it was, “Press 3 for billing issues.” I guessed that payment is a billing issue, although “payment” would have been a bit more clear. I pushed 3.
Let's skip the entire story because you don’t have enough time to read it today.
Suffice it to say that after calling seven times the first day, no one had answered extension 3. The call just made a loop. A voicemail loop, ringing and ringing and then back to the initial greeting. So, I set the bill aside.
A few days later, I tried again. The same thing happened.
Yesterday, finally, after four more tries, someone picked up the phone. I told her that I was calling to pay. I told her that I’d called multiple times over multiple days and couldn't get through or even leave a message. The response from the practice employee? “I’ve been busy.”
Who’s collecting your money?
The majority of my readers are leaders of large hospital-based groups, extremely entrepreneurial physicians, and the owners of entrepreneurial facilities. Some have outsourced their billing and collection. Some have a person right there in the office.
But, have you really thought about whether those people tasked with making collections actually make it easy for your patients to pay?
When you’re complaining about collecting copays and deductibles, is it really the fact that patients aren’t paying you? Or is it the fact that you’ve made it difficult for patients to pay you?
Do a self-audit. Find out what’s up. Hire a "secret shopper." Even try to pay your own bill.
See what happens.
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| | Wednesday - Medical Group Minute Video:What Are The Standard Hospital Complaints? Rebroadcast
Watch the video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript:
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| When things begin to go awry between hospitals and contracted medical groups, these are the sort of complaints that hospitals levy:
1. Your group has no leadership.
2. Your group is dysfunctional.
3. We pay you too high of a stipend – “You’re too expensive.”
4. There’s no/poor alignment between your group and the hospital’s interests.
5. Your group is not responsive to our valid complaints.
6. Your group never creates new value for the hospital (you’re not proactive).
7. Your group refuses to change with the times.
And, it’s even worse than that, in that these same issues are the “selling points” that aggressive groups of all sorts – not just the true groups, but also contract management companies and staffing services – use to try to disrupt the relationship between the hospital and the incumbent group.
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| | Thursday - Podcast: Augmented Unreality and Medical Group Success |
| Listen to the podcast here, or just keep reading for the transcript
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 others 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, they needed to have Siegfried and Roy there for every single performance.
Compare that with the Blue Man Group, in which there are the original “Blue Men” who came up with the concept but 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 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 the 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. Take time to sit back, open your eyes, and look at the bigger picture.
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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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