Frank A. Cappiello; MBA

About:

Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors [second edition] 

fp-book3

Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors is essentially a “how-to book” on finance, financial planning and related topics for healthcare providers. 

Fortunately for patients, medicine requires a high degree of professional training, both in terms of science and technology. Unfortunately for providers, it affords little time for acquiring medical practice management skills, or learning about the financial aspects of business or investment planning. 

More to the point, this is an unusual textbook on financial planning for two reasons:

  1. First, it is a detailed guide for physician’s seeking the complex road to success and profit in the confusing healthcare industrial complex.  Rarely does one see such clarity of presentation, without the usual jargon that often discourages those trying to learn such a foreign and forbidding subject, as finance.  
  2. Second, the subject matter is focused for medical providers who work in one of the fastest growing industries in the United States.

The contributors hope that by integrating both disciplines of finance and medical management, they will help foster affordable and profitable healthcare for our nation, which is so entrepreneurial, yet aging. I

In my thirty-five years on Wall Street, I have observed that physicians are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to anything regarding finance. 

Most medical professionals have enough on their mind practicing their specialty and keeping up with healthcare technology and practice trends, that planning for their financial future is often forgotten. 

Financial planning and good investment practices require a solid background of how companies work in the “real world”, and an awareness of how they function within the economy. These economic essentials are vital to understanding business, as principles like budgeting, risk management, cash flow analysis, fiscal benchmarking and rudimentary accounting are presented in this book. 

Furthermore, the necessity of keeping up with state and federal insurance legislation, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and other complex managed care contracting issues, places a continual burden on the individual practitioner, group or medical network seeking to stay abreast of current developments.  

But, the text focuses on financial planning and how the healthcare professional can increase personal knowledge and skills in this area. The coverage is both broad and yet detailed, ranging from basic macroeconomic factors that affect our national economy, such as the Gross Domestic Product (a single figure that summarize the business activity of the US), to the more mundane activities of maintaining cash flow, tax reduction strategies, home mortgages and even correcting credit card reporting errors. 

More sophisticated topics include: debt and equity investment vehicles, derivatives, mutual fund and hedge fund investing, portfolio management and risk analysis, and the new laws on tax, retirement and estate planning.

The book rightly concludes with practice succession planning for doctors, and begins with a chapter on the psychological meaning of money itself.

It seems to me that all those in healthcare are well-served by reading this book with its format and step-by-step setup process for financial success, in terms of starting and ultimately surviving in a complicated business full of pitfalls and misinformation.  

Most useful will be the extremely detailed table of contents that allows the user to quickly pinpoint an area of interest, and get started answering a problem. 

Simply put, my recommendation is to read: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors, and “reap”

Frank A. Cappiello; MBA
President, McCullough, Andrews & Cappiello, Inc
10751 Falls Road Suite 250
Lutherville, MD  21093
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Finance
Loyola College, Maryland

Former Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser Guest and Host

Conclusion

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Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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Medical Management Services Organizations

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Understanding MSOs

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]dem23 

Most medical practice management services organizations [MSOs] for doctors are organized as IPAs.

Under such plans, doctors make the rules, regulations and medical care guidelines while MSO executives (MBAs, CPAs, CFAs, PhDs and JDs) administer those policies. Centralized data is collected and the organization is responsible for utilization review, quality control, and eligibility verification and payment. 

Definition 

The MSO is more of a broker, who works for the physicians in the plan, marketing, selling and running it on a daily basis. This leaves the MD’s unfettered to provide patient care; for a price that is typically 10-18% of net patient revenues, per month. 

Practitioner Candidates? 

A medical practitioner may be a candidate for a MSO organization if s/he possesses most of the following characteristics: 

  • excellent medical education,
  • good business background,
  • honed management and leadership skills,
  • practices in a large multi-doctor group with rising net income,
  • uses current HIT systems,
  • has gross margins exceeding fifty percent,
  • provides ancillary services such as a wound care or ambulatory surgery center,
  • is under 45 years of age, and;
  • desirous of practicing medicine in the future.  

Assessment 

Finally, the provider should have some business savvy and practice in an area with relatively weak MCO market penetration.  

Any provider should also consider joining a MSO if his future professional outlook is optimistic and positive.

Conclusion

Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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Managed Medical Care Contract Risks

More than Malpractice Liability

By Dr. Charles F. Fenton III; Esq 

 

Attorneys are becoming more aggressive in suing HMOs and other managed care companies.  

A Review 

Historic bars to such suits are declining simultaneously with recent Federal ERISA protection erosion. The upshot is that more litigation against managed care companies, their affiliates, and their health care providers are likely.  

Doctor Awareness 

The health care provider needs to be aware of these trends, needs to evaluate his/her own situation, and may need to take certain steps to limit these new evolving risks and potential liabilities. 

For example, the usual method of protection for the practicing physician, the use of the corporate form of business, is usually no benefit when signing managed care contracts.

Most managed care companies credential the individual physician and hence require that the individual physician and not the professional corporation sign the contract.  

Assessment 

This may put all of the physician’s personal assets at risk! 

Conclusion 

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