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Avoiding the “Managed Care Ripple Effect”

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™

The healthcare industrial complex represents a large and diverse industry, and the livelihood of other synergistic professionals who advise doctors depend on it as well. These include CPAs, tax specialists and Enrolled Agents [EAs] who themselves wish to avoid the collateral ripple effects of the current healthcare debacle.

Unappreciated CPAs Working Diligently

The nation’s 330,000 or so CPAs know little about the new healthcare dynamics and managerial accounting mechanics. Many often feel as though they are laboring away in obscurity and that their doctor clients do not appreciate what they do or how hard they work.

If you are a CPA, your workweek is ridiculously long, especially January through April; and you often deliver bad news to your clients. You do not earn a generous salary, but you do receive their ire for your efforts.

The Epiphany

So, you begin to scratch your head and ponder, quietly at first, and then out loud. Perhaps managing the medical practice(s) of a physician, or providing consulting services to other medical professional is a business and financial planning opportunity that won’t require a new client base? You can keep your accounting practice during the first four months of the year, and supplement your income with something that may actually earn more than you are making now. 

A light then goes off in your head, epiphany!  Enter the CPA/PFS designation, exhorting doctor clients to “never underestimate the value”, through an additional 750 hours of financial planning experience and a six-hour comprehensive examination.

New Wave Terms and Definitions

However, new-wave terms such as capitated medicine; per member-per month fixed fees; payment withholds; activity based costing with CPT codes; utilization and acuity rates; and other investment, business and economic nomenclature is likely quite unfamiliar to you.

Furthermore, you may not have the temperament to be a fiduciary, responsible for the financial affairs of others. Then you realize that MBAs and actuaries may actually be the new denizens of the healthcare bean counting and practice management scene. Rather than present numerics of the historic past, they make logical and mathematical inferences about the future. Slowly, you realize that this has occurred because these professionals are proactive, not reactive, as the accounting profession is loosing its premier advisory position within the medical profession.

And, since some doctors are paid a fixed fee amount, regardless of the number of services performed, these futuristic projections are the most important accounting numbers in healthcare today.

Assessment

In fact, your research suggests that as a result, there are now several accountant managers and broker-dealers on the investment scene, as well as an increasing number of accounting-financial planning firms, such as Miller Ray & Houser Business Advisors and CPAs, in Atlanta, who set up a separate investment advisory firm to which they refer clients. 

Moreover, the AICPA is providing encouragement to CPAs who wish to provide more professional client services by building a financial planning practice for the new millennium.

Disclaimer: Dr. Marcinko, a member of the Microsoft accounting network, is Founder of the Certified Medial Planner™ program for all fiduciary advisors in health economics, finance and medical practice management www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Conclusion

Your thoughts are appreciated; please opine?

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

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

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Filed under: "Advisors Only", Accounting, Book Reviews, Career Development, Financial Planning, Health Economics, Op-Editorials, Research & Development | Tagged: Certified Medical Planner™ |