Go “Out-of-Box” – OR – Go Employee

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA CMP™ www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

There are more than 950,000 physicians in the United States. Yet, the brutal supply and demand, and demographic calculus of the matter is that there are just too many aging patients chasing too few doctors. Compensation and reimbursement is plummeting as Uncle Sam becomes the payer-of-choice for more than 52% of us. More so, going forward with the PP-ACA OR, perhaps not so much after the Trump election.

Furthermore, many large health care corporations, hospitals, and clinical and medical practices have not been market responsive to this change. Some physicians with top-down business models did not recognize the changing health care ecosystem or participatory medicine climate. Change is not inherent in the DNA of traditionalists. These entities and practitioners represented a rigid or “used-to-be” mentality, not a flexible or “want-to-be” mindset.

Yet today’s physicians and emerging Health 2.0 initiatives must possess a market nimbleness that cannot be recreated in a command-controlled or collectivist environment. Going forward, it is not difficult to imagine the following rules for the new virtual medical culture, and young physicians of the modern era.

A. Rule 1

Forget about large office suites, surgery centers, fancy equipment, larger hospitals, and the bricks and mortar that comprised traditional medical practices. One doctor with a great idea, good bedside manners, or competitive advantage can outfox a slew of insurance companies, Certified Public Accountants, or the Associate Management Accountant, while still serving patients and making money. It is now a unit-of-one economy where “ME Inc.,” is the standard. Physicians must maneuver for advantages that boost their standing and credibility among patients, peers, and payers.

Examples include patient satisfaction surveys, outcomes research analysis, evidence-based-medicine, direct reimbursement compensation, physician economic credentialing, and true patient-centric medicine. Physicians should realize the power of networking, vertical integration, and the establishment of virtual offices that come together to treat a patient and then disband when a successful outcome is achieved. Job security is earned with more successful outcomes; not a magnificent office suite or onsite presence.

B. Rule 2

Challenge conventional wisdom, think outside the traditional box, recapture your dreams and ambitions, disregard conventional gurus, and work harder than you have ever worked before. Remember the old saying, “if everyone is thinking alike, then nobody is thinking.” Do traditionalists or collective health care reform advocates react rationally or irrationally?

For example, some health care competition and career thought-leaders, such as Shirley Svorny, PhD, a professor of economics and chair of the Department of Economics at California State University, Northridge, wonder if a medical degree is a barrier—rather than enabler—of affordable health care. An expert on the regulation of health care professionals, including medical professional licensing, she has participated in health policy summits organized by Cato and the Texas Public Policy Foundation. She argues that licensure not only fails to protect consumers from incompetent physicians, but, by raising barriers to entry, makes health care more expensive and less accessible.

Institutional oversight and a sophisticated network of private accrediting and certification organizations, all motivated by the need to protect reputations and avoid legal liability, offer whatever consumer protections exist today.

C. Rule 3

Differentiate yourself among your health care peers. Do or learn something new and unknown by your competitors. Market your accomplishments and let the world know. Be a non-conformist. Conformity is an operational standard and a straitjacket on creativity. Doctors must create and innovate, not blindly follow entrenched medical societies into oblivion.

For example, the establishment of virtual medical schools and hospitals, where students, nurses, and doctors learn and practice their art on cyber entities that look and feel like real patients, can be generated electronically through the wonders of virtual reality units.

D. Rule 4

Realize that the present situation is not necessarily the future. Attempt to see the future and discern your place in it. Master the art of quick change with fast, but informed decision making. Do what you love, disregard what you do not, and let the fates have their way with you.

Assessment

I receive a couple of phone calls each month from young doctors on this topic. I ask them to decide if they are of the philosophical ilk to adhere to the above rules; or become another conformist and go along … to get along? In other words, get fly!

Or, become an employed, or government doctor.  Just remember … the entity that gives you a job, can also take it away.

Sample fly: http://crossoverhealth.com/

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Conclusion

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Filed under: Career Development, CMP Program, Ethics, iMBA, Inc., Practice Management, Research & Development, Touring with Marcinko | Tagged: CMP, Department of Economics at California State University, Dr. David Edward Marcinko, employed physicians, employee doctors, health 2.0, http://crossoverhealth.com/, My New Medical Practice Rules for Young Physicians, Shirley Svorny, Texas Public Policy Foundation, www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org | 7 Comments »