BOARD CERTIFICATION EXAM STUDY GUIDES Lower Extremity Trauma
[Click on Image to Enlarge]
ME-P Free Advertising Consultation
The “Medical Executive-Post” is about connecting doctors, health care executives and modern consulting advisors. It’s about free-enterprise, business, practice, policy, personal financial planning and wealth building capitalism. We have an attitude that’s independent, outspoken, intelligent and so Next-Gen; often edgy, usually controversial. And, our consultants “got fly”, just like U. Read it! Write it! Post it! “Medical Executive-Post”. Call or email us for your FREE advertising and sales consultation TODAY [770.448.0769]
Medical & Surgical e-Consent Forms
ePodiatryConsentForms.com
iMBA Inc., OFFICES
Suite #5901 Wilbanks Drive, Norcross, Georgia, 30092 USA [1.770.448.0769]. Our location is real and we are now virtually enabled to assist new long distance clients and out-of-town colleagues.
ME-P Publishing
SEEKING INDUSTRY INFO PARTNERS?
If you want the opportunity to work with leading health care industry insiders, innovators and watchers, the “ME-P” may be right for you? We are unbiased and operate at the nexus of theoretical and applied R&D. Collaborate with us and you’ll put your brand in front of a smart & tightly focused demographic; one at the forefront of our emerging healthcare free marketplace of informed and professional “movers and shakers.” Our Ad Rate Card is available upon request [770-448-0769].
There are a myriad of reasons for obtaining a Fair Market Value [FMV], Venture Capital [VC} and/or Investment Banking [IB] funding appraisal engagement:
Outright Selling-Buying
Partnership and Associate buy-in / buy-out
Mergers and Acquisitions
Organic growth tracking
Hospital integrations
Private and public reporting
Financing and Venture Capital
Estate and Tax Planning
And, there are many cautions, too. On July 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a draft update of its Merger Guidelines, which guides the regulatory agencies in their review of both mergers and acquisitions in evaluating compliance with federal antitrust laws.
The new Guidelines replace, amend, and consolidate the Vertical Merger Guidelines and Horizontal Merger Guidelines, which were published in 2020 and 2010, respectively.
Marcinko & Associates is financial guide. We help answer your questions in an empowering way. We educate and guide medical colleagues to understand their financial picture and to make better financial decisions. We strive to simplify everything, clear up confusion, and address specific needs and goals.
Simply put, we’re a financial services company on a mission to empower financial freedom for all healthcare professionals; only. We work with doctors, nurses, medical providers, individuals and all sizes of organizations to offer investment, wealth management and retirement solutions so everyone can have a clear and simple understanding of where their finances and career is today and where it is headed tomorrow.
Whatever your financial situation, we do not shame, criticize, or sell. We enrich, educate and empower. We work only with medical colleagues at every stage of their financial journey [students, interns, residents, practitioners, mid-career and mature physicians], through big life personal changes to annual employment reviews, in order to help them understand, invest, and protect their money and lifestyle.
Assess, develop, and align financial retirement and estate planning goals
Risk Management: Malpractice, home, life, medical, auto and personal indemnity
Life Insurance Need Reviews: whole, universal and term
Business, operations, HR, employment negotiations and medical practice management
Annuity Need Reviews: Indexed and Fixed [Pros and Cons].
***
***
At Marcinko & Associates we discuss specific needs and answer specific questions. We educate and make personalized recommendations that you are free to use, incorporate or disregard. Referrals to trusted specialists and strategic alliance partners then occur if – and as – needed [pro re nata].
Did you know that at MARCINKO & Associates, all medical colleagues throughout the United States may contact us when they are considering the sale, purchase, strategic operating improvement, merger, acquisition and/or other financial business or related personal financial planning transaction?
Our difference is “hard” knowledge and insider financial guidance that helps medical colleagues, nurses, private practitioners, clinics, ambulatory surgery, radiology and outpatient wound care centers realize their ultimate economic goals. This typically includes managerial and cost accounting, financial ratio analysis, fair market valuation business appraisals, business plan creation and personal financial planning.
Our “expert witness” business litigation support service and divorce mediation, arbitration, asset division, settlement and second opinion offerings are always available, as well.
And, our “soft” skill professional career guidance and mentoring center includes executive coaching, consulting and mentoring advisory programs for stressed, conflicted or burned-out physicians and medical practitioners.
Most importantly, our professional fees are reasonable and always transparent.
MARCINKO & Associates also serves universities, medical, business, graduate and nursing schools; physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and legal societies. This includes accountants, financial service providers, wealth and hedge fund managers, emerging entities, hospitals, CEOs and their BODs, the press, media and related organizations.
Financial benchmarking can assist healthcare managers and professional financial advisors in understanding the operational and financial status of their organization or practice.
The general process of financial benchmarking analysis may include three elements: (1) Historical subject benchmarking; (2) Benchmarking to industry norms; and, (3) Financial ratio analysis.
History
Historical subject benchmarking compares a healthcare organization’s most recent performance with its reported performance in the past in order to: examine performance over time; identify changes in performance within the organization (e.g., extraordinary and non-recurring events); and, to predict future performance.
As a form of internal benchmarking, historical subject benchmarking avoids issues such as: differences in data collection and use of measurement tools; and, benchmarking metrics that often cause problems in comparing two different organizations.
However, it is necessary to common size data in order to account for company differences over time that may skew results.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking to industry norms, analogous to Fong and colleagues’ concept of industry benchmarking, involves comparing internal company-specific data to survey data from other organizations within the same industry. This method of benchmarking provides the basis for comparing the subject entity to similar entities, with the purpose of identifying its relative strengths, weaknesses, and related measures of risk.
***
***
Financial Ratio Analysis
The process of benchmarking against industry averages or norms will typically involve the following steps:
Identification and selection of appropriate surveys to use as a benchmark, i.e., to compare with data from the organization of interest. This involves answering the question, “In which survey would this organization most likely be included?”;
If appropriate, re-categorization and adjustment of the organization’s revenue and expense accounts to optimize data compatibility with the selected survey’s structure and definitions (e.g., common sizing); and,
Calculation and articulation of observed differences of organization from the industry averages and norms, expressed either in terms of variance in ratio, dollar unit amounts, or percentages of variation.
Trends
Financial ratio analysis typically involves the calculation of ratios that are financial and operational measures representative of the financial status of an enterprise. These ratios are evaluated in terms of their relative comparison to generally established industry norms, which may be expressed as positive or negative trends for that industry sector. The ratios selected may function as several different measures of operating performance or financial condition of the subject entity.
The Selected Ratios
Common types of financial indicators that are measured by ratio analysis include:
Liquidity. Liquidity ratios measure the ability of an organization to meet cash obligations as they become due, i.e., to support operational goals. Ratios above the industry mean generally indicate that the organization is in an advantageous position to better support immediate goals. The current ratio, which quantifies the relationship between assets and liabilities, is an indicator of an organization’s ability to meet short-term obligations. Managers use this measure to determine how quickly assets are converted into cash.
Activity. Activity ratios, also called efficiency ratios, indicate how efficiently the organization utilizes its resources or assets, including cash, accounts receivable, salaries, inventory, property, plant, and equipment. Lower ratios may indicate an inefficient use of those assets.
Leverage.Leverage ratios, measured as the ratio of long-term debt to net fixed assets, are used to illustrate the proportion of funds, or capital, provided by shareholders (owners) and creditors to aid analysts in assessing the appropriateness of an organization’s current level of debt. When this ratio falls equal to or below the industry norm, the organization is typically not considered to be at significant risk.
Profitability. Indicates the overall net effect of managerial efficiency of the enterprise. To determine the profitability of the enterprise for benchmarking purposes, the analyst should first review and make adjustments to the owner(s) compensation, if appropriate. Adjustments for the market value of the “replacement cost” of the professional services provided by the owner are particularly important in the valuation of professional medical practices for the purpose of arriving at an ”economic level” of profit.
Data Homogeneity
The selection of financial ratios for analysis and comparison to the organization’s performance requires careful attention to the homogeneity of data. Benchmarking of intra-organizational data (i.e., internal benchmarking) typically proves to be less variable across several different measurement periods.
However, the use of data from external facilities for comparison may introduce variation in measurement methodology and procedure. In the latter case, use of a standard chart of accounts for the organization or recasting the organization’s data to a standard format can effectively facilitate an appropriate comparison of the organization’s operating performance and financial status data to survey results.
Operational benchmarking is used to target non-central work or business processes for improvement. It is conceptually similar to both process and performance benchmarking, but is generally classified by the application of the results, as opposed to what is being compared. Operational benchmarking studies tend to be smaller in scope than other types of benchmarking, but, like many other types of benchmarking, are limited by the degree to which the definitions and performance measures used by comparing entities differ. Common sizing is a technique used to reduce the variations in measures caused by differences (e.g., definition issues) between the organizations or processes being compared.
Common Sizing
Common sizing is a technique used to alter financial operating data prior to certain types of benchmarking analysis and may be useful for any type of benchmarking that requires the comparison of entities that differ on some level (e.g., scope of respective benchmarking measurements, definitions, business processes). This is done by expressing the data for differing entities in relative (i.e., comparable) terms.
Example:
For example, common sizing is often used to compare financial statements of the same company over different periods of time (e.g., historical subject benchmarking), or of several companies of differing sizes (e.g., benchmarking to industry norms). The latter type may be used for benchmarking an organization to another in its industry, to industry averages, or to the best performing agency in its industry. Some examples of common size measures utilized in healthcare include:
Percent of revenue or per unit produced, e.g., relative value unit (RVU);
Per provider, e.g., physician;
Per capacity measurement, e.g., per square foot; or,
Other standard units of comparison.
Assessment
As with any data, differences in how data is collected, stored, and analyzed over time or between different organizations may complicate the use of it at a later time. Accordingly, appropriate adjustments must be made to account for such differences and provide an accurate and reliable dataset for benchmarking.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
Posted on May 6, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
By National Council on Disability
The origins of managed care can be traced back to at least 1929, when Michael Shadid, a physician in Elk City, Oklahoma, established a health cooperative for farmers in a small community without medical specialists or a nearby general hospital. He sold shares to raise money to establish a local hospital and created an annual fee schedule to cover the costs of providing care. By 1934, 600 family memberships were supporting a staff that included Dr. Shadid, four newly recruited specialists, and a dentist. That same year, two Los Angeles physicians, Donald Ross and Clifford Loos, entered into a prepaid contract to provide comprehensive health services to 2,000 employees of a local water company
Development of Prepaid Health Plans
Other major prepaid group practice plans were initiated between 1930 and 1960, including the Group Health Association in Washington, DC, in 1937, the Kaiser-Permanente Medical Program in 1942, the Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in Seattle in 1947, the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York in New York City in 1947, and the Group Health Plan of Minneapolis in 1957. These plans encountered strong opposition from the medical establishment, but they also attracted a large number of enrollees.
Today, such prepaid health plans are commonly referred to as health maintenance organizations (HMOs). The term “health maintenance organization,” however, was not coined until 1970, with the aim of highlighting the importance that prepaid health plans assign to health promotion and prevention of illness. HMOs are what most Americans think of when the term “managed care” is used, even though other managed care models have emerged over the past 40 years.
Public Managed Care Plans
The enactment of the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 (P. L. 93-222) provided a major impetus to the expansion of managed health care. The legislation was proposed by the Nixon Administration in an attempt to restrain the growth of health care costs and also to preempt efforts by congressional Democrats to enact a universal health care plan. P. L. 93-222 authorized $375 million to assist in establishing and expanding HMOs, overrode state laws restricting the establishment of prepaid health plans, and required employers with 25 or more employees to offer an HMO option if they furnished health insurance coverage to their workers. The purpose of the legislation was to stimulate greater competition within health care markets by developing outpatient alternatives to expensive hospital-based treatment. Passage of this legislation also marked an important turning point in the U.S. health care industry because it introduced the concept of for-profit health care corporations to an industry long dominated by a not-for-profit business model.
In the decade following the passage of P. L. 93-222, enrollment in HMOs grew slowly. Stiff opposition from the medical profession led to the imposition of regulatory restrictions on HMO operations. But the continued, rapid growth in health care outlays forced government officials to look for new solutions. National health expenditures grew as a proportion of the overall gross national product (GNP) from 5.3 percent in 1960 to 9.5 percent in 1980. In response, Congress in 1972 authorized Medicare payments to free-standing ambulatory care clinics providing kidney dialysis to beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease. Over the following decade, the Federal Government authorized payments for more than 2,400 Medicare procedures performed on an outpatient basis.
Responding to the relaxed regulatory environment, physicians began to form group practices and open outpatient centers specializing in diagnostic imaging, wellness and fitness, rehabilitation, surgery, birthing, and other services previously provided exclusively in hospital settings. As a result, the number of outpatient clinics skyrocketed from 200 in 1983 to more than 1,500 in 1991, and the percentage of surgeries performed in hospitals was halved between 1980 (83.7%) and 1992.
The Influence of Medicare Prospective Payments
Health care costs, however, continued to spiral upward, consuming 10.8 percent of GNP by 1983. In an attempt to slow the growth rate, Congress in 1982 capped hospital reimbursement rates under the Medicare program and directed the secretary of HHS to develop a case mix methodology for reimbursing hospitals based on diagnosis-related groups (DRGs). As an incentive to the hospital industry, the legislation (the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (P. L. 97-248)) included a provision allowing hospitals to avoid a Medicare spending cap by reaching an agreement with HHS on implementing a prospective payment system (PPS) to replace the existing FFS system. Following months of intense negotiations involving federal officials and representatives of the hospital industry, the Reagan Administration unveiled a Medicare PPS. Under the new system, health conditions were divided into 468 DRGs, with a fixed hospital payment rate assigned to each group.
Once the DRG system was fully phased in, Medicare payments to hospitals stabilized. However, since DRGs applied to inpatient hospital services only, many hospitals, like many group medical practices, began to expand their outpatient services in order to offset revenues lost as a result of shorter hospital stays. Between 1983 and 1991, the percentage of hospitals with outpatient care departments grew from 50 percent to 87 percent. Hospital revenues derived from outpatient services doubled over the period, reaching 25 percent of all revenues by 1992
Since DRGs were applied exclusively to Medicare payments, hospitals began to shift unreimbursed costs to private health insurance plans. As a result, average per employee health plan premiums doubled between 1984 and 1991, rising from $1,645 to $3,605. With health insurance costs eroding profits, many employers took aggressive steps to control health care expenditures. Plan benefits were reduced. Employees were required to pay a larger share of health insurance premiums. More and more employers—especially large corporations—decided to pay employee health costs directly rather than purchase health insurance. And a steadily increasing number of large and small businesses turned to managed health care plans in an attempt to rein in spiraling health care outlays.
Managed Long-Term Services and Supports
Arizona became the first state to apply managed care principles to the delivery and financing of Medicaid-funded LTSS in 1987, when the federal Health Care Financing Administration (later renamed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) approved the state’s request to expand its existing Medicaid managed care program. Medicaid recipients with physical and developmental disabilities became eligible to participate in the Arizona Long-Term Care System as a result of this program expansion. Over the following two decades, a number of other states joined Arizona in providing managed LTSS, and by the summer of 2012, 16 states were operating Medicaid managed LTSS programs
Growth of Commercial Managed Care Plans
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, managed care plans were credited with curtailing the runaway growth in health care costs. They achieved these efficiencies mainly by eliminating unnecessary hospitalizations and forcing participating physicians and other health care providers to offer their services at discounted rates. By 1993, a majority (51%) of Americans receiving health insurance through their employers were enrolled in managed health care plans. Eventually, however, benefit denials and disallowances of medically necessary services led to a public outcry and the enactment of laws in many states imposing managed care standards. According to one analysis, nearly 900 state laws governing managed health practices were enacted during the 1990s. Among the measures approved were laws permitting women to visit gynecologists and obstetricians without obtaining permission from their primary care physician, establishing the right of patients to receive emergency care, and establishing the right of patients to appeal decisions made by managed care firms. Congress even got into the act in 1997 when it passed the Newborns’ Mother Health Protection Act, prohibiting so-called “drive-through deliveries” (overly restrictive limits on hospital stays following the birth of a child).
Research studies have yielded little evidence that managed health care excesses have undermined the quality of health care services. For example, in a survey of 2,000 physicians, Remler and colleagues found that managed care insurance plans denied only about 1 percent of recommended hospitalizations, slightly more than 1 percent of recommended surgeries, and just over 2.5 percent of referrals to specialists. In another study, Franks and colleagues found that medical outcomes were similar for participants in HMOs versus FFS health plans. Franks also reported that HMO patients were hospitalized 40 percent less frequently than FFS patients, and the rate of inappropriate hospitalizations was lower among HMO patients.
Over the past 15 to 20 years, the public outcry against draconian managed care practices has waned, primarily due to the expanded out-of-network options afforded to participants in HMOs, PPOs, and POS health plans. But the perception that managed care represents an overly cost-conscious, mass market approach to delivering medical services lingers among the American public, even though more than 135 million people with health insurance coverage now receive their primary, preventive, and acute health services through a managed care plan. People with disabilities, especially high users of medical care and LTSS, share many of the same negative perceptions of managed care as the general public.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
It is critical to understand and to measure the total cost of capital. Lack of understanding and appreciation of the total cost of capital is widespread, particularly among not-for-profit hospital executives. The capital structure includes long-term debt and equity; total capital is the sum of these two. Each of these components has cost associated with it. For the long-term debt portion, this cost is explicit: it is the interest rate plus associated costs of placement and servicing.
Equity portion
For the equity portion, the cost is not explicit and is widely misunderstood. In many cases, hospital capital structures include significant amounts of equity that has accumulated over many years of favorable operations. Too many executives wrongly attribute zero cost to the equity portion of their capital structure. Although it is correct that generally accepted accounting principles continue to assign a zero cost to equity, there is opportunity cost associated with equity that needs to be considered. This cost is the opportunity available to utilize that capital in alternative ways.
***
***
In general, the cost attributed to equity is the return expected by the equity markets on hospital equity. This can be observed by evaluating the equity prices of hospital companies whose equity is traded on public stock exchanges. Usually the equity prices will imply cost of equity in the range of 10% to 14%.
Almost always, the cost of equity implied by hospital equity prices traded on public stock exchanges will substantially exceed the cost of long-term debt. Thus, while many hospital executives will view the cost of equity to be substantially less than the cost of debt (i.e., to be zero), in nearly all cases, the appropriate cost of equity will be substantially greater than the cost of debt.
Hospitals need to measure their weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
WACC is the cost of long-term debt multiplied by the ratio of long-term debt to total capital plus the cost of equity multiplied by the ratio of equity to total capital (where total capital is the sum of long-term debt and equity).
WACC is then used as the basis for capital charges associated with all capital investments. Capital investments should be expected to generate positive returns after applying this capital charge based on the WACC. Capital investments that don’t generate returns exceeding the WACC consume enterprise value; those that generate returns exceeding WACC increase enterprise value.
Assessment
Hospital executives need to be rewarded for increasing enterprise value.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
Posted on May 1, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL M.D.
In this episode we are joined by Dr. Brent Jackson, Chief Medical Officer for Mercy General in Sacramento, CA to discuss the physician life-cycle, burnout, and transitioning into leadership within healthcare.
Posted on April 29, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
By Staff Reporters
Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBAMEd CMP
***
National Supply Chain Management Day is celebrated on April 29th every year to mark the binding importance of the global supply chain in the everyday lives of people. National Supply Chain Day brings all stakeholders together to share recent developments in the field. Introduced in 2020 by a Georgia-based packaging outlet, this holiday aims to raise awareness about the way a supply chain affects all of us, and how we can be better partners and benefactors of the global supply chain management system.
***
***
One of the most iconic symbols of the COVID economy was the epic backlog of container ships waiting to dock at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. At one point this year, that backup was longer than the line at Trader Joe’s on a Saturday, stretching 109 ships deep and almost 60 miles from the coast.
But now, the shipping situation is almost back to normal. As of last week, the number of ships waiting to drop off their goods stood at just four, according to the WSJ. Plus, the cost of sending a 40-foot container from Shanghai to LA has plummeted from its peak of more than $12,000 to almost $2,000, nearing its pre-COVID average.
The fact that goods are once again flowing smoothly through US ports is a hopeful sign that inflation, which was instigated in part by supply chain snarls, could start to abate.
It is critical for physician executives to understand and to measure the total cost of hospital capital. Lack of understanding and appreciation of the total cost of capital is widespread, particularly among not-for-profit hospital and physician executives. The capital structure includes long-term debt and equity; total capital is the sum of these two, and, each of these components has cost associated with it.
For the long-term debt portion, this cost is explicit—it is the interest rate plus associated costs of placement and servicing. For the equity portion, the cost is not explicit and is widely misunderstood. In many cases, hospital capital structures include significant amounts of equity that has accumulated over many years of favorable operations.
Far too many executives wrongly attribute zero cost to the equity portion of their capital structure. Although it is correct that generally accepted accounting principles continue to assign a zero cost to equity, there is opportunity cost associated with equity that needs to be considered. This cost is the opportunity available to utilize that capital in alternative ways.
***
***
In general, the cost attributed to equity is the return expected by the equity markets on hospital equity. This can be observed by evaluating the equity prices of hospital companies whose equity is traded on public stock exchanges. Usually, the equity prices will imply cost of equity in the range of 10%–14%. Almost always, the cost of equity implied by hospital equity prices traded on public stock exchanges will substantially exceed the cost of long-term debt. Thus, while many hospital executives will view the cost of equity to be substantially less than the cost of debt (i.e., to be zero) in nearly all cases, the appropriate cost of equity will be substantially greater than the cost of debt.
Hospitals need to measure their weighted average cost of capital (WACC). WACC is the cost of long-term debt multiplied by the ratio of long-term debt to total capital plus the cost of equity multiplied by the ratio of equity to total capital (where total capital is the sum of long-term debt and equity).
WACC is then used as the basis for capital charges associated with all capital investments. Capital investments should be expected to generate positive returns after applying this capital charge based on the WACC. Capital investments that do not generate returns exceeding the WACC consume enterprise value; those that generate returns exceeding WACC increase enterprise value. Therefore, physician and hospital executives need to be rewarded for increasing enterprise value.
Posted on April 27, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
Was the ADA Complicit?
By D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
If you were to walk into my dental office with a toothache, and I told you that before I relieve your pain, you have to agree not to say bad things about me on the internet, how badly would the tooth have to be hurting to keep you from walking out the door?
The article, “Toothache lawsuit may stifle medical gag orders against online rants”, by JoNel Aleccia, was posted on MSN.com years ago.
[Robert Lee, 42] who had a bad toothache has filed a class-action lawsuit against his New York dentist after she required him to sign a contract promising not to trash-talk her online — and then fined him thousands of dollars trying to enforce it.”
Aleccia adds: “[Dr. Stacy Makhnevich] was among hundreds of medical professionals nationwide in recent years who refused to care for patients unless they signed anti-defamation contracts. In the contracts, the doctors and dentists promised not to evade federal patient privacy protections in exchange for patients’ agreeing not to post public comments about them.”
The Dentist
Other than its obvious ineffectiveness for this particular Manhattan dentist, whose practice is on the 69 th. floor of the Chrysler Building, Lexington Avenue at East 42St., (212) 697-4400, what’s wrong with this business plan?
First of all, aside from the insult, if a dentist required you to sign a contract forfeiting your right to express your opinion about the quality of care even before being seen, how confident would it make you feel about the doctor’s abilities?
The HIPAA Question
Then there’s HIPAA. It’s sad that healthcare providers on the 69th. floor of the Chrysler Building would take advantage of vulnerable Americans who don’t understand that their right to privacy isn’t something that can be withheld – even as part of a twisted “copyright” deal intended to enable a dentist to dodge accountability. It seems to me like the Office of Civil Rights as well as the Attorney General should be alerted. How is threatening a patient’s privacy in return for direly-needed treatment different than extortion?
The Gotcha!
Mr. Lee had forgotten the contract until months later when he allegedly discovered that Dr. Makhnevich had overcharged him by about $4,000, improperly filed the insurance and then refused to provide him with the documents he needed to file the claim himself. That’s when he started posting rants on sites like Yelp and DoctorBase, such as, “Avoid at all cost! Scamming their customers!” and “Honestly, how do you live with yourself? Just try being a decent human being.”
“Within days, Makhnevich demanded that the sites remove the comments and threatened to sue Lee. She also said he was infringing on her copyright provisions and started sending invoices for fines of $100 a day. By October, the total topped $4,600, he said.”
The Service
Since the dentist purchased the right to use Medical Justice Inc. anti-defamation contracts to prevent complaints from dis-satisfied customers from being discussed on the internet, I say she is due a refund. What’s more, if she’s given any trouble about it, she should get on the internet and complain – if she didn’t forfeit that right as part of the agreement.
The ADA
So where did Dr. Stacy Makhnevich learn about Medical Justice Inc.’s ineffective, unethical and probably illegal anti-defamation contract service? Of all places, it may well have been in ADA Headquarters, 211 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, (312) 440-2500
Dr. Jeffrey Segal [MD, JD], the neurosurgeon and founder of Medical Justice Services Inc. which sold providers like Dr. Makhnevich the right to use his company’s contracts, was a featured speaker at the American Dental Association’s [ADA] annual Benefits Conference last year.
The ADA leadership’s decision to invite Dr. Segal to advertise his product at a benefits conference (?) reveals the old timers’ underlying paranoia that makes them prefer silence from members as well as their own dental patients.
Assessment
Since the ADA effectively put its stamp of approval on Medical Justice’s anti-defamation contracts, don’t you think the ADA News should at least post a warning about the liability to members who attended Dr. Segal’s presentation in ADA Headquarters? Let’s watch dentistry’s leaders ignore the abysmal results of yet another half-baked blunder caused by people too proud to listen.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
Posted on April 22, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
By Ann Miller RN MHACMP™
INTRODUCING OUR NEXT GENERATION e-BOOK LIBRARYFROM iMBA, Inc.
An e-book is an electronic or digital book that can be read on a computer or a handheld device.
Our new e-books consists of text, images, and are fixed to a specific spot on the page.
And, our e-books are a data files similar in content and structure to a word-processing document that comes in a PDF format. To use our e-books, you need to purchase and download it to a device that has a .pdf file reader app, such as ADOBE® or similar on a smartphone, tablet or computer. A PDF, also known as a portable document format, is the format most people are familiar with and used in our e-books. PDFs are known for their ease of use and ability to hold custom layouts. They are the most commonly used e-Book formats, especially by professionals and adult-learners.
You can then access the e-book and read it, or highlight pages and even take side notes.
e-Books Save Money
With no manufacturing, printing, binding or shipping costs, e-Books are cheaper than traditional hard or paper back books.The price of each specialized and highly niche focused e-Book [50-100 pages] is only $25, whereas similar paperback printed books of this type generally cost $145, or more!
Posted on April 12, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
Essay on the Eight-Hundred Pound Gorilla in the Medical Treatment Room
By Dr. David E. Marcinko MBA MEd CMP
[Editor-in-Chief]
According to economist Austin Frakt PhD, and others, there is a school of thought that says Congress is incapable of controlling costs in the Medicare and Medicaid System [CMS].
And, then there is the reality known by all practicing medical professionals regardless of specialty orientation or degree designation. That is to say, CMS really can control healthcare costs and with great ferocity and efficiency, and to non-public sectors as well …. PARADOXICAL?
On Getting What You Wish For
Blogger Ezra Klein opines that one of the dirty little secrets of the health-care system is that Medicare has done a much better job controlling costs than private health insurers.
Of course, we doctors know that the real problem is that Medicare seemingly [think Seinfeld’s character George Costanza] controls costs all too well; but not really. It is just that CMS pays doctors too little and thus it appears costs are controlled. What really is happening is that physician fees are being reduced carte’ blanche.
Nevertheless, and regardless of semantics, CMS will never control costs much more efficiently than private insurance companies or doctors will simply abandon Medicare for related payment models like direct reimbursement or concierge medicine. This is happening right now. Physicians, osteopaths and podiatrists etc, are opting out of Medicare in increasingly large numbers. In a world where there’s only Medicare and Medicare to control costs, doctors can either take the pay cut or stop seeing patients, and stop being doctors. “Taking what they are given – because they’re working for a livin.”
So sorry that this seems like a forehead-palm moment for Ezra, but not for healthcare practitioners or the ME-P!
Too Much Demand Elsewhere
And, as we see from other countries, many young bright folks want to be doctors, even if being a doctor doesn’t make one particularly wealthy [high demand and high eventual supply produces lower provider costs in the long term?]. Think medical tourism.
Not so much the case anymore in this country [lower demand and lower eventual supply produces higher reimbursement costs to the doctor survivors in the very long term?].
Our Domestic World
But, we are not elsewhere. In fact, in our present domestic healthcare ecosystem, when Medicare decides to control costs, many doctors can simply stop accepting Medicare patients, and the politicians will lose their jobs. One political party then declares that Medicare is rationing and will hurt senior citizens. The other party capitulates and pays MDs more [SGR]. Then, the federal budget looks bad as it does now. The circle is complete when one party asserts that Medicare actually can’t contain costs but the private insurance companies will. It all fails, in an unending circular Boolean-like loop of illogic.
Listen Up!
So, listen up AARP, politicians, CMS and seniors as I admonish you to be careful what you wish for [medical cost controls]. It might just come true. As Ezra rightly says; rinse, repeat – rinse, repeat – ad nausea. You simply can’t have it both ways. You either choose to spend less and offend certain cohorts, or spend more and offend different factions. Either way, you’re going to piss someone off. A good healthcare reimbursement system would try to make that decision rationally [a-politically]. But, at least it would make an economics driven decision; wouldn’t it?
Assessment
Is CMS really the eight hundred pound cost-controlled gorilla in the increasingly large Medicare treatment room? Why or why not? Now, relative to the ACA of 2010, please read: The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform [Key to Cost Control and Quality Coverage], by Jacob S. Hacker, PhD. Link:Jacob Hacker Public Plan Choice
Conclusion
And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Do we have a Medicare cost control efficiency paradox? Or, are the economists just reveling in the publication banal? 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
Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest ME-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.
Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.
Posted on April 10, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
Is Business Finally Embracing Medical Values?
[By Render S. Davis MHA CHE]
[By David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd]
In the evolutionary shifts in models for medical care, physicians have been asked to embrace business values of efficiency and cost effectiveness, sometimes at the expense of their professional judgment and personal values.
While some of these changes have been inevitable as our society sought to rein in out-of-control costs, it is not unreasonable for physicians to call on payers, regulators and other business parties to the health care delivery system to raise their ethical bar.
Tit-for-Tat
Harvard University physician-ethicist Linda Emmanuel noted that “health professionals are now accountable to business values (such as efficiency and cost effectiveness), so business persons should be accountable to professional values including kindness and compassion.”
***
[Medicine versus Business]
***
Assessment
Within the framework of ethical principles, John La Puma, M.D., wrote in Managed Care Ethics, that “business’s ethical obligations are integrity and honesty.
Medicine’s are those plus altruism, beneficence, non-maleficence, respect, and fairness.”
About the Author
Render Davis was a Certified Healthcare Executive, now retired from Crawford Long Hospital at Emory University, in Atlanta, GA He served as Assistant Administrator for General Services, Policy Development, and Regulatory Affairs from 1977-95. He is a founding board member of the Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia and served on the consortium’s Executive Committee, Advisory Board, Futility Task Force, Strategic Planning Committee, and chaired the Annual Conference Planning Committee, for many years.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
On August 14, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced updates to their Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH) model.
In response to feedback from stakeholders, starting in performance year (PY) 2024, the agency expects to increase the predictability for the model and further advance health equity. Only in its first PY, ACO REACH is a revision and replacement of the Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) model and the Geographic Direct Contracting (Geo Model) model, a subset of the GPDC model. This Health Capital Topics article will discuss the updates to the ACO REACH model and its implications for existing accountable care organizations (ACOs). (Read more…)
Written by doctors and healthcare professionals, this textbook should be mandatory reading for all medical school students—highly recommended for both young and veteran physicians—and an eliminating factor for any financial advisor who has not read it. The book uses jargon like ‘innovative,’ ‘transformational,’ and ‘disruptive’—all rightly so! It is the type of definitive financial lifestyle planning book we often seek, but seldom find. —LeRoy Howard MA CMPTM,Candidate and Financial Advisor, Fayetteville, North Carolina I taught diagnostic radiology for over a decade. The physician-focused niche information, balanced perspectives, and insider industry transparency in this book may help save your financial life. —Dr. William P. Scherer MS, Barry University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida This book was crafted in response to the frustration felt by doctors who dealt with top financial, brokerage, and accounting firms. These non-fiduciary behemoths often prescribed costly wholesale solutions that were applicable to all, but customized for few, despite ever-changing needs. It is a must-read to learn why brokerage sales pitches or Internet resources will never replace the knowledge and deep advice of a physician-focused financial advisor, medical consultant, or collegial Certified Medical Planner™ financial professional. —Parin Khotari MBA,Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, New York In today’s healthcare environment, in order for providers to survive, they need to understand their current and future market trends, finances, operations, and impact of federal and state regulations. As a healthcare consulting professional for over 30 years supporting both the private and public sector, I recommend that providers understand and utilize the wealth of knowledge that is being conveyed in these chapters. Without this guidance providers will have a hard time navigating the supporting system which may impact their future revenue stream. I strongly endorse the contents of this book.—Carol S. Miller BSN MBA PMP,President, Miller Consulting Group, ACT IAC Executive Committee Vice-Chair at-Large, HIMSS NCA Board Member This is an excellent book on financial planning for physicians and health professionals. It is all inclusive yet very easy to read with much valuable information. And, I have been expanding my business knowledge with all of Dr. Marcinko’s prior books. I highly recommend this one, too. It is a fine educational tool for all doctors.—Dr. David B. Lumsden MD MS MA,Orthopedic Surgeon, Baltimore, Maryland There is no other comprehensive book like it to help doctors, nurses, and other medical providers accumulate and preserve the wealth that their years of education and hard work have earned them. —Dr. Jason Dyken MD MBA,Dyken Wealth Strategies, Gulf Shores, Alabama I plan to give a copy of this book written ‘by doctors and for doctors’ to all my prospects, physician, and nurse clients. It may be the definitive text on this important topic. —Alexander Naruska CPA,Orlando, Florida
Health professionals are small business owners who need to apply their self-discipline tactics in establishing and operating successful practices. Talented trainees are leaving the medical profession because they fail to balance the cost of attendance against a realistic business and financial plan. Principles like budgeting, saving, and living below one’s means, in order to make future investments for future growth, asset protection, and retirement possible are often lacking. This textbook guides the medical professional in his/her financial planning life journey from start to finish. It ranks a place in all medical school libraries and on each of our bookshelves. —Dr. Thomas M. DeLauro DPM,Professor and Chairman – Division of Medical Sciences, New York College of Podiatric Medicine
Physicians are notoriously excellent at diagnosing and treating medical conditions. However, they are also notoriously deficient in managing the business aspects of their medical practices. Most will earn $20-30 million in their medical lifetime, but few know how to create wealth for themselves and their families. This book will help fill the void in physicians’ financial education. I have two recommendations: 1) every physician, young and old, should read this book; and 2) read it a second time! —Dr. Neil Baum MD,Clinical Associate Professor of Urology, Tulane Medical School, New Orleans, Louisiana
I worked with a Certified Medical Planner™ on several occasions in the past, and will do so again in the future. This book codified the vast body of knowledge that helped in all facets of my financial life and professional medical practice. —Dr. James E. Williams DABPS, Foot and Ankle Surgeon, Conyers, Georgia
This is a constantly changing field for rules, regulations, taxes, insurance, compliance, and investments. This book assists readers, and their financial advisors, in keeping up with what’s going on in the healthcare field that all doctors need to know. —Patricia Raskob CFP® EA ATA, Raskob Kambourian Financial Advisors, Tucson, Arizona I particularly enjoyed reading the specific examples in this book which pointed out the perils of risk … something with which I am too familiar and have learned (the hard way) to avoid like the Black Death. It is a pleasure to come across this kind of wisdom, in print, that other colleagues may learn before it’s too late— many, many years down the road. —Dr. Robert S. Park MD, Robert Park and Associates Insurance, Seattle, Washington
Although this book targets physicians, I was pleased to see that it also addressed the financial planning and employment benefit needs of nurses; physical, respiratory, and occupational therapists; CRNAs, hospitalists, and other members of the health care team….highly readable, practical, and understandable. —Nurse Cecelia T. Perez RN, Hospital Operating Room Manager, Ellicott City, Maryland
Personal financial success in the PP-ACA era will be more difficult to achieve than ever before. It requires the next generation of doctors to rethink frugality, delay gratification, and redefine the very definition of success and work–life balance. And, they will surely need the subject matter medical specificity and new-wave professional guidance offered in this book. This book is a ‘must-read’ for all health care professionals, and their financial advisors, who wish to take an active role in creating a new subset of informed and pioneering professionals known as Certified Medical Planners™. —Dr. Mark D. Dollard FACFAS, Private Practice, Tyson Corner, Virginia As healthcare professionals, it is our Hippocratic duty to avoid preventable harm by paying attention. On the other hand, some of us are guilty of being reckless with our own financial health—delaying serious consideration of investments, taxation, retirement income, estate planning, and inheritances until the worry keeps one awake at night. So, if you have avoided planning for the future for far too long, perhaps it is time to take that first step toward preparedness. This in-depth textbook is an excellent starting point—not only because of its readability, but because of his team’s expertise and thoroughness in addressing the intricacies of modern investments—and from the point of view of not only gifted financial experts, but as healthcare providers, as well … a rare combination. —Dr. Darrell K. Pruitt DDS, Private Practice Dentist, Fort Worth, Texas This text should be on the bookshelf of all contemporary physicians. The book is physician-focused with unique topics applicable to all medical professionals. But, it also offers helpful insights into the new tax and estate laws, fiduciary accountability for advisors and insurance agents, with investing, asset protection and risk management, and retirement planning strategies with updates for the brave new world of global payments of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Starting out by encouraging readers to examine their personal ‘money blueprint’ beliefs and habits, the book is divided into four sections offering holistic life cycle financial information and economic education directed to new, mid-career, and mature physicians.
This structure permits one to dip into the book based on personal need to find relief, rather than to overwhelm. Given the complexity of modern domestic healthcare, and the daunting challenges faced by physicians who try to stay abreast of clinical medicine and the ever-evolving laws of personal finance, this textbook could not have come at a better time. —Dr. Philippa Kennealy MD MPH, The Entrepreneurial MD, Los Angeles, California Physicians have economic concerns unmatched by any other profession, arriving ten years late to the start of their earning years. This textbook goes to the core of how to level the playing field quickly, and efficaciously, by a new breed of dedicated Certified Medical Planners™. With physician-focused financial advice, each chapter is a building block to your financial fortress. —Thomas McKeon, MBA, Pharmaceutical Representative, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania An excellent resource … this textbook is written in a manner that provides physician practice owners with a comprehensive guide to financial planning and related topics for their professional practice in a way that is easily comprehended. The style in which it breaks down the intricacies of the current physician practice landscape makes it a ‘must-read’ for those physicians (and their advisors) practicing in the volatile era of healthcare reform. —Robert James Cimasi, MHA ASA FRICS MCBA CVA CM&AA CMP™, CEO-Health Capital Consultants, LLC, St. Louis, Missouri Rarely can one find a full compendium of information within a single source or text, but this book communicates the new financial realities we are forced to confront; it is full of opportunities for minimizing tax liability and maximizing income potential. We’re recommending it to all our medical practice management clients across the entire healthcare spectrum. —Alan Guinn, The Guinn Consultancy Group, Inc., Cookeville, Tennessee Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA CMP™ and his team take a seemingly endless stream of disparate concepts and integrate them into a simple, straightforward, and understandable path to success. And, he codifies them all into a step-by-step algorithm to more efficient investing, risk management, taxation, and enhanced retirement planning for doctors and nurses. His text is a vital read—and must execute—book for all healthcare professionals and physician-focused financial advisors. —Dr. O. Kent Mercado, JD, Private Practitioner and Attorney, Naperville, Illinois
Kudos. The editors and contributing authors have compiled the most comprehensive reference book for the medical community that has ever been attempted. As you review the chapters of interest and hone in on the most important concerns you may have, realize that the best minds have been harvested for you to plan well… Live well. —Martha J. Schilling; AAMS® CRPC® ETSC CSA, Shilling Group Advisors, LLC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I recommend this book to any physician or medical professional that desires an honest no-sales approach to understanding the financial planning and investing world. It is worthwhile to any financial advisor interested in this space, as well. —David K. Luke, MIM MS-PFP CMP™, Net Worth Advisory Group, Sandy, Utah Although not a substitute for a formal business education, this book will help physicians navigate effectively through the hurdles of day-to-day financial decisions with the help of an accountant, financial and legal advisor. I highly recommend it and commend Dr. Marcinko and the Institute of Medical Business Advisors, Inc. on a job well done. —Ken Yeung MBA CMP™, Tseung Kwan O Hospital, Hong Kong I’ve seen many ghost-written handbooks, paperbacks, and vanity-published manuals on this topic throughout my career in mental healthcare. Most were poorly written, opinionated, and cheaply produced self-aggrandizing marketing drivel for those agents selling commission-based financial products and expensive advisory services. So, I was pleasantly surprised with this comprehensive peer-reviewed academic textbook, complete with citations, case examples, and real-life integrated strategies by and for medical professionals. Although a bit late for my career, I recommend it highly to all my younger colleagues … It’s credibility and specificity stand alone. —Dr. Clarice Montgomery PhD MA,Retired Clinical Psychologist In an industry known for one-size-fits-all templates and massively customized books, products, advice, and services, the extreme healthcare specificity of this text is both refreshing and comprehensive. —Dr. James Joseph Bartley, Columbus, Georgia
My brother was my office administrator and accountant. We both feel this is the most comprehensive textbook available on financial planning for healthcare providers. —Dr. Anthony Robert Naruska DC,Winter Park, Florida
Managerial and medical cost accounting is not governed by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as promoted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for CPAs. Rather, a healthcare organization costing expert may be a Certified Cost Accountant (CCA) or Certified Managerial Accountant (CMA) designated by the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB), an independent board within the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP).
The Cost Accounting Standards Board
CASB consists of five members, including the OFPP Administrator who serves as chairman and four members with experience in government contract cost accounting (two from the federal government, one from industry, and one from the accounting profession). The Board has the exclusive authority to make, promulgate, and amend cost accounting standards and interpretations designed to achieve uniformity and consistency in the cost accounting practices governing the measurement, assignment, and allocation of costs to contracts with the United States.
Codified at 48 CFR
CASB’s regulations are codified at 48 CFR, Chapter 99. The standards are mandatory for use by all executive agencies and by contractors and subcontractors in estimating, accumulating, and reporting costs in connection with pricing and administration of, and settlement of disputes concerning, all negotiated prime contract and subcontract procurement with the United States in excess of $500,000. The rules and regulations of the CASB appear in the federal acquisition regulations.
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes are used to categorize data for the federal government. In acquisition they are particularly critical for size standards. The NAICS codes are revised every five years by the Census Bureau. As of October 1, 2007, the federal acquisition community began using the 2007 version of the NAICS codes at www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
Cost Accounting Standards
Healthcare organizations and consultants are obligated to comply with the following cost accounting standards (CAS) promulgated by federal agencies:
CAS 501 requires consistency in estimating, accumulating, and reporting costs.
CAS 502 requires consistency in allocating costs incurred for the same purpose.
CAS 505 requires proper treatment of unallowable costs.
CAS 506 requires consistency in the periods used for cost accounting.
The requirements of these standards are different from those of traditional financial accounting, which are concerned with providing static historical information to creditors, shareholders, and those outside the public or private healthcare organization.
Assessment
Functionally, most healthcare organizations also contain cost centers, which have no revenue budgets or mission to earn revenues for the organization. Examples include human resources, administration, housekeeping, nursing, and the like. These are known as responsibility centers with budgeting constraints but no earnings. Furthermore, shadow cost centers include certain non-cash or cash expenses, such as amortization, depreciation and utilities, and rent. These non-centralized shadow centers are cost allocated for budgeting purposes and must be treated as costs http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
A young concierge medical practice is a business with challenges in these Customer [Patient] Relationship Management’s [CRM] areas that are critical for success.
Areas of Most Challenge
Maturity of Processes:
Processes are often associated with bureaucracy or stuffy hierarchical healthcare systems that are anathema to emerging concierge medical practices. At small practices, doctors are often owners who fiercely pride themselves on flat structures, autonomy and flexibility. However, processes are imperative to conduct a streamlined practice that can be woven around a CM culture that still ensures practice business is conducted in a systematic manner.
Organization Structure:
Young concierge medical practices have challenges managing growth while grappling to incorporate an organization structure that promotes the elite private practice culture.
Multi-tasking, rapidly growing work places:
Young CM practices are often characterized by employees who multi-task and assume several roles to make their resources stretch farther. Especially in the current healthcare reform climate, young practice employees take up a broader set of responsibilities. In addition, as young private CM practices grow, they may become anguished with a growing office workplace that may not be equipped with an evolving infrastructure to cope. They have a fierce need to carefully control growth with tightly managed resources.
Changing business needs and strategy:
In an era after the golden age of traditional medicine, profitability is critical for emerging concierge practices. It is imperative to be nimble and change marketing strategies as socio-political and competitive climates dictate. A good C[P] RM system is tightly integrated, but loosely coupled, to allow CM practices to communicate appropriately with patients.
Little room for Slack:
Small concierge medical practices do not have as much established name-brand equity as larger, established practices of any model type, and patients are less willing to tolerate mistakes. Concierge practices have to run a much tighter ship and build impeccable patient experiences.
Fierce Competition:
The cash or retainer medicine landscape today looks very different from just five years ago. Competition is becoming fierce and practices are fighting for mindshare and patients. Young practices are competing with older concierge practices – large traditional practices, micro-practices, behemoth healthcare systems, enterprise-wide medical corporations and every other practice model in-between – to attract and retain patients with private resources.
Assessment
The above characteristics form the basis of a compelling strategy to embrace C[P]RM and streamline patient relationships and cash revenue opportunities. Concierge practices still need to build scalable marketing programs that can easily ramp up and down effortlessly as needs and economic environments demand. But, they do need to establish marketing metrics and processes that can demonstrate the Return on Investment (ROI) on their CRM, and marketing programs, and for getting critical cash-paying patient buy-in.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
The fact that every physician in private medical practice, without a business education, leaves approximately a million dollars on the table and is unaware of it is well known to business experts who work with medical doctors experiencing financial difficulties.
Business experts such as Dan S. Kennedy, Peter Drucker, Michael Gerber, Maxwell Maltz, Neil Baum, William Hanson,Huss and Coleman, Steven Hacker, Thomas Stanley, Chris Hurn, Napoleon Hill, and Dave Ramsey, among others, understand the financial problems faced by medical practices and how to solve them.
Did you know that at MARCINKO & Associates, all medical colleagues throughout the United States may contact us when they are considering the sale, purchase, strategic operating improvement, merger, acquisition and/or other financial business or related personal financial planning transaction?
Our difference is “hard” knowledge and insider financial guidance that helps medical colleagues, nurses, private practitioners, clinics, ambulatory surgery, radiology and outpatient wound care centers realize their ultimate economic goals. This typically includes managerial and cost accounting, financial ratio analysis, fair market valuation business appraisals, business plan creation and personal financial planning.
Our “expert witness” business litigation support service and divorce mediation, arbitration, asset division, settlement and second opinion offerings are always available, as well.
And, our “soft” skill professional career guidance and mentoring center includes executive coaching, consulting and mentoring advisory programs for stressed, conflicted or burned-out physicians and medical practitioners.
Most importantly, our professional fees are reasonable and always transparent.
MARCINKO & Associates also serves universities, medical, business, graduate and nursing schools; physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and legal societies. This includes accountants, financial service providers, wealth and hedge fund managers, emerging entities, hospitals, CEOs and their BODs, the press, media and related organizations.
When You May Need a Business, Management or Financial Second Opinion?
The Marcinko & Associates second opinion service is a physician-to-advisor telephone or e-mail portal that connects independent financial and business management professionals and consultants, with doctors or healthcare executives desiring affordable and unbiased financial or business advice on an as-needed, pay-per-use basis.
Medical professionals and healthcare executives can now receive direct access to us in the areas of Practice Enhancement, Investing, Financial Planning, Asset Allocation, Portfolio Management, Insurance, Mortgage and Lending, Practice Management, Information Technology, Human Resources and Employee Benefits.
This Marcinko & Associates service is designed to fill a growing need for medically focused financial or managerial advice that traditional consultants have not been able to serve. For example, situations in which you could benefit from a personal financial planning second opinion include:
Posted on March 6, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
****
BY DR. ERIC BRICKER MD
***
Value-Based Care Happened 40 Years
Why Was Medicare Able to Bring About So Much Value-Based Payment Change in 3 Years (’83-’86) Compared to the Relatively Little Change That Has Occurred in the 11 Years Since the Affordable Care Act?
Posted on March 2, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
RETIREMENT PLANNING
By Staff Reporters
***
***
A PEP is a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k), in which multiple employers can participate. When employers join a PEP, they delegate their named fiduciary role to a third-party pooled plan provider (PPP). PEP fiduciary oversight falls on the PPP rather than the employer. And although each PPP may set its own eligibility requirements, businesses joining a PEP benefit plan needn’t operate in the same industry or geographical area.
PEP plans provide viable 401(k) alternatives for small business owners who may otherwise struggle to compete for talent against large organizations with comprehensive benefits packages.
Other advantages include: Less in-house administration: The PPP assumes responsibility for much of the plan administration, handling all plan documentation, governmental filings and ongoing compliance. Employee payroll deductions are left to the employer, but these can be efficiently managed with the help of a payroll service provider that integrates payroll and benefits.
Tax credits can help offset PEP start-up costs. For the first three years of participation, employers may be eligible for a tax credit of $5,000 annually, with an additional $500 available to those who set up automatic enrollment. Under Secure Act 2.0, an additional credit of up to $1,000 per employee for eligible employer contributions may apply to employers with up to 50 employees for the preceding taxable year. This credit phases out from 51 to 100 employees.
Businesses participating in single-employer retirement plans (SEP) must independently communicate and coordinate with their record-keeper, custodian, investment advisor, trustee and auditor. With PEP, all these tasks and services are bundled into one, saving employers time and money.
Despite its advantages, a PEP does have some drawbacks, particularly when compared to an SEP. Unlike a PEP, an SEP gives employers more of the following:
Flexibility: Employers can customize the design of their plan to meet their retirement goals and the needs of their employees.
Control: Employers are not dependent on the actions or decisions of others and can access information and resolve problems directly without the need of a third party.
Choice: Employers have the unilateral freedom to choose a different service provider, move their plan or negotiate better pricing if they are unsatisfied with the cost or quality of service.
ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors.
When an ACO succeeds both in delivering high-quality care and spending health care dollars more wisely, the ACO will share in the savings it achieves for the Medicare program.
Now, suppose that in a new Accountable Care Organization [ACO] contract, a certain medical practice was awarded a new global payment or capitation styled contract that increased revenues by $100,000 for the next fiscal year. The practice had a gross margin of 35% that was not expected to change because of the new business. However, $10,000 was added to medical overhead expenses for another assistant and all Account’s Receivable (AR) are paid at the end of the year, upon completion of the contract.
Cost of Medical Services Provided (COMSP):
The Costs of Medical Services Provided (COMSP) for the ACO business contract represents the amount of money needed to service the patients provided by the contract. Since gross margin is 35% of revenues, the COMSP is 65% or $65,000. Adding the extra overhead results in $75,000 of new spending money (cash flow) needed to treat the patients. Therefore, divide the $75,000 total by the number of days the contract extends (one year) and realize the new contract requires about $ 205.50 per day of free cash flows.
Assumptions
Financial cash flow forecasting from operating activities allows a reasonable projection of future cash needs and enables the doctor to err on the side of fiscal prudence. It is an inexact science, by definition, and entails the following assumptions:
All income tax, salaries and Accounts Payable (AP) are paid at once.
Durable medical equipment inventory and pre-paid advertising remain constant.
Gains/losses on sale of equipment and depreciation expenses remain stable.
Gross margins remain constant.
The office is efficient so major new marginal costs will not be incurred.
Physician Reactions:
Since many physicians are still not entirely comfortable with global reimbursement, fixed payments, capitation or ACO reimbursement contracts; practices may be loath to turn away short-term business in the ACA era. Physician-executives must then determine other methods to generate the additional cash, which include the following general suggestions:
1. Extend Account’s Payable
Discuss your cash flow difficulties with vendors and emphasize their short-term nature. A doctor and her practice still has considerable cache’ value, especially in local communities, and many vendors are willing to work them to retain their business
2. Reduce Accounts Receivable
According to most cost surveys, about 30% of multi-specialty group’s accounts receivable (ARs) are unpaid at 120 days. In addition, multi-specialty groups are able to collect on only about 69% of charges. The rest was written off as bad debt expenses or as a result of discounted payments from Medicare and other managed care companies. In a study by Wisconsin based Zimmerman and Associates, the percentages of ARs unpaid at more than 90 days is now at an all time high of more than 40%. Therefore, multi-specialty groups should aim to keep the percentage of ARs unpaid for more than 120 days, down to less than 20% of the total practice. The safest place to be for a single specialty physician is probably in the 30-35% range as anything over that is just not affordable.
The slowest paid specialties (ARs greater than 120 days) are: multi-specialty group practices; family practices; cardiology groups; anesthesiology groups; and gastroenterologists, respectively. So work hard to get your money, faster. Factoring, or selling the ARs to a third party for an immediate discounted amount is not usually recommended.
3. Borrow with Short-Term Bridge Loans
Obtain a line of credit from your local bank, credit union or other private sources, if possible in an economically constrained environment. Beware the time value of money, personal loan guarantees, and onerous usury rates. Also, beware that lenders can reduce or eliminate credit lines to a medical practice, often at the most inopportune time.
4. Cut Expenses
While this is often possible, it has to be done without demoralizing the practice’s staff.
5. Reduce Supply Inventories
If prudently possible; remember things like minimal shipping fees, loss of revenue if you run short, etc.
6. Taxes
Do not stop paying withholding taxes in favor of cash flow because it is illegal.
Hyper-Growth Model:
Now, let us again suppose that the practice has attracted nine more similar medical contracts. If we multiple the above example tenfold, the serious nature of potential cash flow problem becomes apparent. In other words, the practice has increased revenues to one million dollars, with the same 35% margin, 65% COMSP and $100,000 increase in operating overhead expenses. Using identical mathematical calculations, we determine that $750,000 / 365days equals $2,055.00 per day of needed new free cash flows! Hence, indiscriminate growth without careful contract evaluation and cash flow analysis is a prescription for potential financial disaster.
At least 5 people are dead and multiple people are injured following a shooting at the Natalie Building at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
***
The impact of medical workplace violence became widely exposed on November 6, 2009 when 39 year old Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal M. Hasan MD, a 1997 graduate of Virginia Tech University who received a medical doctorate in psychiatry from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and served as an intern, resident and fellow at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District of Columbia, went on a savage 100 round shooting spree and rampage that killed 13 people and injured 32 others. In April 2010 he was transferred to Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas awaiting trial.
Federal Government Guidelines
The federal government and some states have developed guidelines to assist employers with workplace violence prevention. For instance, one of the earliest sets of guidelines for a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program was published in 1993 by California OSHA. This resulted from the murder of a state employee. In 1996, Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers was published by OSHA.
OSHA Guidelines
In its guidelines, OSHA sets forth the following essential elements for developing a violence prevention program:
Management commitment — as seen by high-level management involvement and support for a written workplace violence prevention policy and its implementation.
Meaningful employee involvement — in policy development, joint management-worker violence prevention committees, post-assault counseling and debriefing, and follow-up are all critical program components.
Worksite analysis — includes regular walk-through surveys of all patient care areas and the collection and review of all reports of worker assault. A successful job hazard analysis must include strategies and policies for encouraging the reporting of all incidents of workplace violence, including verbal threats that do not result in physical injury.
Hazard prevention and control — includes the installation and maintenance of alarm systems in high-risk areas. It may also include the training and posting of security personnel in emergency departments. Adequate staffing is an essential hazard prevention measure, as is adequate lighting and control of access to staff offices and secluded work areas.
Pre-placement and periodic training and education — must include educationally appropriate information regarding the risk factors for violence in the healthcare environment and control measures available to prevent violent incidents. Training should include skills in aggressive behavior identification and management, especially for staff working in the mental health and emergency departments.
On May 17, 1999, Governor Gary Locke signed the New Workplace Violence Prevention Act for the state of Washington. This act mandates that each healthcare setting in the state implement a plan to reasonably prevent and protect employees from violence.
New Washington Workplace Violence Prevention Act
According to this act, prevention plans need to address security considerations related to:
physical attributes of the healthcare setting;
staffing, including security staffing;
personnel policies;
first aid and emergency procedures;
reporting of violent acts; and
employee education and training.
Prior to the development of an actual plan, a security and safety assessment needs to be conducted to identify existing or potential hazards. The training component of the plan must include the following topics:
general safety procedures;
personal safety procedures;
the violence escalation cycle;
violence-predicting factors;
means of obtaining a patient history form from a patient with violent behavior;
strategies to avoid physical harm;
restraining techniques;
appropriate use of medications as chemical restraints;
documenting and reporting incidents;
the process whereby employees affected by a violent act may debrief;
any resources available to employee for coping with violence; and
the healthcare setting’s workplace violence prevention plan.
Assessment
The act further mandates that any hospital operated and maintained by the State of Washington for the care of the mentally ill is required to provide violence prevention training to affected employees identified in the plan on a regular basis and prior.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
The Marcinko & Associates case study and white-paper compendium is a teaching vehicle that presents potential clients with a critical management issue that serves as a spring board to lively debate in which participants present and defend their analysis and prescriptions. The average case is 2 to 100 pages long (prose, tables, graphs, charts, spread sheets and figures, etc).
Our two main types of cases are actual “field cases” based on onsite research, and “library cases”, written from public reference sources. We also write “Marcinko & Associates “armchair cases” based entirely on our general knowledge and subject matter experience.
Unfortunately and regardless of specialty, most doctors quickly realize there are few case model guidelines available to steer them through the day-to-day management maze. One solution is to discuss best-of-breed practices with leading practitioners in order to discern what successful doctors are doing [coaching concept].
Posted on December 10, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
Third Edition of Classic Text Now Available
[Transformational Health 2.0 Skills for Savvy Doctors]
By Ann Miller RN MHA [Executive-Director]
For the first time anywhere, we offer our loyal ME-P readers and subscribers an exclusive first look at the new book: The “Business of Medical Practice” from the Institute of Medical Business Advisors Inc, in Atlanta, GA www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com
Synopsis
Now in its 3rd edition, the book explores a variety of issues and seeks to answer these questions:
Does Health 2.0 enhance or detract from traditional medical care delivery, and can private practice business models survive?
How does transparent business information and reimbursement data impact the modern competitive healthcare scene?
How are medical practices, clinics, and physicians evolving as a result of rapid health- and non-health-related technology change?
Does transparent quality information affect the private practice ecosystem?
A Tool for all Stakeholders
Answering these questions and more, this newly updated and revised edition is an essential tool for doctors, nurses, and healthcare administrators; management and business consultants; accountants; and medical, dental, business, and healthcare administration graduate, doctoral students and virtually all stakeholders of the healthcare industrial complex.
Management and Operational Strategies for Private Practice
Written in plain language using nontechnical jargon, the text presents a progressive discussion of management and operation strategies. It incorporates prose, news reports, and regulatory and academic perspectives with Health 2.0 examples, and blog and internet links, as well as charts, tables, diagrams, and Web site references, resulting in an all-encompassing resource. It integrates various medical practice business disciplines-from finance and economics to marketing to the strategic management sciences-to improve patient outcomes and achieve best practices in the healthcare administration field. With contributions by a world-class team of expert authors, the third edition covers brand-new information, including:
The impact of Web 2.0 technologies on the healthcare industry
Internal office controls for preventing fraud and abuse
Physician compensation with pay-for-performance trend analysis
Healthcare marketing, advertising, CRM, and public relations
eMRs, mobile IT systems, medical devices, and cloud computing
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
A strong online presence is crucial for any medical or healthcare businesses, but many are struggling to figure out where to invest their marketing dollars. It is important to diversify marketing efforts and not rely solely on one channel, as changes in the industry are inevitable. Search marketing, direct marketing, and social media are three key components that healthcare organizations should incorporate in their marketing campaigns.
Search marketing has evolved over the years with changes in Google’s algorithms and the saturation of the market, requiring a focus on quality content and the expertise of an expert.
Direct marketing is becoming more popular, with lead generation companies and email marketing being effective and budget-friendly tactics. Social media is constantly evolving and increasing in price, with networks like Facebook and Twitter pushing paid advertisements.
While social media should not be the focal point of a healthcare organization’s marketing campaign, it is an integral component that can contribute to search engine rankings.
***
***
Overall, a well-rounded marketing strategy that incorporates these three elements is crucial for success. A strong online presence is crucial for healthcare businesses, and diversifying marketing efforts across search marketing, direct marketing, and social media is important for success. Search marketing has changed with Google’s algorithms and increased ad costs, while direct marketing and social media have become more popular. Social media also affects search engine rankings.
Marcinko & Associates is financial guide. We help answer your questions in an empowering way. We educate and guide medical colleagues to understand their financial picture and to make better financial decisions. We strive to simplify everything, clear up confusion, and address specific needs and goals.
Simply put, we’re a financial services company on a mission to empower financial freedom for all healthcare professionals; only. We work with doctors, nurses, medical providers, individuals and all sizes of organizations to offer investment, wealth management and retirement solutions so everyone can have a clear and simple understanding of where their finances and career is today and where it is headed tomorrow.
Whatever your financial situation, we do not shame, criticize, or sell. We enrich, educate and empower. We work only with medical colleagues at every stage of their financial journey [students, interns, residents, practitioners, mid-career and mature physicians], through big life personal changes to annual employment reviews, in order to help them understand, invest, and protect their money and lifestyle.
Assess, develop, and align financial retirement and estate planning goals
Risk Management: Malpractice, home, life, medical, auto and personal indemnity
Life Insurance Need Reviews: whole, universal and term
Business, operations, HR, employment negotiations and medical practice management
Annuity Need Reviews: Indexed and Fixed [Pros and Cons].
***
***
At Marcinko & Associates we discuss specific needs and answer specific questions. We educate and make personalized recommendations that you are free to use, incorporate or disregard. Referrals to trusted specialists and strategic alliance partners then occur if – and as – needed [pro re nata].
At Marcinko & Associates our clients traditionally includephysicians [MD, MBBS and DO], dentists [DDS and DMD], podiatrists [DPM], Registered Nurses [RNs], Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists [CRNA], Physician Assistants [PA] and Nurse Practitioners [NP]. A growing cohort of clients include medical technologists, physical, speech and occupational therapists, etc.
The above are naturally segregated into three career tranches: 1. New practitioners, 2] Mid-Career practitioners and 3] Mature practitioners. We serve them all and are fully prepared for any special needs situation that may arise in any tranche [death, divorce, adverse risk event and/or bankruptcy, etc].
Marcinko & Associates understands the complexity of financial and non-financial deal terms because we are also doctors. Our “hard” knowledge of your business comes from being actual healthcare facility owners, operators and medical practitioners [with additional professional licenses and expertise] enabling us to effectively analyze your business, take corrective measures and present your healthcare entity in the best possible and accurate light.
***
But, if you’re looking at this website, chances are you are fed up, burned out, seeking practice management techniques or a better work-life balance. Or, you are looking for a new non-clinical career, thinking of finance, investing, retirement, or all of the above. Perhaps you are just looking to regain the joy and meaning in your medical or professional career? This is known as “soft” psychology, coaching, personal consulting or fraternal advice.
***
Regardless, of your “soft” personal or “hard” corporate needs, our transparent Fees for Service [FFS] model is moderated for all colleagues based on the acuity and urgency of their engagements. Reduced rates and/or limited charity work may also be possible.
Academic Team of Internationally Known Contributors
D. E. Marcinko & Associates is one of the most academically published authorities on the topic of financial planning and private wealth management for physicians, nurses and medical professionals. We have published 33 major peer reviewed textbooks redacted in the Library of Medicine, Institute of Health and the Library of Congress, in four languages, with over 5,025 online white papers, web-posts and related publications. These cover a range of financial planning topics from medical malpractice, risk management and insurance, to investment policy statement analysis and endowment funding management, and to taxation, retirement, estate and legacy planning.
Financial planning, business and strategic management, FMV for practice and clinics and related “hard” topics are included.
***
We also include “soft” subjects from investor psychology, ethics and lost fortunes to luxury spending, from understanding the middle-class millionaire to the political philosophies of physicians and the affluent. Our corpus of work is regularly consulted by doctors, medical, business, graduate and nursing schools, to elite advisors, private and investment bankers, wealth managers, venture capitalists, academics and the press.
At Marcinko & Associates our clients traditionally includephysicians [MD, MBBS and DO], dentists [DDS and DMD], podiatrists [DPM], Registered Nurses [RNs], Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists [CRNA], Physician Assistants [PA] and Nurse Practitioners [NP]. A growing cohort of clients include medical technologists, physical, speech and occupational therapists, etc.
The above are naturally segregated into three career tranches: 1. New practitioners, 2] Mid-Career practitioners and 3] Mature practitioners. We serve them all and are fully prepared for any special needs situation that may arise in any tranche [death, divorce, adverse risk event and/or bankruptcy, etc].
Marcinko & Associates understands the complexity of financial and non-financial deal terms because we are also doctors. Our “hard” knowledge of your business comes from being actual healthcare facility owners, operators and medical practitioners [with additional professional licenses and expertise] enabling us to effectively analyze your business, take corrective measures and present your healthcare entity in the best possible and accurate light.
***
But, if you’re looking at this website, chances are you are fed up, burned out, seeking practice management techniques or a better work-life balance. Or, you are looking for a new non-clinical career, thinking of finance, investing, retirement, or all of the above. Perhaps you are just looking to regain the joy and meaning in your medical or professional career? This is known as “soft” psychology, coaching, personal consulting or fraternal advice.
***
Regardless, of your “soft” personal or “hard” corporate needs, our transparent Fees for Service [FFS] model is moderated for all colleagues based on the acuity and urgency of their engagements. Reduced rates and/or limited charity work may also be possible.
Posted on November 21, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
HSAs and FSAs
By Staff Reporters
***
***
As cold and flu season truly sets in, major home delivery platforms are now allowing customers to purchase products using their health benefits.
***
Two major healthcare deals closed last week, including a $3 billion merger between Virgin Pulse and third-party administrator HealthComp, on the heels of a relatively quiet year for healthcare M&A deals.
And … Redesign Health has launched Harmonic Health. The digital health company’s care team will partner with PCPs, neurologists, healthcare systems and ACOs to deliver comprehensive dementia care.
Financial ratio analysis typically involves the calculation of ratios that are financial and operational measures representative of the financial status of a clinic or medical practice enterprise. These ratios are evaluated in terms of their relative comparison to generally established industry norms, which may be expressed as positive or negative trends for that industry sector. The ratios selected may function as several different measures of operating performance or financial condition of the subject entity.
Common types of financial indicators that are measured by ratio analysis include:
Liquidity. Liquidity ratios measure the ability of an organization to meet cash obligations as they become due, i.e., to support operational goals. Ratios above the industry mean generally indicate that the organization is in an advantageous position to better support immediate goals. The current ratio, which quantifies the relationship between assets and liabilities, is an indicator of an organization’s ability to meet short-term obligations. Managers use this measure to determine how quickly assets are converted into cash.
Activity. Activity ratios, also called efficiency ratios, indicate how efficiently the organization utilizes its resources or assets, including cash, accounts receivable, salaries, inventory, property, plant, and equipment. Lower ratios may indicate an inefficient use of those assets.
Leverage.Leverage ratios, measured as the ratio of long-term debt to net fixed assets, are used to illustrate the proportion of funds, or capital, provided by shareholders (owners) and creditors to aid analysts in assessing the appropriateness of an organization’s current level of debt. When this ratio falls equal to or below the industry norm, the organization is typically not considered to be at significant risk.
Profitability. Indicates the overall net effect of managerial efficiency of the enterprise. To determine the profitability of the enterprise for benchmarking purposes, the analyst should first review and make adjustments to the owner(s) compensation, if appropriate. Adjustments for the market value of the “replacement cost” of the professional services provided by the owner are particularly important in the valuation of professional medical practices for the purpose of arriving at an ”economic level” of profit.
The selection of financial ratios for analysis and comparison to the organization’s performance requires careful attention to the homogeneity of data. Benchmarking of intra-organizational data (i.e., internal benchmarking) typically proves to be less variable across several different measurement periods.
However, the use of data from external facilities for comparison may introduce variation in measurement methodology and procedure. In the latter case, use of a standard chart of accounts for the organization or recasting the organization’s data to a standard format can effectively facilitate an appropriate comparison of the organization’s operating performance and financial status data to survey results.
Posted on November 5, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
On the Crucial Online Presence
[By John Deutsch]
A strong online presence is crucial to running a successful business, and healthcare is no exception.
However with constant change, especially in the past two years, many businesses are experiencing underperforming campaigns and struggling to figure out where to spend their marketing dollars. Should you invest heavily in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, focus your efforts on search engine optimization (SEO) or hit the ground running with social media?
The answer is that you should never focus solely on one marketing channel, as it could take months or even years to recover when changes in the marketing industry occur – and they inevitably will occur. Another reason to diversify your efforts is that the success of some channels depends on the success of others – for example, social media influences your search rankings and display advertising heavily influences your brand recognition.
As a healthcare marketing company with over ten years of experience in internet marketing, we have seen the industry get flipped upside down more than once and have seen it affect organizations that have weak marketing campaigns with little to no diversification. A good mix of tactics is the best way to reach your target audience while allowing you to adapt quickly in the face of changes.
Three Elements Crucial to Any Marketing Campaign
Search marketing, direct marketing and social media are three components that healthcare organizations should incorporate for a healthy marketing campaign. Here’s what you need to know about these marketing elements, including the changes each channel has gone through in the last few years and what we could expect to see in the future.
Search Marketing
Search marketing typically refers to PPC and SEO, the paid and unpaid efforts used to increase online visibility in search engine results. Early marketers were able to easily leverage SEO to gain top search engine rankings and also invest minimally in PPC for quick leads, but the search marketing landscape has changed significantly in the last three to four years, altering the online marketing game.
We might say it all started when Google modified its PageRank algorithm in 2011 and then again in 2012 (the update often referred to as “the death of SEO”), causing many organizations’ rankings to plummet. Marketers were forced to rethink their organic SEO efforts to stay in Google’s good graces. Instead of relying heavily on getting backlinks (even from low-quality websites) and stuffing content with keywords, the focus switched to creating quality content in order to get real clicks and page views.
Meanwhile, companies like Google started trying harder than ever to monetize their services. The highly saturated market contributed to driving advertising costs up – and beyond that, the actual efficacy of online ads went down. In some of our own campaigns, we have seen over 30% inflation in ad prices per year and a loss of efficacy (decreased traffic and leads) despite increasing ad spend to match inflation – and this isn’t just a result of market saturation. It also has to do with the fact that consumers are less and less receptive to online advertising due to the over publicizing of ads.
As a result of this, organizations have to constantly innovate so that their ads are seen among all the online advertising noise. This, in addition to rising ad prices means that a return on investment can be difficult to realize. Working with a true PPC expert who knows your industry well is the only way to make your budget go a long way.
The bottom line: SEO and PPC are still the number one ways to draw leads online, but they have both seen significant change in the past years and are likely to keep changing, so your marketing strategy should not depend on either channel alone.
Direct Marketing
With SEO having lost some importance and PPC advertising requiring a skill set that many health organizations lack, we are seeing trends shifting towards a more direct form of marketing. This is evident by the number of lead generation companies that have cropped up in the last few years, such as Healthgrades and Vitals, which allow providers to attract more patients and referrals, often for a nominal fee. Similarly, in the medical software industry, SoftwareAdvice dominates the SEO/PPC channels.
Organizations are also increasingly employing alternative marketing channels like email newsletters and direct email marketing to reach out to clients and potential opportunities. This starts with a simply crafted email addressing a very specific issue to a specific audience. It is an extremely effective and budget-friendly tactic to diversify a marketing strategy.
Social Media
Just like other marketing channels, social media is constantly evolving and also increasing in price. This is due, in large part, to major social media companies becoming publicly traded companies in recent years (i.e. Facebook in 2012 and Twitter in 2013), but also to market saturation.
According to a LinkedIn study, 81 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses are using social media and, of those, 94 percent do so for marketing purposes. While networks like Facebook and Twitter remain free to use, they have started trying to capitalize on their popularity by pushing paid advertisement, often to the point of risking the integrity of their sites.
Whereas prior to companies like Facebook and Twitter having gone public, a well-crafted social media post (text, video or image) could go “viral” naturally, we are now seeing this happen less and less, often requiring an initial advertising spend to get the ball rolling. Facebook is a good example of this. In December 2013, Facebook changed the algorithm that determines what stories and updates users see in their News Feeds. This resulted in business pages losing viewership of their posts, as Facebook decided that brands would have to “pay to play.”
Assessment
While we don’t recommend social media being the focal point of any healthcare organization’s marketing campaign, much less the only element, it is an integral component – and definitely one you should stay on top of if you want to remain competitive. Social media is also a major factor in Google’s algorithm for organic search engine rankings, so there is some added value to having a strong social media presence.
John is the President and CEO of Medical Web Experts, developer of Bridge Patient Portal, the leading 2014 ONC certified solution for patient engagement and improved practice profitability. A vital component in the exponential growth of numerous healthcare IT and Internet companies over the last ten years, John has benefited immensely from a unique mix of professional experiences, boasting a strong background in both marketing and technology.
Channel Surfing the ME-P Have you visited our other topic channels? Established to facilitate idea exchange and link our community together, the value of these topics is dependent upon your input. Please take a minute to visit. And, to prevent that annoying spam, we ask that you register. It is fast, free and secure.
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
OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:
Hospital and health system deal activity is finally starting to rebound following a pandemic-era plunge, according to consulting firm Kaufman Hall, but hospitals are increasingly citing “financial distress” as the reason behind the deals.
In more than a third of the 18 hospitals and health systems deals made in Q3 2023—including mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and partnerships—at least one party cited financial distress as the impetus for the transaction. That figure is “well above historical benchmarks,” according to the firm.
“Hospitals and health systems have been under extreme financial pressure since 2022, when median operating margins remained in negative territory for the full year,” Kaufmann Hall analysts wrote in an October 12 report. “These challenges are reflected in the 39% percent of announced transactions in Q3 in which a party has cited, or publicly available information has enabled Kaufman Hall to infer, an element of financial distress as a transaction driver.”
At D.E. Marcinko & Associates our clients traditionally includephysicians [MD, MBBS and DO], dentists [DDS and DMD], podiatrists [DPM], Registered Nurses [RNs], Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists [CRNA], Physician Assistants [PA] and Nurse Practitioners [NP]. A growing cohort of clients include medical technologists, physical, speech and occupational therapists, etc.
The above are naturally segregated into three career tranches: 1. New practitioners, 2] Mid-Career practitioners and 3] Mature practitioners. We serve them all and are fully prepared for any special needs situation that may arise in any tranche [death, divorce, adverse risk event and/or bankruptcy, etc].
D.E.Marcinko & Associates understands the complexity of financial and non-financial deal terms because we are also doctors. Our “hard” knowledge of your business comes from being actual healthcare facility owners, operators and medical practitioners [with additional professional licenses and expertise] enabling us to effectively analyze your business, take corrective measures and present your healthcare entity in the best possible and accurate light.
***
But, if you’re looking at this website, chances are you are fed up, burned out, seeking practice management techniques or a better work-life balance. Or, you are looking for a new non-clinical career, thinking of finance, investing, retirement, or all of the above. Perhaps you are just looking to regain the joy and meaning in your medical or professional career? This is known as “soft” psychology, coaching, personal consulting or fraternal advice.
***
Regardless, of your “soft” personal or “hard” corporate needs, our transparent Fees for Service [FFS] model is moderated for all colleagues based on the acuity and urgency of their engagements. Reduced rates and/or limited charity work may also be possible.
Marcinko Associates is a financial guide. We help answer your questions in an empowering way. We educate and empower medical colleagues to understand their financial picture and to make better financial decisions. We strive to simplify everything, clear up confusion, and address specific needs and goals.
Whatever your financial situation, we do not shame, criticize, or sell. We enrich, educate and empower. We work with medical colleagues at every stage of their financial journey, through big life personal changes to annual employment reviews, in order to help them understand, invest, and protect their money and autonomy.
And, like the famed ‘Tibetan Sherpas“, we guide physician entrepreneurs from medical practice business plan creation, funding, start-up operations and strategic management improvement to maximize profits and stream-line patient care quality initiatives.
Posted on October 17, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
By Health Capital Consultants, LLC
***
Because of the federal government’s preference for, and reliance on the success of, accountable care organizations (ACOs), some ACOs assume their legal status shields the organization from legal scrutiny on all issues.
However, since the 2010 advent of ACOs, the law has adapted uniquely to these organizations. This fourth installment of a five-part series on the valuation of ACOs will discuss this unique regulatory environment in which ACOs operate. (Read more…)
Posted on September 25, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA
By Staff Reporters
***
***
Nearly two dozen pharmacists at the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain staged a walkout in the Kansas City metro area this week over working conditions they say put CVS Health pharmacists and patients at risk.
***
The walkout began Thursday and continued into Friday. Organizers said they had shuttered numerous pharmacies across the metro area, which covers a portion of eastern Kansas and western Missouri. Some pharmacies outside the metro area also have joined. They estimated at least 22 locations had closed.
While the group’s specific complaints focus on store staffing and quotas, the walkout reflects a rising outcry from pharmacists at several national pharmacy chains. They say their work requirements leave them unable to safely fill and verify prescriptions, putting patients at risk of serious harm or even death.
At Marcinko & Associates our clients traditionally includephysicians [MD, MBBS and DO], dentists [DDS and DMD], podiatrists [DPM], Registered Nurses [RNs], Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists [CRNA], Physician Assistants [PA] and Nurse Practitioners [NP]. A growing cohort of clients include medical technologists, physical, speech and occupational therapists, etc.
The above are naturally segregated into three career tranches: 1. New practitioners, 2] Mid-Career practitioners and 3] Mature practitioners. We serve them all and are fully prepared for any special needs situation that may arise in any tranche [death, divorce, adverse risk event and/or bankruptcy, etc].
Marcinko & Associates understands the complexity of financial and non-financial deal terms because we are also doctors. Our “hard” knowledge of your business comes from being actual healthcare facility owners, operators and medical practitioners [with additional professional licenses and expertise] enabling us to effectively analyze your business, take corrective measures and present your healthcare entity in the best possible and accurate light.
***
But, if you’re looking at this website, chances are you are fed up, burned out, seeking practice management techniques or a better work-life balance. Or, you are looking for a new non-clinical career, thinking of finance, investing, retirement, or all of the above. Perhaps you are just looking to regain the joy and meaning in your medical or professional career? This is known as “soft” psychology, coaching, personal consulting or fraternal advice.
***
Regardless, of your “soft” personal or “hard” corporate needs, our transparent Fees for Service [FFS] model is moderated for all colleagues based on the acuity and urgency of their engagements. Reduced rates and/or limited charity work may also be possible.
Did you know that at MARCINKO & Associates, all medical colleagues throughout the United States may contact us when they are considering the sale, purchase, strategic operating improvement, merger, acquisition and/or other financial business or related personal financial planning transaction?
Our difference is “hard” knowledge and insider financial guidance that helps medical colleagues, nurses, private practitioners, clinics, ambulatory surgery, radiology and outpatient wound care centers realize their ultimate economic goals. This typically includes managerial and cost accounting, financial ratio analysis, fair market valuation business appraisals, business plan creation and personal financial planning.
Our “expert witness” business litigation support service and divorce mediation, arbitration, asset division, settlement and second opinion offerings are always available, as well.
And, our “soft” skill professional career guidance and mentoring center includes executive coaching, consulting and mentoring advisory programs for stressed, conflicted or burned-out physicians and medical practitioners.
Most importantly, our professional fees are reasonable and always transparent.
MARCINKO & Associates also serves universities, medical, business, graduate and nursing schools; physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and legal societies. This includes accountants, financial service providers, wealth and hedge fund managers, emerging entities, hospitals, CEOs and their BODs, the press, media and related organizations.
At D.E. Marcinko & Associates our clients traditionally includephysicians [MD, MBBS and DO], dentists [DDS and DMD], podiatrists [DPM], Registered Nurses [RNs], Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists [CRNA], Physician Assistants [PA] and Nurse Practitioners [NP]. A growing cohort of clients include medical technologists, physical, speech and occupational therapists, etc.
The above are naturally segregated into three career tranches: 1. New practitioners, 2] Mid-Career practitioners and 3] Mature practitioners. We serve them all and are fully prepared for any special needs situation that may arise in any tranche [death, divorce, adverse risk event and/or bankruptcy, etc].
D.E.Marcinko & Associates understands the complexity of financial and non-financial deal terms because we are also doctors. Our “hard” knowledge of your business comes from being actual healthcare facility owners, operators and medical practitioners [with additional professional licenses and expertise] enabling us to effectively analyze your business, take corrective measures and present your healthcare entity in the best possible and accurate light.
***
But, if you’re looking at this website, chances are you are fed up, burned out, seeking practice management techniques or a better work-life balance. Or, you are looking for a new non-clinical career, thinking of finance, investing, retirement, or all of the above. Perhaps you are just looking to regain the joy and meaning in your medical or professional career? This is known as “soft” psychology, coaching, personal consulting or fraternal advice.
***
Regardless, of your “soft” personal or “hard” corporate needs, our transparent Fees for Service [FFS] model is moderated for all colleagues based on the acuity and urgency of their engagements. Reduced rates and/or limited charity work may also be possible.
At D.E. Marcinko & Associates our clients traditionally includephysicians [MD, MBBS and DO], dentists [DDS and DMD], podiatrists [DPM], Registered Nurses [RNs], Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists [CRNA], Physician Assistants [PA] and Nurse Practitioners [NP]. A growing cohort of clients include medical technologists, physical, speech and occupational therapists, etc.
The above are naturally segregated into three career tranches: 1. New practitioners, 2] Mid-Career practitioners and 3] Mature practitioners. We serve them all and are fully prepared for any special needs situation that may arise in any tranche [death, divorce, adverse risk event and/or bankruptcy, etc].
D.E.Marcinko & Associates understands the complexity of financial and non-financial deal terms because we are also doctors. Our “hard” knowledge of your business comes from being actual healthcare facility owners, operators and medical practitioners [with additional professional licenses and expertise] enabling us to effectively analyze your business, take corrective measures and present your healthcare entity in the best possible and accurate light.
***
But, if you’re looking at this website, chances are you are fed up, burned out, seeking practice management techniques or a better work-life balance. Or, you are looking for a new non-clinical career, thinking of finance, investing, retirement, or all of the above. Perhaps you are just looking to regain the joy and meaning in your medical or professional career? This is known as “soft” psychology, coaching, personal consulting or fraternal advice.
***
Regardless, of your “soft” personal or “hard” corporate needs, our transparent Fees for Service [FFS] model is moderated for all colleagues based on the acuity and urgency of their engagements. Reduced rates and/or limited charity work may also be possible.
Support our online development, and advance our onground research initiatives in free market economics, as we seek to showcase the brightest Next-Gen minds.
THE ME-P DISCLAIMER: Posts, comments and opinions do not necessarily represent iMBA, Inc., but become our property after submission. Copyright © 2006 to-date. iMBA, Inc allows colleges, universities, medical and financial professionals and related clinics, hospitals and non-profit healthcare organizations to distribute our proprietary essays, photos, videos, audios and other documents; etc. However, please review copyright and usage information for each individual asset before submission to us, and/or placement on your publication or web site. Attestation references, citations and/or back-links are required. All other assets are property of the individual copyright holder.
The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants 