Three trends to rev up your "entrepreneurial physician" thinking

As aspiring entrepreneurs, you are hopefully paying attention to society's trends in order to detect that special business opportunity with your name on it.

Mind you, I am not talking about fads - those occurrences and things that blow hot and cold - but the real trends. Aging baby boomers, rising uninsurance, widespread use of the Internet and technology, increasing corporate and individual focus on prevention and wellness - these are examples of solid trends.

Here are three articles I came across recently that speak to trends in healthcare that will provide the astute observant physician with business opportunities.

The first, Health Care's Retail Solution from strategy+business, proposes this scenario:

"Imagine a future in which the health-care system provides consumers high-quality care in a variety of convenient forms at competitive prices (the trend). In this vision, insurers, employers, and governments offer consumers financial incentives to take better care of themselves — to exercise, eat right, stop smoking, and follow treatment regimens for chronic problems such as asthma and diabetes. The system encourages consumers to plan for the health-care needs they can anticipate (i.e., nonemergencies) by “shopping” for products and services much as they do for a new car; consumers make informed decisions based on readily available reports on quality, service, and price. Providers and product manufacturers compete for different segments of the market using a variety of channels, formats, and business models. And consumers confused by the profusion of offerings can turn to agents who help them design the most suitable health-care programs for themselves and their families." (the italics and bolding are mine to draw your attention to where physicians can be important contributors).

It is a long and fairly dense article, but if you are looking to find your "sweet spot" as an entrepreneurial player in the healthcare arena, I would encourage you to read and digest its meat slowly.

I offer the second article to those of you who intend to remain in practice and who are grappling with ways to enhance your bottom line.

Called Diddling the Overhead, this article from the blog of "physician's CPA and business advisor" Reed Tinsley, challenges the reflexive behavior of those physicians whose onerous (hopefully remunerated!) task it is to manage the business of the practice.

The trend here is declining or static reimbursement for physician services in the face of escalating costs, and the almost involuntary response that these cutbacks stimulate in most physician practices - Cut the overhead!! 

The article's author, Randy Bauman, overturns this status quo by by paraphrasing management guru Tom Peters: 'Your ability to cut costs is limited, but your ability to increase revenue is unlimited'. His provocative conclusion reads:

"Do you think Dr. Smith, our friend who spends two days each quarter figuring out how to allocate costs, might be better off seeing patients with that time? Of course he would. The incremental cost of seeing an additional patient is almost nil and that revenue goes straight to the bottom line.

Or maybe he should spend some of that time reviewing what his group is being paid by some of the payers and thinking about renegotiating or terminating some of the marginal contracts.
Or maybe he should investigate new ancillary services, disease management clinics, joint ventures, practice expansion - anything but focusing on overhead.

When you pay attention to profit instead of overhead you are looking at the glass half-full, instead of half-empty.
The bottom line for physicians who want to see a better bottom line is to work on the bottom line by negotiating better contracts, improving coding and collection rates, and developing services that will generate additional revenue. The overhead will take care of itself."

The third article, Employers plan health incentives for workers, focuses on the moves amongst a big group of Midwest employers to "provide cash and other incentives to motivate their workers to use preventive medical-care services to curb illness".

The incentives that have been tested include actions such as waiving co-payments, paying for diabetes medications,  premium discounts if employees get physicals or health screenings, and gift cards if they participate in health fairs.

If employees are being incentivized to manage their own health and be accountable for taking preventative actions, what role can you, in your role as either physician or business person, play in partnering with those employees or employers?

I say "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" - is your entrepreneurial physician gift horse lurking here?