Ambulance Co-Pay Waivers Need Audited
Local county and city governments that require independent ambulance contractors to routinely waive patient co-pays should commission an annual audit to ensure the contractors are fully reimbursed for these uncollected balances. (more…)
Telehealth & Telemedicine Legislative Activity
Telehealth is a hot issue on Capitol Hill these days.
“In ten years of working on Capitol Hill, I haven’t seen an issue get as much momentum as quickly as telehealth,” says John F. Williams, III, Managing Partner of the Washington D.C. office of Hall Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman. “There is bipartisan support to address telehealth issues.”
How to Overcome Rural Healthcare Recruitment Challenges
Recruiters face several recruitment challenges when recruiting doctors to practice in rural communities. Geography, economics, culture, education, technological resources and health care resources are a main source of the recruitment challenges. (more…)
Review of The ABCs of ACOs
By now it is well known that the number of physician-owned accountable care organizations (ACOs) exceeds the number of hospital-owned ACOs. But how are these ACOs actually formed? How does an ACO contract with provider participants? What are the requirements for ownership and governance? (more…)
Four Simple Steps to Reduce Resignations of Key Employees
So you hired a key player–a business partner that will help your organization reach the next level. But six months or a year later, you get notice of a resignation. You wonder what happened and more importantly, how can you avoid this scenario in the future. (more…)
2014 M&A Performance Study
The 2014 M&A Performance Study analyzes the financial performance of 5,800 healthcare businesses before and after ownership changes.
The study subjects include 966 hospitals, 3,660 skilled nursing facilities, and 737 home health agencies certified by Medicare. It is the largest study of post-transaction M&A performance every conducted on healthcare businesses.
An expert panel of six healthcare transaction professionals reviewed the findings. (more…)
RBMA President Talks Commoditization
Interview w/: Keith Chew, MHSA, CMPE, Pres. RBMA
Keith E. Chew, MHSA, CMPE, President of the Radiology Business Management Association, discusses his observations on current and future trends in imaging and radiology. (more…)
Jeffrey Epstein, MD, on Serving Two Masters
9 Stats on M&A Deal Failures
OIG’s Advisory Opinion Trends in 2013 & 2014
Half of the OIG’s last 26 advisory opinions during 2013 and 2014 have focused on just two types of arrangements. Can you guess what two types of arrangements have drawn the most inquiries? (more…)
Independent Peer Review Removes Employed Physician Conflicts
Over the past six years, thousands of physicians have become hospital employees. This heightens the issue of whether hospital-employed physicians are conflicted when performing medical peer review. Jane Orient, MD, executive director of the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, has observed a growing divide between hospital-employed physicians and community physicians. (more…)
Surgical Hospitalists Improve Outcomes, Physician Lifestyle
In 1996, Leon Owens, MD, FACS, started to design a surgical hospitalist program to assist with hospitals’ surgical call coverage needs. Over a five year study period from 2007 through 2011, he found that this new model produced statistically significant reductions in length of stay, complication rates, and hospital costs. Now Dr. Owens and the management company Surgical Affiliates Management Group, Inc. (SAMGI) are bringing this model to hospitals all over the United States. (more…)
Review- One Doctor: Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine
In One Doctor, Brendan Reilly, MD, recounts his 40 year career as a primary care internist turned hospitalist. In many respects, Dr. Reilly’s story closely follows changes in the American medical profession during the last 40 years. (more…)
Practice Sales Muddied by Meaningful Use Audits
An interview with Jeffrey W. Short of Hall Render
Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs provided incentive payments to eligible physicians who self-attested to their meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Attorney Jeffrey W. Short of Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman says Medicare’s retrospective audits are requiring some physicians to pay Medicare back the incentive payments they received. Due to the potential for these paybacks, internal audits for these attestations should be added to due diligence for physician practice sales. (more…)
Rural Hospital Replacements Require Leap of Faith
Moneyball Medicine with Robin DiMatteo, Ph.D.
If you haven’t read Moneyball or seen the movie, the story tells how the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees both won 103 games in 2002, while Oakland’s payroll was $41 million and New York’s was $125 million. In baseball, this is called playing Moneyball.
To identify how health systems, ACOs, and medical groups around the U.S. are creating Moneyball-like results, HCTA recently interviewed Robin DiMatteo, Ph.D., to gather intelligence from the cutting edge of healthcare delivery. (more…)
Webinar Recording: Co-Management Feasibility & Development
New Pediatric Program Development with Co-Mgt
A disproportionate share of pediatric services are provided by the 100 or so self-designated children’s hospitals in the United States. Non-children’s hospitals that want to expand or enhance their pediatric services must engage independent pediatric specialists for program development. (more…)
6 Tricks for Selling a Dog That Doesn’t Hunt
If you’ve ever sold an unprofitable business, you know that you are significantly disadvantaged. One approach is to position the sale as the buyer’s alternative to going through the start-up process for a brand new business. Here are 6 ways to position an unprofitable business for a sale. (more…)
Physician Practices Sales – Advanced Concepts
During the sale of physician practices, purchase agreements and employment arrangements are negotiated and executed concurrently. There is a fluid give and take relationship between the practice purchase price and forward-looking physician compensation. Not being able to explain how purchase price affects physician compensation can be a real deal killer. (more…)