Here’s a free helpful checklist from the consultants at Mercury Advisory Group to get you started on the right path to business strategy planning for your concierge medical practice transition.
For every concierge practice, and every physician, there’s a lot to think about when deciding how to transition an established practice to concierge medicine. This helpful, free checklist can help organize your thoughts and get you started. If you need further assistance, please call us.
We pride ourselves on being accessible and keeping things simple. Many physicians are often surprised when they receive a quote for assistance to coach them through the transition. We offer a flat fee initial consultation that covers a full day of private coaching, Q&A, and even the cost to travel to your office and watch you in action. We make an initial assessment of your operational and staff readiness for a successful transition. We talk to your staff, watch how they treat people, review your managed care participation agreements, and some facts and figures about your practice.
Few physicians know what’s involved to transition their practice. Many are pleasantly surprised at how much flexibility and choice they have in designing the business model that’s just right for them. To get you prepared to meet with us, we’ve shared this checklist so you can begin to formulate deeper, probing questions for us, and to start thinking about answers to the questions we will ask you about your business objectives, practice style, current situation, and specific things you want to include in your new re-branded medical practice…and the things you don’t want.
For example, some physicians will want to jettison all the patients that don’t convert, while others quake at the thought of doing so. No problem. Either way, we have a solution that will work. Some physicians work for another practice or a hospital and won’t have any patients or a practice to transition when they leave their current employment. Not a problem, there’ s a different approach we use for a new start-up practice that can accommodate that. Some physicians want to transition to concierge medicine, but the non-compete restriction in their employment contract requires them to move 5 or more miles away for 5 years or more to set up their new practice. Not a problem, we have a few options we can try that just might surprise you.
While the list below is intended to be high level, we’ll help you get down to details for the many sub-processes that will be developed and documented for management efficiency, cost containment and organizational development. So start studying and make an appointment for your private coaching consultation.
1. DEVELOP OVERALL MISSION STATEMENT
1.1. Define current business
1.2. Articulate the problem(s) solved by the business
1.3. Formulate mission
1.4. Formulate the vision
2. EVALUATE STRATEGIC OPTIONS TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVES
2.1. Identify the strategic options and business models available in the market
2.2. Assess and analyze impact of each option
2.3. Develop business sustainability strategy
2.3.1. Conduct SWOT Analysis
2.3.2. Conduct PEST Analysis
2.3.3. Conduct Porter’s Five Forces Assessment
2.4. Develop a business sustainability strategy for first 3 years
2.4.1. Mitigate Threats and Weaknesses
2.5. Develop local value chain support and shared services strategy
2.6. Select 3-5 year business strategy
2.7. Select 7-10 year business strategy
2.8. Select exit strategy
3. COORDINATE AND ALIGN FUNCTIONAL AND PROCESS STRATEGIES
3.1. Develop risk mitigation and management strategy
3.2. Develop lean/continuous improvement strategy
4. DEVELOP BUDGET
4.1. Identify source of working capital
4.2. Review lender options
4.3. Apply for funding to carry out transition
4.4. Establish operational checking acct
4.5. Establish money market account
4.6. Deposit loaned funds into bank accounts
5. DEVELOP MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY
5.1. Internal practice assessment and feasibility study
5.2. Draft amenities product description
5.3. Conduct initial patient survey
5.4. Adjust product offer if necessary
5.5. Develop promotional strategy
5.6. Create promotional collateral
5.7. Create website
5.8. Create membership sales tools
5.9. Create membership contract
6. DEVELOP OPERATIONS PLAN
6.1 Days and hours of operation
6.2. After hours and vacation / time off coverage plan for physician
6.3. Develop staffing plan
6.3.1 Develop job descriptions
6.3.2.Develop compensation offer
6.3.3.Develop employee benefit strategy
7. HIM TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED
7.1 Communications technology
7.2. Electronic Medical Records
7.2.1 System implementation work plan
7.3. Practice Management System
7.3.1. System implementation work plan
7.4. M-Health technologies
8. DEVELOP REVENUE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
8.1. Determine cash management strategy
8.2. Amenities membership package
8.2.1. Develop membership costs
8.2.2. Develop members sales cost
8.2.3. Develop membership pricing
8.3. Traditional health services menu
8.3.1. Technologies required
8.3.2. Activities-based costs
8.3.3. Health services pricing
8.4. Third-party reimbursement strategy
8.4.1. Targeted health plans
8.4.2. Contracting strategy
8.4.3. Business rules
8.4.4. Profitability performance metrics
8.4.5. Payer report card development
8.5. Billing and Collections Policies and Procedures
8.6. Denied claims appeals procedure
8.7. Bad debt write off policy and procedure
9. CREATE ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN (STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE, REPORTING, ETC.)
9.1. Evaluate breadth and depth of organizational structure
9.2. Perform job-specific roles mapping and value-added analyses
9.3. Develop role activity diagrams to assess workflows
9.4. Perform organization redesign staff training
9.5. Design the relationships between organizational units
9.6. Develop role analysis and activity diagrams for key processes
9.7. Assess organizational implication of feasible alternatives
10. DEVELOP AND SET ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
11. FORMULATE BUSINESS UNIT STRATEGIES
12. MIGRATE TO NEW ORGANIZATION
Ready to get Started?
Get started today for only $3500!
Our flat fee, no-haggle initial consultation price includes a full-day brainstorming and strategy consultation at your location, travel costs for your consultant to travel to your destination*, a 60+ page personally designed workbook, and your own signed copy of the Handbook of Concierge Medical Practice Design (2014, Informa/CRC Productivity Press) by Dr Maria K Todd. Most of our clients don’t spend much more on their start-up consultation and they are up and running within 6 weeks.
* Continental USA only. Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and USVI subject to additional travel surcharge.
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