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How to negotiate with medical vendors.

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:38:15 +0000

How should we negotiate with Medical Vendors. When you have your own medical practice and you will have to buy medical equipments and or Medical Services, you will find salesmen and coming in droves to your medical office to sell you almost anything under the sun.

Any time that you have to buy an equipment or service, you will have to do your homework. Just because one salesman gives you a price for a product, does not mean that is the market value of that product. People in the business community are well aware that physicians lack of training in the business aspect of anything. They use that to their full advantage by inflating the prices, selling unnecessary services, and even to the extent nickling and diming the doctors.

Always be paranoid and when dealing with business people. Even if it saves man appears to be your friend, he may not be so. Salesmen and are trained to develop a relationship with their customers on a friendly basis. And that is how they get their stuff sold.

Be aware of common sales techniques. It is important. For it will give you better handle on negotiations. Here are some of the commonly used sales techniques:

Upselling: It is a technique by which a salesman will sell you something more than what you initially asked for. For example when you go to buy food at a fast food restaurant, they ask you if you need French fries and Coke with it. Even though you did not initially plan to, there is a good chance you will say yes to the offer. This is Upselling.

Management fees: Somehow seems like all the doctors get charged management fees. Whenever we tried to buy a product or service, the salesman would tag on a management fee to the whole deal. If you look closely they charge anywhere between $100 to $200 management fee per hour. That is ridiculous. Even Physicians do not make that much for an hour anymore.

Inflating price then giving discount: Many times salesman will give you a very high price. Then he or she will deeply discount it for you for a limited period of time. It will make you feel you are getting a deal. You will be surprised, if you did some research, that even the deeply discounted price is much more than that product or service is available for elsewhere.

Deadlines: One of the favorite ways for the salesman to close a deal is by telling you that the offer is good until end of the week. In my opinion, if they can give you a product for X price this week, they should be able to give you the same product for X price next week.

Charging extra for various modules: Companies love to nickel and dime Physicians. This is especially true in the case of Electronic Medical records. The Electronic Medical records software is sold in various modules. Many of these modules are mandatory. This way they can bulk up on the total price without making the Physician realize it.

Appearing desperate: salesman may try to invoke your sympathy to be able to make a sale.

So once you know the common tactics the sales personnel uses, it will become easier for you to read in between the lines and continue to negotiate better through these gimmicks.
How do you make sure you’re getting a good price? Here are some pointers. Keep one practicing with every purchase you make and every time you will get better at it.

Get offers from three or four companies for a medical product or services. Never rely on bid from a single company or salesman only.

Go online, Google it, search and see how much the product or service is available online for.

Let the companies bidding for the purchase know that you have researched the price. Then ask them to beat the price.

Go for the lowest offer with the most reliable post sales service.

5) If two companies offer you the same price, go with the one which has been honest with the dealing during the process.

You can find medical vendors at directories such as VendorMD.com

WHY SHOULD PHYSICIANS HAVE A WEBSITE? AND HOW TO GET ONE !

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:10:12 +0000

Technology is changing all around us. So is the way of doing business. More and more people are using internet to find what they want to find or shop. Patients used to search for doctors in the yellow book. That is all changing very fast. Now patients are using google and other search engines to find doctors. Many a times they end up on sites like healthgrades from google. They are able to review your credentials, what insurance you accept etc. Once they chose a doctor, they go to that physician’s website and evaluate him or her further. So if you or your medical practice does not have a website – you need to get it now.

Website names (also called domain names) are running out! More than 80 million websites have been registered so far per ICANN. Do you realize that there are no single word website names left in most languages including English. People who invest in website names (also called Domain Name Investors) have taken them all. In fact to get a two word website name is also very hard.

But what can a website do for a doctor? Ever heard of HillaryClinton.com or BarrackObama.com? A website in your name can make it easy for your patients to follow you on the web. Many a times they will enter your name in the browser and see if they could get some information about you. Now if your competitor registers a website in your name before you could, he can lead your potential patients to his website. And worst of all, you won’t even know.

It is vitally important for you to at least register your name as a website name or domain name. e.g. RobertSmith.com or RobertSmithMD.com. If you know what you will name your medical practice in the future, then you should register that website name too.

Here are some FAQs for registering a website.

But I am in the medical school why should I register now? Can I do that later? Registering website names or domain names is very cheap to do. If you wait too long, someone else may register your name as a domain name. Then you will have to buy it from those domain investors or you will have to settle for something different.

But isn’t registering Domain names a highly technical stuff?

No. In fact it is as simple as typing the name and click submit. Follow the instructions to a credit card payment and you can get your own website name (domain name) at www.HelloDello.com where CareerMedicine.com is registered.

But how do I make a website on my domain name?

The easiest way to make a website is to use a website template. It is a readymade website design. All you have to do is type in the content just like you do in Microsoft word. I register website or domain names at www.HelloDello.com because they give access to a website builder for free. Some of the registrars charge for that kind of stuff. That way I do not have to spend more cash to design the website or keep it running.

What can I do on my website?

You can write a blog on your website, share pictures, and advertise your services etc on your website. The possibilities are endless.

How do I register domain names?

You can go to easy to use website such as www.HelloDello.com. Then type in the desired website name. Press search button. It will tell you if it is available or not. If it is then you may want to register it right then and there, to prevent any other person from registering it.

Summary:

Advantages of Domain name registration (or registering website names)

Creates your identity on the web.

Easy for patients to find you.

Easy for you to find patients.

Once registered by you, no one can snatch your website name from you.

In the future, you may be able to sell your website name just like real estate. But not all website names sell for millions, most of them sell for few hundreds to thousands dollars only.

It is cheap to do so. HelloDello.com charges only $9.99/ year to register most website name.

Disadvantages of not registering a name as soon as possible:

Someone else may register it and you will never get a chance at it.

You will miss out on a lot of business because of not having a web presence.

To register a website:

Go to www.HelloDello.com

Type in your desired website name in the search bar.

If the domain name is available to register, grab the domain name right away.

If not available, try a different variation to see if that is available – such as RobertJones.com, RobertJonesMD.com, RJones.com and so on.

Also consider registering different extensions of the website name such as .com .net .org etc.

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DESIGN A MEDICAL OFFICE SPACE series: Modifying a plan

admin — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:26:02 +0000

Once you receive a medical office layout plan designed by your architect for the medical office, it is time to review it yourself and see if all of your major goals are met or not. If not then you have another chance to voice it out now. Remember once the plans become more detailed or the construction starts it becomes more and more expensive to change anything. So you really need to look into the details and make sure you like every inch of the floor plan.

How to do it ? Well you compare the program we made in the last post and make sure those things are incorporated in there. Also if you have forgotten something to include in the program you can easily ask the architect to modify the layout.

NOTE: The image on a plan could be rotated just to add to the confusion ! Point I am making is that it matters from which direction you are looking at the plans. Especially during signing real estate contracts for medical office building, check and double check to make sure that you know exactly which wall are you looking it. Say if you wanted your sign on the front door but it is marked on the back wall of the building in the diagram– then you will have a problem !!

DESIGN A MEDICAL OFFICE SPACE series: Creating a Program

admin — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:48:18 +0000

Usually what you will have is the outline of an empty medical office or floor plan. It is just outside walls and is called a ’shell’. Now we will develop a program or a list of requirements we need in the space. Here is a sample program:

THE PROGRAM

1. Four Exam Rooms

2. Two Restrooms

3. One Break Room

4. One Doctor’s Office

5. One Billing Office

6. One Manager’s Office

7. One Reception Desk

8. One Waiting Room

9. One Conference Room

10. Storage Room

11. Keep as many windows as possible in the hallway.

Remember list everything that you want in a program for the architect. They then can try to get as much as they can incorporated into the medical office lay out plan. You can list 100 rooms in the program. Then the architect can come and let you know that it is impossible to get 100 rooms in there so you can get 8 rooms only.

Also the program may change later in the design phase as we will demonstrate. For example you may want to increase the number of exam rooms to five instead of four in the above program. But you may need to delete one restroom to make space for it.

Design a Medical Office with us !

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:49:42 +0000

One day for those who realize the dream of starting their own medical practice will face the exciting opportunity to design their own medical office space. This is a primer article to kick off a series of articles in which we (The CareerMedicine authors and the readers) will design our own medical office space. We are not talking about renting or leasing a medical office space. It is mainly about either building a medical o office from scratch ("including the building!") or buying a "Shell" building and then upfitting it – aka adding rooms etc to the shell.

How does the whole process work. Lets look at the bird’s eye view of the whole process:

STEP 1: Buy a shell (just four walls building enclosure) or a piece of land.

STEP 2: Find a Medical Office Architect

STEP 3: Sit with the Architect and develop a "program". A "Program" here means a long list of things you want for your new office. For example — a window in the doctor’s office, number of exam rooms, approximate people you need to fit in the billing office and any other specifics. The program helps the architect determine the size and layout for the office space.

STEP 4: The architect will send you a preliminary drawing drawn by their draftsman using the program above as a guideline.

STEP 5: The physicians will then review it. Feel free to change anything that you feel is needed. It is much cheaper to correct the drawing than a building.

STEP 6: Once you approve the layout of the medical office space, the medical office design will enter the phase of the electrical and plumbing designing.

STEP 7: Now you will have to mark the location of power outlets, telephone outlets, cables etc on the approved layout. Once done send it back to the architect for electrical layout.

STEP 8: Architect will finalize the drawings including elevations etc. which determines your counter height etc.

So get ready for our next series of posts in which we will design a medical office space.

Buying Medical Equipment for your practice: Caution Advised !

admin — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:26:26 +0000

If you own or run a medical practice, or plan to do so, one of the most frequent decision you will have to make is whether or not to buy or lease a medical equipment. As the cost of technology is going down, more and more medical equipment is becoming affordable for medical practices to acquire. As technology advances, older models are becoming available in the used medical equipment market for fraction of the price.

Why should a medical practice acquire medical equipment: Reasons can be:

1) Out of necessity: If you are an ophthalmologist, you need some of the equipment to practice your trade.

2) Service to patients: Patients prefer to go to their Doctors office for procedures rather than to a hospital.

3) Tax Breaks: Your accountant can tell you how to depreciate the price of the medical equipment to get some relief from Uncle Sam.

5) Survival: In the era of reducing insurance reimbursement rates, an additional income from the procedure may become an important source of revenue.

But beware of the medical equipment salesmen. Many of them are good but many of them are not. Their job is to sell the equipment. They may promise to stick by you after the sale but admit it, how many times have you seen a any sales guy checking on you after a sale. Also the only way they can convince a physician to buy a medical equipment is to talk about the profitability of the tests. So ultimately it is the duty of the physician purchasing the medical equipment to decide whether or not it is a good buy.

How do you determine if an equipment is a good buy or not ? How do you know if the medical equipment salesman is telling you the truth about the reimbursement rates. The answer is you cannot guarantee the reimbursement rate by insurance companies for a particular test. The only way to do it will be to submit a claim to the insurance company. You can submit a claim only after you buy the equipment and do the procedure. Even if you submit the claim, whether it gets paid or not will take atleast one to three months. Thanks to the processing times of various insurance companies.

So here is a list of questions you should ask before purchasing any medical equipment:

1) Do I trust this medical equipment salesperson? The answer should be No most of the time. The mistrust will motivate you to do more research on your own.

2) Do my patients need this medical equipment? If yes, then how often ?

3) Do medical insurance companies traditionally reimburse for the procedure or will my patients end up footing the bill ?

4) Does the amount reimbursed by the insurance companies will recover my investment in a reasonable period of time ?

5) What is the future outlook of reimbursement on these procedure by third party payors. Are they planning to decrease it or increase it (LOL).

6) Is Medicare or Medicaid planning to add certification requirement for that medical equipment. If so then you need to factor in the added cost of training and paying someone to be a medical director.

7) What is the difference in pricing between a new and the used medical equipment ?

What are other companies selling the same or similar model for ?

9) Do I have a place in the medical practice to use it ?

10) Will my patients benefit from having the test here ?

11) Will the quality of reports generated by the medical equipment be sufficient enough that I can give a good service to my patients ?

You can find a list of Medical Vendors from the Medical Vendors Directory VendorMD.com for your research. Answer the above questions you do not get stuck with a medical equipment sitting in your office and laughing at you !

Inter-Physician Marketing- Tips and Techniques

admin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:30:20 +0000

If you are a Primary Care physician, then Inter-Physician Marketing can boost the growth of your medical practice. If you are a specialist, inter-physician marketing is a must for you. Whether you are employed physician or you own your medical practice, inter-physician marketing is something you will always need to do.

As discussed before in the last article, inter-physician marketing is the subtle marketing that goes on between physicians to promote themselves and get more referrals. You can be the best doctor in the world, but if no one knows you, no one sends any patients to you, then what good it is to be the best.

Here at CareerMedicine.com, I will list everything that I have observed and learnt over the years about inter-physician marketing. You can use the following tips and techniques, in any order or sequence and see it work wonders.

BASIC INTER-PHYSICIAN MARKETING TECHNIQUES:

These are something you should always remember to do. Its simple, its subtle and it works !

1) SMILE and say Hello to each other: All physicians are very busy. They are overworked and under pressure. What a refreshment it is to see a smiling physician colleague once in a while. Life is short, it will end soon, whether you run down the hallway looking at the floor or you run down the hallway smiling. There is nothing wrong in saying hello to your competition either. After all they are colleagues too. If they discontinue an insurance plan, they will be more than happy to send those patients your way.

2) Hang out in the Doctor’s Lounge: At least once or twice a week go to the lunch at the doctors lounge. OR breakfast, if you prefer. You will meet a lot of colleagues and everyone is informal while eating.

3) Keep your business cards handy: Pass your business card whenever you meet someone new. Especially if you have complicated name Keep some always in the pocket.

4) Be courteous to the staff: You have no idea how many patients ask the hospital or clinic staff for recommendations regarding a doctor. If the staff likes you, they will recommend you.

5) Be available: Whenever you get consulted, give prompt service. It may mean you have to get up in the night and see a patient. But that is something you should be doing anyways.

6) Communicate: Call the referring physician or send a letter once you have seen his or her patient. Always sound cheerful to see the patient.

ADVANCED INTER-PHYSICIAN MARKETING TECHNIQUES

These tips include the ones in which the physicians have to put themselves out in the field. If you are shy in nature then start with those strategies which you feel more comfortable with. Then once you are in it – take it to the next level

1) SEND OUT A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION: Whenever you arrive in a new town, as an employed physician or starting your own medical practice, send a letter of introduction out. DO NOT make it long. No one reads a long letter. (There is a reason all posts in CareerMedicine are short.) Short and sweet introduction will suffice. Send it to every physician in the town.

2) GO OUT and MEET OTHER PHYSICIANS: Have your staff make appointments and then you can go and personally introduce yourself to other physicians. A face to a name solidifies branding. Suddenly you are not a figment of imagination, you are a person. When you meet them, explain to them that you are new in town, to start practicing medicine. And tell them your strengths. Most physicians will be happy to see you.

3) GET ON THE ER UNASSIGNED LIST: Always make sure you are on the ER unassigned list. That is a sure way of generating patients.

4) MEET THE ER DOCTORS: Do introduce yourself to ER physicians and let them know you are interested in providing prompt care to the patients. ER Physicians like prompt medical care for their patients. It helps them clear the ER faster.

So try these tips and see what happens.

Medical Office Building: Stand Alone or Medical Complex?

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:51:55 +0000

If you are planning to be in a private practice of your own, you need to choose an office space. Medical Office space can be leased or bought. I prefer to lease for first few years until things settle down, cash flow becomes stable, and I find out what kind of office and medical office layout is suitable for my purpose.

The question we are considering is, if a stand alone building is better or not? It sure does look great to be in a stand alone building. It is a complete building of your own, no neighbors and no mess.

But if you are planning to start a new medical practice, it is important not to isolate the medical practice. I have given this a lot of thought before opening my medical practice. And looking back, it surely is good to be in a condominium complex, surrounded by other medical offices. Why?

Because no matter how much marketing your medical practice may do, more than 90% of the patients will choose you because of referrals. This is true for both specialists as well as primary care practice. If you are surrounded by medical offices (as in a medical office condominium complex) they all will be more likely to refer patients to you.

My hunch in the beginning of opening a practice has now proven its ground. The medical complex has a very high traffic of cross referrals. The patients like it because they don’t have to go too far from the place they are familiar with. The Medical Practices thrive in a symbiotic relationship. Everybody wins !

10 important tips for medical doctors who pursue entrepreneurial endeavors

admin — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:53:55 +0000

The following list of great tips are sent to me by Rock. This is what they teach in the MBAs and MHAs. Rock is a Master of Health Administration student. I am publishing it verbatim (well almost verbatim!)

To: ACE MEDICAL
From: Rock P.

1) Develop a strategic advantage: Be sure to differentiate yourself from the competitors. Find a niche and implement it as fast as you can. For example, patient satisfaction is our number one goal and a mission of ACE.

2) Create a competitive advantage: Develop patient intimacy by understanding the needs of patients. Personally, I can tell you that you both already are understanding people as doctors. However, this idea can be thought of as what Carl Rogers said to be “Unconditional Positive Regard” in his theory. Which is having the innate ability to put yourself in the shoes of the patient; trying to realize or visualize how the patient sees their medical condition since they live with it. They rely on the medical doctor to help guide them to better health.

3) Know your patients: Survey patients monthly. Patients like to asked their opinions, and it makes them feel more involved needed. As you know, needs change, patients come and go. Not only does this advantage of surveying help maintain patient loyalty, it also gives you numbers a measurement tool to develop or change ideas or implements to better grow in the future.

4) Market your medical practice heavily: Even if you do not attract patients, you will increase payors and increase revenue, reduce competition, and establish a nice brand.

5) Perform business analysis at regular intervals: Financial budgeting and accounting is so crucial to your success. Study and understand your main and secondary money makers or revenue. What do you make most money on (ancillary services, such as Echo and various ultrasounds) and capitalize on what you make more revenue on. You want to understand your office expense and develop methods to control unnecessary costs.

6) Base your business decisions on quantitative facts not just qualitative assessments. In other words, before you bring in other medical doctors, look closely at alternatives that may bring you as much money at a lesser cost (Nurse Practitioner or a physician assistant) or maybe more medical office assistants to nurses or more LPN’s to RN’s. The idea here is to mix your resources to maximize your profit and still maintain good quality.

7) Use activity base costing: By looking at budget and expenses, a physician can determine the best ways to reallocate the resources. Remember numbers never lie, and are great indicators or windows of opportunity for change. Change is always good when it benefits the medical practice.

Design your practice around your strategic vision: How big do you want to grow? How do you see yourself in 5 years from now? Do I have the right people on board to achieve these goals? Basically design your practice around your mission, vision, and values that you instill into the culture of ACE MEDICAL.

9) Establish a teamwork approach into your culture: Demonstrate leadership and set good examples for your workers to inspire them. Remember patients help generate revenue, and so do employees that work for you. Keep them happy and they will work harder than you can imagine. The best example I can give here is as medical doctors people respect you highly, both in the community and in your work environment, so anything you say can affect people around you. You are a specialty and everyone knows it. If I were in your shoes, I would make it a point to go out of my way to let someone know how good a job they are doing, maybe a pat on the back. You will be surprised at how much that means to people. Sometimes when you cannot afford to give raises, other incentives like a pat on the back works just as good.

10) Manage Change: Practice change management! Lead your workers/team to embrace changes. When you continually assess your company, you will see that changes are necessary to stay competitive in your environment.

I hope this helps. There are so many more things involved in maintaining and being successful at running a business. I have noticed that ACE MEDICAL has a great reputation in town and as you continue to grow, you will be the best primary care facility in the area.

Rock P.

Six Must Read books for Physician Entrepreneurs

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:00:24 +0000

If you are embarking on a journey to start your own medical practice or business, then preparation is the key. I am listing six books every physician entrepreneur must read.They are the pillars of my tiny library. All of them may cost not more than $100. But the practical knowledge they provide will be worth thousands of dollars. Every book will change your outlook in its own little way. Each book will switch on the business mode of thinking in your brain. So happy reading !