HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES NEWS
HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES NEWS
Exploring Critical Business and Legal Issues across the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industries
HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES NEWS
Exploring Critical Business and Legal Issues across the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industries
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Looking Back at PPM/ASC 2018: What We Learned in Nashville

The health care field is evolving at light speed, adapting to changing patient, physician and payer expectations. This is particularly evident in the physician practice management (PPM) and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) industries. We gathered recently in Nashville, Tennessee for the 2018 Physician Practice Management & ASC Symposium to explore and discuss these changes – from what’s improved in the PPM industry since the bubble-burst of the late 1990s to the challenges that lie ahead.

We had more than 500 attendees at the conference – from PPM/ASC executives, private equity professionals and investment bankers to provider-side representatives and fellow attorneys. With so many knowledgeable minds in one place, there was no shortage of learning opportunities around the critical business, transactional and regulatory issues facing the PPM/ASC industries today.

We saw one overarching theme surface during both sessions: running a PPM or ASC is more like running a co-op than a business. Therefore, in order to deliver meaningful value, there needs to be an honest and reciprocal relationship between management and physicians. In other words, there needs to be collaboration and input from all parties.

With that, here are our five key takeaways for bringing value to a PPM/ASC practice:

  • Understand today’s physicians, not those from the ‘90s: Today’s physicians are younger and leave medical school with more debt, but they also expect a more comprehensive work-life balance than Gen Xers did. As a result, they may be willing to work for large, established practices instead [...]

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5 Key Developments in the ASC and Physician Practice Industries

At McDermott Will & Emery’s 2018 Physician Practice Management and ASC Symposium, some of the leading minds in the PPM and ASC fields gathered to discuss key issues and their thoughts on the future growth and direction of the interconnected ASC and PPM industries. Below are a few of the key takeaways from McDermott’s largest conference to date:

  1. The True Platform. Loose confederacies of physician practices do not equal a sophisticated and integrated platform. The most successful platforms have a developed infrastructure, a talented leadership team, a simple model and a unified vision to build a national/regional company focused on quality of care, patient satisfaction and physician engagement. Competition for those platforms is tough, and building those platforms from scratch requires time, capital, organization and patience.
  2. PPM Differentials. We asked the CEOs of national PPMs why today’s PPMs are different than the failed PPMs of the 1990s. They discussed several key differences, including a shifting physician mentality, difficulty in sustaining independent medical practices, patient dissatisfaction with health care, the shift towards value-based care, the management company’s emphasis on delivering value, and new governance structures/compensation models that encourage communication and alignment among stakeholders. Despite these differences, it is clear that there will be some winners and losers, and that PPMs with a clear growth strategy, a compelling vision, a thoughtful compliance infrastructure and an emphasis on patient satisfaction have the greatest likelihood of success.
  3. ASC Perspectives on the PPM Consolidation. We asked the CEOs of leading [...]

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A PPM Preview: Q&A with Leaders on What’s Driving the Industry

Physician practice management (PPM) and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) companies continue to attract tremendous attention of private equity investors and continue to play a key and growing role in the healthcare services sector.

In advance of our 2018 Physician Practice Management & ASC Symposium, I wanted to get a better sense of where the industry stands and how best to navigate it in 2018, so I reached out to four recognized experts on the matter:

Andrew, Barry, Wayne and Marc will all be speaking at McDermott Will & Emery’s 2018 Physician Practice Management & ASC Symposium, taking place in Nashville, TN, on April 25 – 26. Andrew will be speaking about smart investment principles and private equity as part of the “What the Money Thinks” panel; Barry and Wayne will join our “State of the ASC Industry” panel to discuss the strategies driving today’s practices; and Marc will discuss PPM/ASC transaction strategies in the “Preparing a Large Practice for Sale” panel. Here’s a preview of what’s on their minds.

Q. Why does private equity investment continue to flow into the PPM and ASC [...]

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Riding the PPM Wave of the 90s: Learning from the Crash to Prepare for the Future

The ‘90s was a wild ride for the physician practice management (PPM) industry. I know this from personal experience. I rode the PPM consolidation wave of the ‘90s up to the top – and I saw it crash based on a number of factors.

One reason being that physicians resented that PPMs were not delivering value or on their promise to “repair/restore” the income that physicians sold to PPMs. There was also a devaluation of the PPM equity that physicians received as a large part of their sale price, as well as a general reluctance from office-based physicians to truly be part of a large organization, as opposed to “ruling” their own kingdoms. The PPMs were also burning through cash to support their substantial corporate overhead, which did not help the equation (there was no such thing as a “platform” to start off the PPM).

Fast-forward to 2018, where shifting markets demand a new approach to investments and a new set of priorities. Below are four strategic imperatives for success in today’s increasingly-competitive, ever-changing PPM marketplace:

  • Achieving physician alignment: One of the biggest issues in the late ‘90s was the “us versus them” mentality that existed between physicians and physician practice management companies, both in terms of how deals were structured and the economics of the deal itself. From a structural perspective, deals must be designed to ensure physicians are incentivized, committed and that their interests are aligned.Whether this is accomplished through [...]

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5 Key Topics Explored at McDermott’s 2018 PPM & ASC Symposium

There are many critical issues facing the physician practice management (PPM) and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) industries today, including the effects of sky-high valuations, concerns about sustainability, and the importance of delivering on value. This current environment demands new approaches to PPM structures — one that is focused on alignment and designed to enable growth.

Below are five key market issues to be addressed at the 2018 Physician Practice Management & ASC Symposium in Nashville, TN on April 25-26, where industry leaders will come together to discuss trends in the current landscape and the myriad business, transactional and regulatory issues that exist today, including: (more…)




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Q&A: Shifting Trends in Specialty Pharmacy to Continue in 2018

Specialty pharmacy is not going away any time soon – by 2020, it’s expected that the pharmacy industry’s revenue will exceed $483 billion, with almost all growth as a result of specialty drugs (high-cost medications used to treat chronic conditions, such as cancer). It’s also estimated that the next generation of pharmaceutical “blockbusters” will be primarily specialty products. As the make-up of the pharmaceutical market shifts, we’re also seeing changes with the role of pharmacy benefit managers and other medical groups in the process. How are these shifts in specialty pharmacy impacting the health care system as a whole?

We asked Karen Gibbs, McDermott partner and former VP and Senior Counsel at CVS, to share her expertise on the subject and her thoughts on what’s to come.

Q.  Investments in niche sectors of pharmacy services, specialty pharmacy and pharmacy benefit management have gained huge traction recently. What’s driving the shift away from more traditional pharmacies?   

A.  Traditional pharmacies are retail establishments and have been suffering from the same earnings pressure that all retail establishments have endured. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) typically own mail and specialty pharmacy operations, which generate revenue in a manner complementary to that derived from the pharmacy benefit management services. The margin on specialty pharmacy and PBM services is significantly more than retail pharmacy. (more…)




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