Health Mergers and Acquisitions Archives - HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES NEWS

The Importance of Ongoing Physician Collaboration, Engagement and Integration in PPM Management

In partnerships, the key to success lies in communication, understanding, and involvement. This certainly applies to PPMs, which learned in the 1990s that an “us versus them” mentality between physicians and the management companies can lead to economic turmoil.

To avoid a similar fate, those in charge of managing a PPM must understand the needs and desires of those leading the boots-on-the-ground patient operations. Working closely with physicians and establishing what they need is crucial to aligning incentives, which leads to happier employees and a better return on investment. It is incumbent upon the PPMs of today to learn from the mistakes of 20 years ago and foster healthy, receptive relationships with physicians. It is also important to truly integrate acquired practices, so that the physicians really feel part of a single integrated system and not part of an independent affiliate of the PPM.

All of this can be done using the following five strategies:

Ensure Integration: Immediately, post-closing, ensure that the PPM’s integration team takes real steps to integrate the acquired practice’s business into the PPM. Consolidate systems and processes, so that the practices and PPM are deeply intertwined and not loosely affiliated. Proper integration up front is key to ultimate success.

Enlist Input: As PPM owners understand, physician input is traditionally tied to physician ownership. However, this type of ownership is becoming rarer. In 2017, the proportion of patient care physicians with an ownership stake in their medical practice dropped [...]

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Three Environmental Factors Impacting the PPM Industry and Getting Deals Done

The PPM industry is by no means immune to the ebbs and flows of a traditional marketplace. Since the consolidation bubble burst in the 1990s, PPMs have gone from practically extinct to a once-again substantial component of the health care delivery system. But with greater influence comes more pressure to respond, and adapting to today’s complex operating environment requires those in the PPM industry to ensure they are building the foundational structure needed to help practices adapt to external factors and achieve long-term success.

Here are three defining aspects of today’s complex PPM environment, as well as several important considerations to help navigate environmental uncertainties and create a better patient experience.

Physician satisfaction and expectations are changing: As millennial doctors enter the workforce, they’re driving a sea change in terms of job expectations. With better work-life balance as a top priority, many young physicians are looking to be employees rather than employers, joining an existing practice instead of starting their own. Therefore, communicating what a PPM has to offer in terms of long-term incentives, rather than short-term profit margins, will be crucial to drawing in younger doctors and building a foundation that will last into the future.
Reimbursement strategies are evolving: Payer models and expectations continue to shift. Patients are being folded into a system that’s evolving from fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement models. As of now, the federal government is the biggest source of health care reimbursements in the country, but how legislative changes to reimbursement frameworks will impact [...]

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