What the Affordable Care Act Means for Your Independent Practice
No doubt if you are a medical care giver or work in the health care field, you were glued to your television or computer Thursday morning waiting for the Affordable Care Act Supreme Court ruling. Now that the Affordable Care Act ruling has been handed down, and we see that most of the legislation has remained in tact, the agents at MyMedicalMalpracticeInsurance.com want to take a quick moment to go over a few thoughts that we have on the topic, as it relates to many of our physicians who are in an independent practice.
1. A wave of practice consolidations could be on the way.
Immediately after the judgement was read, Wall Street reacted by bidding-up the stock price of major hospital organizations and, curiously enough, bidding-down the price of the major health care insurance companies. Of course, this defied conventional wisdom with all of the new health insurance customers. But, the truth is, Wall Street knows that the hospitals are the big net winners with the Affordable Care Act. They will see a reduction in the large write-offs that they previously had for their uninsured patients. With this, we foresee that large magapractices will continue to grow.
2. Competing against the growing megapractices.
The easiest way to compete against the large, corporate medical practices is to stand firm and develop a marketing plan for your practice that takes the new realities into account. If you’re an independent physician with a solid client base, you know your clients well, you are active in the community, and your patients think highly of you, you will survive. Continue with community outreach, and consider using our free patient satisfaction survey so you can know your clients even better and better anticipate and respond to their changing needs.
3. Mine for different sources of revenue.
Once you have tightened up your independent practice and are confident that you are running it well, consider finding alternate sources of revenue, such as Medical Director positions at medi-spas and urgent care clinics in the community. Or, consider offering new procedures/services within your specialty.
Clearly, the Affordable Care Act will change the landscape of medicine. By staying flexible and strong your independent practice can remain part of that landscape.
