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In ages past, people went to see their family doctor when things just, “weren’t right.”  Their doctor gave them some medication; they paid the doctor, went home, and waited to feel better.  It truly was that easy.  Unfortunately, along with our fantastic medical breakthroughs, and the ability to cure thousands of once incurable diseases, we have also graduated to very complex healthcare situations.

Healthcare is once again changing.  Is it changing for the worse or for the better?  This seems to be the million dollar question.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, a federal government entity that is predominantly involved with setting healthcare rules and initiatives, is once again firing up its healthcare rule machine, and readying itself for yet another round of significant changes.  

Of course these changes are important to patients; after all, they are the recipients of healthcare and therefore one of the largest stakeholders.  But do patients often think about the other side of the coin?  Do patients wonder about how their primary care physician deals with all of these changes?  To function as a physician today, in any specialty, is a true juggling act.  Along with trying to provide the best quality care he or she can, doctors also have to manage their practices, deal with ever changing diagnosis codes, reimbursement requirements and amounts, and mitigate interoffice issues, as well as operate a b2b type organization. 

The role of a physician is no longer restricted to examinations, advice, and receiving payments.  There actually was a time when being a physician was one of the best careers one could hope for.  Unfortunately today, it seems that doctors have become intermediaries and formularies for Medicare and insurance companies.  It’s not fair to blame the government or insurance companies per se; we have to look at what doctors are up against today. 

There are many different medical specialties today; after all we are discovering new diseases consistently.  Each specialty comes with different concerns and different needs.  Doctors become extremely busy with patient load, continuing education, practice management, etc, to spend enough time on truly assessing the health of their business.  After all a medical practice is a business like any other, a true service business.  These businesses have the same needs of all other service businesses and product offering ventures, but there are a few additional needs.  Compliance is a large part of a doctor’s life.  Rules that are put in place by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), American Medical Association (AMA), Clinical Lab Improvement Amendment of 1993 (CLIA), College of American Pathologists (CAP) Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), all affect what a medical practice can and cannot do, and how care is to be delivered.

Enter the healthcare consultant.  Healthcare consultants are usually individuals or firms made up of individuals that have operated in the medical community for a long period of time, and spend a large portion of their time studying the healthcare/medical field.  Consultants can offer doctors a means of streamlining their practices, controlling costs and waste, and finding innovative means of growing revenue and increasing patient traffic to their office.  Healthcare consultants often become a vital part of the healthcare team, and offer doctor’s a way to concentrate on the medicine portion of their business and not worry so much about the business and compliance areas. 

Healthcare consultants offer doctors very clear benefits in terms of, for lack of a better term, “ease of use.”  A consultant, make it possible for doctors to make their needs and wants known, and then tap on a wealth of knowledge and ability to plan and implement. 

Physician offices today that can cater to their patient population needs and wants fare much better in the market.  They grab higher market shares, and can grow head and shoulders over the competition that still tries to juggle all the components of a practice alone.  Many physician offices now contain a clinical lab.  By offering patients the ability to have their blood test results while they are in the office is a true profit center.  The days of sending blood to an outside lab and waiting days for results can now be a thing of the past.  Some of the better healthcare consultancies offer turnkey lab solutions.  These programs are a godsend for doctors.  The consulting firm sets up the lab, staffs it, and processes all of the specimens.  Results are provided to the doctor on demand, and the doctor is able to concentrate on medicine without any lab consideration.  Compliance, inventory, and all other aspects of a physician office lab (POL) are assumed by the consulting firm.  The doctor provides the start up funding, and satisfies whatever payment arrangements are made between the practice and the consulting firm.

Turnkey labs are far from the only necessary solutions consultants provide.  Consultants also offer:

New Practice Set-up
Functional assessments
Process evaluation and improvement
Financial analyses
Facility planning
Strategic planning
Consolidation planning
Cash flow analysis
Break-even analysis
Benchmarking and interim management
New lab set-up
Product and equipment supply
Compliance and regulatory programs’
Procedure and policy manual creation and management
And many more services

Consultants are in business to assist physicians in their daily life, and to help make the medical practice thrive.  Consultants are a lifeline for a medical practice; synergistic relationships are often formed as a result of the combination of the two.  Healthcare is always changing, and no doubt will be changing again soon in more drastic ways.   Physicians have helping hands right at their fingertips, it only takes a telephone call and help is on the way.

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