Combining your medical practice with someone else’s can be a lucrative move that leads to more freedom and better work-life balance. But you can’t blindly step into consolidation, as there’s a lot at risk. Instead, you need to be cognizant of the risks associated with this move so that you can make the informed decisions that are right for you. Figuring out what you need to lookout for can be difficult, though, especially if you’ve never had to navigate these sorts of arrangements in the past. Don’t worry. In this post we’ll provide some pointers to hopefully give you some insight into the process and what you could potentially do to protect your interests.
There’s a lot of work to be done before agreeing to healthcare consolidation. This includes taking the following steps:
- Engaging in due diligence: Before combining forces with another practitioner, you need to have a clear understanding of where their business stands. By engaging in due diligence, you can figure out their financial positioning, the operational practices they utilize and compliance and risk mitigation procedures they have in place. By being thorough here, you can more easily spot advantages and risks associated with consolidation and can plan accordingly.
- Developing a blueprint: Your consolidation shouldn’t happen overnight. Rather, you’ll want a smooth transition plan that ensures that staff can seamlessly integrate into new operating procedures, and you have more time to communicate changes to external stakeholders. By detailing the steps necessary in this transition, you can ensure that your practice and the other one can move forward in lock-step, thereby reducing the risk of something going wrong.
- Properly integrating technology: As you know, technology plays a key role in the healthcare industry. But you may not be using the same system as the other practice. If that’s the case, you need to come to an agreement on uniformity. But even if you do use the same technological platforms, you still have to find a way to combine the information each practice holds without negative implications for existing data sets. This will take time and technological know-how to be done properly.
- Being open and transparent with patients: Disruptions to healthcare can be concerning for patients. You should reassure them of any name changes, location closings and openings as well as any other modifications to how care practices will change. You’ll also want to make sure patients understand how to access their medical records and inform them of their ability to keep their current doctor or change to some other professional who is now in the practice as a result of the consolidation.
- Communicating with the other practice effectively: You have to have strong communication with the other practice throughout the merger process. If you don’t, then there can be significant misunderstandings that lead to conflict and that may become costly and time-consuming to resolve. It can be helpful to set up ongoing meetings or touchpoints to ensure that the process moves forward with everyone on the same page.
Navigating consolidation in the healthcare industry can be confusing, stressful and affecting for your business. That’s why you have to navigate the process with care. You also have to take charge of the process, though, if you want to protect your interests as fully as possible. That’s why now may be the time to discuss your unique circumstances with your attorney to figure out the best path forward and secure the future that you want.