More and more physicians today are selling-out to hospitals and becoming employees. In fact, in a 2017 report for the nonprofit Physician Advocacy Institute, revealed that 5,000 physician practices and over 14,000 physicians have been ‘scooped up’ by hospitals between July 2015 and July 2016 alone. What’s more, since 2012 and 2016 (the time frame of the report), the number of hospital-owned physician practices had more than doubled.
During that same period, the total number of hospital-employed physicians has also increased by 63%, with every region of the country seeing this shift in a range from 83 to even as much as 205% in some areas.
This trend is indicative of several factors, among them, being the ever-increasing costs of running a business, more liability in a litigious society, and declining reimbursement, all geared towards a broader and more integrated system within the healthcare industry.
What are the Effects?
As a direct consequence this shift in the medical staff, Medicare costs have risen by as much as $3.1 billion from 2012 to 2015. Likewise, beneficiaries were facing $411 million more in expenses than they would have otherwise paid if the services were performed in independent physician offices.
From the doctors’ perspective, they’ve either yielded to the hospitals, as mentioned above or have since turned to other ancillary forms of income like Diagnostics, investments in Surgery Centers, Imaging Centers, etc.
How Can Docs Remain Profitable and Independent?
As reimbursements continue to decline and independent physicians take the brunt of this shift, it comes as no surprise there has been an increase in consolidation within healthcare.
Most physicians can’t afford this continual shift, lacking the necessary financial know-how to find additional sources of revenue and redirect their medical business back to the profitable state it once was. Some of these physicians are getting smart and turning to experts for help in managing the finances of their practice. In the end though, physicians are like everyone else – they like to receive money, not spend it.
It many spaces in healthcare the salespeople who surround the physician have become the “go-to” person for what new opportunities exist for ancillary income. With the existing environment these salespeople become one of the most important assets a physician can have. They become the conduit to the outside world and introduce physicians to opportunities they otherwise never would’ve known existed.
In other words, salespeople have an unprecedented opportunity to change how they are viewed by physician customers.
Salespeople: Get with the program!
Changing the Paradigm in Healthcare Sales
To do this, salespeople need to rely on more than intuition and instinct. They need to be plugged into their local market and constantly be networking their physicians and with other salespeople on the lookout for opportunities.
Salespeople can also benefit by making use of what state of the art technology can offer. ProSellus is a simple-to-use mobile application that utilizes market analytics to deliver critical data to salespeople in the field.
With it, you and your team will build value for physicians, helping expand their business. Without it, you’re just like every other salesperson pushing a product that the doc doesn’t want to hear about…
With ProSellus, you’re no longer only a salesperson, but a trusted business advisor to your physician customer. The highly competitive nature of Healthcare Sales demands it.
Conclusion
If you want to learn more about how to become a business consultant to your physician customers reach out to me on LinkedIn or check out our website.
