Physician Strategy News: August-September '07
Physician Employment Readiness Assessment
Policy
- Has the board received education on trends in physician employment?
- Has the board approved a policy on the process for employing physicians, including criteria?
- Do you have a standard employment contract that complies with these policies?
Politics
- Have physician leaders been educated on employment trends?
- Do physician leaders understand the rationale for employment, whether to meet community need or for strategic reasons?
- Have private practice groups been given the opportunity to expand with hospital support?
Financial
- Do you have an operating proforma for each practice?
- Have you developed a five-year capital plan and cash flow projection for the employment strategy?
- Have the incremental financial benefits to the hospital been defined?
- Does the Board understand these projections and have reasonable expectations?
- Have you evaluated the number of employed physicians required to gain market power and increase rates in insurance negotiations?
Planning
- Have the physicians created a vision that will help them mold a group culture?
- Have you designed your ideal operating model, including the number of physicians and ancillaries per site?
- Does the group have strong leaders, and, if not, how will you develop them?
- Is there a plan to develop the infrastructure required to manage the employed practices?
- Is there a QI plan that focuses the physicians on best demonstrated practices?
- Have you defined how physician employment will support the hospital’s strategy? Achieve key objectives?
- Do you have a physician compensation plan that is relatively simple, based on productivity, and sustainable?
- Does management have clear goals and objectives related to the practices?
Operations
- Do you have managers with adequate experience in practice management?
- Are you confident in their revenue cycle management capabilities?
- Are you confident in the practice management system selection? Will it meet your needs over the next five years?
- Do you have a plan to address EMR? Will it integrate with the hospital system?
- Do you have a plan to incorporate physicians into practice governance, to ensure they do not abdicate their leadership role?
- Have you defined the referral physician network and referral expectations for employed physicians?
- Are physician performance expectations defined and communicated, and do you have a model for terminating a physician who is not performing?
