Why are Physicians Prone to Merging their Practices?

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Why are Physicians Prone to Merging their
Practices?
Challenges of Running Solo Practice If you are a
solo healthcare provider or own a small medical
practice, you might sometime feel the pressure of
having to do everything on your own and
struggling to provide optimal patient care.
Running a healthcare practice offers unique
challenges like administrative and insurance
tasks, government and insurance regulations,
technological updates, and staffing problems. It
might lead to feeling why you decided to take
this approach of practicing medicine in the first
place. That is when the idea of merging the
practices comes into your head. You think of all
the positives associated with this possibility,
and dont really dwell on the potential
negatives. All you can envision is having someone
else take care of all those daily
responsibilities so you can get back to the job
you really love i.e. patient care. If the thought
of merging with a hospital or another medical
practice did enter your mind, you are not alone
either. The stats also suggest the same, in the
second quarter of 2018, PricewaterhouseCoopers
found that there were 255 healthcare merger and
acquisition deals the fifteenth consecutive
quarter containing over 200 mergers. The prime
reason for the continuing surge in acquisitions
is that medical practices, especially the smaller
ones, find it increasingly difficult to remain
independent. Increased reporting burdens and
financial challenges add to an already heavy
stress load.
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Why are Physicians Prone to Merging their
Practices?
Reasons Why Physicians are Prone to Merging their
Practices In some cases, merging their practices
works out well for the participants, while in
others it turns into a disaster. If approached
without an in-depth consideration of the pros and
cons, a merger can create a host of new headaches
and may even lead to patient and financial
losses. When carefully considered, however, a
merger between equal partners who can share
resources and responsibilities can stand the test
of time, increase patient satisfaction, and
result in increased personal revenue for the
medical provider. Some of the prime reasons why
physicians are prone to merging their practices
are listed below Better Compliance With the
governments push towards a value-based
healthcare system, compliance has increased to a
great extent. The Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) have already implemented
the concept of Clinical Quality Measures or CQMs
for various initiatives in order to improve care
quality, provide medical practices with
reimbursement for reporting, and increase the
amount of public information available. The
Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program includes
a performance-based methodology that focuses on a
smaller set of objectives.
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Why are Physicians Prone to Merging their
Practices?
The Quality Payment Program rewards value and
outcomes through the Merit-based Incentive
Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative
Payment Models (APMs). Practices that comply with
these requirements realize maximum reimbursement,
while those which are not in compliance do not
achieve these levels. Merging with another
practice or with larger healthcare organizations
and pooling compliance systems increases the
likelihood of being able to achieve top
reimbursement levels. Administrative
Benefits As a solo provider or small practice
owner, you have to bear all the administrative
burden on your own. You have to bear mortgage or
rental payments for your office. You cant
negotiate volume discounts for office supply
purchases. You might be a little hesitant to
invest in new equipment and reluctant in
attracting the most experienced personnel. When
you merge with another practice, it brings buying
power to the table and you can purchase much
lower per unit costs as you are buying higher
quantities of any given item. These cost savings
leave more funds available for equipment,
upgrades, and compensation packages. Variable and
fixed overheads are now justified as you are
sharing resources. Focus on Patient Care
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Why are Physicians Prone to Merging their
Practices?
In solo practice, you might be handling
everything on your own. Whether its managing
building maintenance or ensuring insurance
payments for all delivered services. As a
healthcare provider, you are trained in
delivering excellent patient care. Some providers
might not have the necessary skills to manage
administrative tasks, so they end up performing
them poorly or paying other people to take care
of them. A merger opens the practice up to more
expertise, the acquiring partner might already
have a building manager, expert billing team, and
human resources department. When such
administrative tasks are handled efficiently
providers can focus more on patient care.
Spending more time with patients will not only
increases the quality of care but also opens the
possibility for additional income because of the
increase in patients seen. Medical Billers and
Coders (MBC) is a leading medical billing company
providing complete revenue cycle services. We
shared our observation on why are physicians
prone to merging their practices based on our
experience of working with various providers and
healthcare organizations. As a leading medical
billing company, we can take away your burden of
medical billing. We can help you to receive
accurate insurance reimbursement for delivered
services. To know more about our medical billing
and coding services, email us at info_at_medicalbill
ersandcoders.com or call us 888-357-3226.