If your anesthesia practice is looking for more locations to work, this blog post is for you. Anesthesia providers will remain in high demand in the coming years as a large portion of the population begins to age, so it can be easy to get complacent in your relationships with healthcare facilities. Don’t settle! There are always new opportunities that may be better for your bottom line than your current situation. So, it’s still important to identify, sell yourself to, and negotiate a contract with new hospitals or healthcare facilities. Even if you are an independent anesthesia provider, you can compete with the larger, national groups by playing to your strengths and proving that being nimble is an asset to a health facility. Putting an earnest effort into representing your anesthesia practice well when negotiating with new practice locations is the first, important step in a long and prosperous relationship with a new facility and a new surgical team.
Identifying New Opportunities
Chances are multiple health facilities in your location need anesthesia providers. Do a little research on facilities in your area, noting the number of beds, specialties practiced at the location, what the payor mix is like, and other pertinent information that would impact your quality of patient care. Does the health facility require 24/7 staffing? If you are a small anesthesia provider, this may not be something you can offer. Research other local anesthesia providers, too, to see if the facilities have existing relationships with health facilities. Even if they do, it could still be worth putting your name out there to decision-makers at a healthcare facility. You never know - they may be dissatisfied with their current provider but not yet openly looking for others. Once you’ve identified locations you want to target, it’s time to sell yourself to your potential future business partners.
Selling Yourself
You didn’t think you’d have to know a little about business to practice medicine, did you? Well, it’s true! Understanding how to market your anesthesia practice to make sure it stands out in a crowd can be the difference between a six- and seven-figure revenue year. Consider some basic branding exercises for your anesthesia practice - do you have a unique name, logo, or mission statement? It’s a good practice to think about the questions a healthcare facility decision-maker would be asking when looking at your proposal.
- What is your anesthesia practice’s core purpose?
- How does your practice evaluate its clinical staff?
- How technologically advanced is your anesthesia practice? Are you continually innovating or are you set in your ways?
- What sets you apart from other anesthesia providers?
Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to start gathering data on your anesthesia practice and preparing the documents that will be presented to healthcare facility managers.
- Put together your CV. Include education, experience, and relevant specialties. Be thorough, yet concise!
- Put together a response to an RFP. If your healthcare facility has put out a request for proposals, there may be specific application items you need to prepare for the facility.
- Compile quality metrics on your anesthesia practices’ record of service.
- Use your research on the healthcare facility and your anesthesia practice’s metrics to put together a plan of action for how you would provide quality care in an efficient way at this health facility.
Armed with a plan of action and the stats to back it up, you are ready to negotiate!
Negotiations and Communication
Now that your foot is in the door, the hard work of negotiating a contract with the healthcare facility happens. This is tied to selling yourself authentically and accurately. If you have over-promised services you cannot provide, it could be the start of a disastrous relationship. On the other hand, if you don’t advocate for your anesthesia practice in contract negotiations, you could be sacrificing your bottom line or your work-life balance with a bad deal. You are not just a commodity, you are a specialist providing a service to the healthcare facility! Consider how the workload at this new healthcare facility will impact your schedule, and that of your other anesthesia providers when negotiating. And of course, make sure the payment structure is clearly outlined and communicated. Being a team player is important throughout your relationship with your healthcare facility. While you may consider yourself ‘separate’ from the healthcare facility and its protocols, you must remember that you are dependent on the facility’s success as well.
Rushing the process of approaching new locations may result in a relationship that hurts your bottom line. With proper research and preparation, you will sail through identifying, approaching, and negotiating a contract with new hospitals or healthcare facilities with ease.
If you need help automating your billing processes so you can focus on selling your anesthesia practice, give us a call!
