The Evolving Academic-Community Partnership: Part I

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by Katherine Cwiek, Manager & Laura Zacchigna, Senior Associate

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Industry transformation requires major adaptations from healthcare organizations – to increase scale, enhance scope, and achieve differentiation, among others. Partnerships can be a key vehicle to facilitate and pursue these adaptations. Partnerships between academic and community hospitals/health systems are a unique sub-set of healthcare provider partnerships. Academic providers aligning with their community counterparts is, of […]

Posted in Partnerships, M&A, and Finance, Strategy & Planning

Post-Acute Care Partners: A Make-or-Break Choice

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by Mark Dubow, Director

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Your selection of post-acute care (“PAC”) partners can make or break your value-based payment programs and care management initiatives. Even where fee-for-service is still dominant, having the right post-acute care partners can improve economic performance by reducing length of stay and minimizing acute care readmissions. Most health systems and hospitals do not own PAC facilities, […]

Posted in Partnerships, M&A, and Finance, Strategy & Planning

Medical Staff Plans: Rightsizing in a Healthcare Reform Environment

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by Craig Holm, Director

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The impact of the Affordable Care Act on clinical practice patterns has influenced the utilization of and need for most physician specialties. Completing a medical staff development plan will help a health system or hospital right size its medical staff in light of these impacts, and ultimately help determine community need for physicians. Yet too […]

Posted in Strategy & Planning

Using Social Media in Healthcare Strategic Assessments

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by Meredith Inniger, Manager & Idette Elizondo, Manager

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Social media’s most valuable role in strategic planning is in communication of strategic planning initiatives and priorities rather than for research during the planning process. It can be particularly useful for reaching employees and creating momentum for moving forward. Your organization can share information about mission, vision, goals, values and ongoing initiatives from your own […]

Posted in Strategy & Planning

Overcoming Resistance to Strategic Planning

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by Idette Elizondo, Manager

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There are countless challenges that health systems may face in developing a strategic plan. Below are some of the more common reasons we have found for reluctance to plan. We have also included some thoughts on overcoming understandable hesitation. Reason 1: “We’re too busy keeping the organization operating.” Those in the C-Suite or on the […]

Posted in Strategy & Planning

Avoiding “Group Think” in Strategic Planning

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by Meghan Corcoran, Senior Associate

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To achieve the best work product from strategic planning sessions, it is imperative for leaders to foster group collaboration and seek input from multiple stakeholders with different backgrounds and skill sets. Even when a diverse group of participants are selected, it can be difficult to obtain input from all participants if one or a few […]

Posted in Strategy & Planning

Recent Settlements Suggest Need for Greater Caution Around Physician Deals

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by Stuart J. Schaff, Manager & Sean Looby, Senior Associate

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A parade of headlines announcing record-breaking settlements (chart below) has left healthcare executives, lawyers, consultants, and even physicians wondering if they could be exposed to regulatory or legal action as a result of any of their employment or other physician-hospital alignment arrangements. The government’s incredible return on investment on enforcement actions, as well as a […]

Posted in Healthcare Valuation

Balancing Cost Reduction and Growth

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by Katherine Cwiek & Danielle DiPersia

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The challenges faced by the healthcare industry require healthcare organizations to reduce costs. Yet many organizations are determined to grow, and doing both simultaneously may seem counterintuitive. Yet the two imperatives are not necessarily at odds. Growth is typically seen as the product of investment. And reducing costs can itself require the investment of organizational […]

Posted in Strategy & Planning

Physician Compensation in Rural Areas

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by Denise Palencik and Stuart J. Schaff

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When rural healthcare organizations ask us to review physician compensation from a fair market value (FMV) perspective, management often makes the case that they need to pay more to attract physicians. They cite a smattering of studies[1] showing that rural physicians have higher average compensation than their urban counterparts, with one January 2005 study showing […]

Posted in Provider Compensation

DGA Partners Merges with Health Strategies & Solutions to form Veralon

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DGA Partners and Health Strategies & Solutions, healthcare management consulting firms, have merged to form a single consultancy, to be known as Veralon Partners. “This is a merger between equals with many complementary services,” says Daniel M. Grauman, who is Managing Director and CEO of the new firm. “It will allow us to better serve […]

Posted in Healthcare Valuation, Strategy & Planning