1st Edition

Medical Staff Integration Transactions and Transformation

By A. Michael La Penna Copyright 2015
    246 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    There is a transformation of equity occurring in the health care industry with hospitals and health systems purchasing physician practices. As traditional hospital structures meet the entrepreneurial physician manager in today’s rapidly changing environment, numerous transitional challenges are emerging.

    Medical Staff Integration: Transactions and Transformation fills the void that exists between hospital management texts and physician management literature. It examines the cultural and functional issues that must be addressed when hospitals and health systems purchase physician practices.

    Written by a leading consultant in the health care industry, the book covers the changes occurring in a nonjudgmental fashion and from a business case perspective. It supplies an understanding of the basics behind the various types of relationships that are forming as well as the nuts and bolts of the transitions that will result.

    The book focuses on the challenges readers will most likely face when merging systems, culture, and functions. It explains how to assure that the acquisitions will meet the needs of all parties—emphasizing the income determination structures required for the continued motivation of physicians.

    Addressing some of the limitations hospitals face with physician practice integrations, including the traditional medical staff structure, hospital-based physicians, and contracted physicians, the book also discusses the growing role and impact of compliance.

    A companion website allows readers to download forms and models which can assist in the practical application of the ideas presented in the book. www.medicalstaffintegration.com

    Conceptualizing New Models of Care Based on Traditional Structures
    Physician-Hospital Organization (PHO)
    Independent Provider Association (IPA)
    Contracting Unit/Messenger Model
    Management Services Organization (MSO)
    Group Practice without Walls (GPWW)
    Group Practice
    Captive Physician Group
    Other Models and Combinations of Models
    Summary Issues

    Does Anyone Know the Definition of Integration?
    How Will We Know If We Are Integrated? Maybe, We Already Are!
    Integration Is Not a Place, It Is a Process
    Integration and the Challenges of Income Determination
    Summary Issues

    Does What We Have Now Actually Work?
    How Did We Get Here? How Do We Get Where We Need to Be?
    What Is Different This Time? What Is the Same?
    Same Players, Traditional Structures, New Tools
    Summary Issues

    Ignoring Fundamentals Will Produce Unwanted Results
    Different Practices, Different Relationships, Different Approaches
    Academic Practices
    Retail-Oriented Practices
    Concierge Practices and Aesthetic-Oriented Practices
    Hospital-Based and Codependent Practices
    Physicians in Different Disciplines Have Differing Needs
    Summary Issues

    Where Are We Headed and What Will Get Us There?
    Case Management and Care Management—The New Paradigm
    Existing State, Near-Term Future State
    Final Note—What Is a Doula?
    Summary Issues

    The Basic PHO (Joint Governance) or IPA (Independence)
    Summary Issues

    The MSO (Services)
    The Basic MSO Approach
    MSO Development
    Functional Operations
    Financial Operations
    Goals of the MSO/Vendor Group
    Operational Responsibilities of the MSO/Vendor Group
    What Does the MSO Not Do?
    Summary Issues

    Co-Management Programs (Partnership)
    Getting There Is (More Than) Half the Battle
    An Orthopedic Co-Management Model
    Development Process
    Summary Issues

    Contracts and Subcontracts (Managing Relationships)
    Example: A Hospital-Based Physician Arrangement (Hospitalists)
    Hospitalist Group Contract Points/Coverage Terms
    Measurement of Hospitalist Productivity and Quality and Value
    Job Description—Hospitalist (Internal Medicine)
    Qualifications
    Relationships
    Description of Hospitalist/Internal Medicine Service Objectives
    Responsibilities of Hospitalist/Internal Medicine Physicians
    Example: RFI/RFP Scope of Work for a Hospital-Based Group (ED)
    Emergency Department Provider Items/General Services
    Emergency Department Provider Items/Recruitment and Orientation
    Emergency Department Provider Items/Financial Services
    Emergency Department Provider Items/Compliance
    Example: Evaluation of a Contracted Group’s Performance
    Summary Issues

    Sponsored Practices and Hired Practitioners (Employment)
    Simple, But Many Moving Parts
    To Every Project, a Process
    Structure—Pick One
    Transactions and Transaction Elements
    Special Circumstances—Normalizing Practice Numbers
    Special Circumstances—Asset vs. Stock Purchase
    Special Circumstances—Leasing Practices
    Special Circumstances—Fractional Purchase
    Special Circumstances—Related Parties
    Special Circumstances—Underwater Practice
    Summary Issues

    Align the Correct Solution Supported by Effective Communications
    The Team Must Have a Shared Set of Principles and Core Values
    Choose a Structure That Fits the Situation
    Physicians Involved in the Care Process Must Have a Meaningful Role in Governance
    Physicians Must Be Allowed to Pursue Treatment Options in Line with Quality and Service Standards
    Summary Issues

    Recognize the Different Parties to the Transaction
    The Result of the Transaction Can Often Mean More Than the Transaction Itself
    It Is Important to Understand Differing Perspectives
    Are There Any Universal Truths?
    Transition Is More Than a Corporate Function—It Is a Cultural Reprogramming
    The Future of Independent Hospitals and Private Practice Is Limited
    Summary Issues

    Address Issues of Colleagues, Culture, and Politics
    Physicians and Providers in Alternative Organizations—the IPA and PHO Revisited
    Medical Staff Issues and Trends—The Structure of the New Medical Staff
    What Defines a Good Plan?
    Summary Issues

    Discern between Patient Management and Practice Management
    What Is the Commitment Level to a Different Level and Style of Governance?
    Operational Management Is Not Governance—Managers Manage and Doctors Govern
    Why the Resulting Product Is Often Less Than the Sum of the Parts
    Summary Issues

    Separate the Transactional Issues from the Transitional Process
    Practice Transition Does Not Follow a Recipe
    It Is Not "Business as Usual"
    Providers
    The Staff
    The Revenue Stream
    Infrastructure
    Summary Issues

    Establish Fundamental Standards and Link These Standards to Definitive Policies
    Was the Practice Well Managed Beforehand?
    Quality vs. Quantity and the Bottom Line
    Managers Must Have Defined Roles and Responsibilities
    Is There a Clear Set of Achievable Metrics for the Practice?
    Are the Metrics Aligned with Management and Provider Compensation Models?
    Patient Service Process Measures and Patient and Consumer Satisfaction
    Metrics Can (Should) Change over Time
    What about Financial Measures?
    Summary Issues

    Align the Compensation with the Programming
    The Hospital/Health System as Paymaster
    Some Basic Regulatory (and Commonsense) Constraints
    One Model, Many Factors
    Call Compensation and Confusion
    Putting It All Together
    Summary Issues

    Developing a Core Set of Strategic Issues
    Visions and Hallucinations
    Succession Planning
    Structure?
    Financial Issues, Systems Level
    Specific and Special Opportunities
    Issues Listing—One Approach
    Summary Issues

    Is There a Clear Value Proposition?
    Summary Issues

    Build an Organization That Can Learn and Transform Itself
    Summary Issues

    To Understand Success, Study Failure
    The Group in Crisis
    Developing an Emergency Turnaround Strategy
    The Group Approaching Crisis
    Summary Issues

    Appendix: Samples and Examples

    Glossary

    Index

    Biography

    Mike La Penna has been a consultant to physician groups and hospitals for more than 25 years. He has served in a number of board positions on health care organizations and community service organizations. He has been an executive in both nonprofit and for-profit health care environments.

    Mike is a graduate of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, where he earned an MBA and a certificate in health care administration. He has a BA in economics from Western Michigan University, and he has held faculty positions in both undergraduate and graduate business programs.

    Mike’s expertise includes strategic planning, payer negotiation, real estate ventures, product branding, independent provider association (IPA)/physician-hospital organization (PHO) development and management, equity and risk arrangements, technology applications, faculty group practice plans, and merger, acquisition, and divestiture strategies. The La Penna Group, Inc. was founded in 1987 to provide business consulting services to physicians, hospitals, and health care delivery systems. It has also worked with industry and with governmental units to develop solutions for a variety of health care delivery situations. He has been an advisor to numerous national associations and authored numerous articles on health care trends, physician practice management, and network development. He has commented on health care for numerous publications and news outlets, including Crain’s, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and NPR. Mr. La Penna is an advisor to some of the world’s largest health care delivery organizations and to numerous Fortune 100 firms.

    Mike LaPenna brings an important perspective to a key shift in the structure of health care. Providers, payers, employers, and patients are greatly impacted by this shift from relative independence to integration, which has critical implications to the cost and quality of health care as we know it today.
    —Larry Boress, President and CEO, Midwest Business Group on Health

    There is no more complex administrative environment than health care and no time when it has been more confusing and challenging. Mr. La Penna has outlined several of the models and structures that go well beyond the traditional medical staff relationships. His book is recommended reading for the practitioner, the administrator, and board level stakeholders as they contemplate how to work together in the new health care environment.
    Robert Harrison, MHA, PhD, President, Lake Michigan College and Former President of the Michigan Hospital Association

    After 25 years of my seeking Michael LaPenna's counsel and direction in half a dozen different medical practice venues and models, I have learned to appreciate his incisiveness, his conciseness, his analytical skills, his wisdom, and his dry humor. A survey of the 21 chapter titles gives a good clue to the superb information in this contemporary and masterful book.
    George O.Waring III MD FACS, FRCOphth, Professor of Ophthalmology, Emeritus, Emory University; Private Clinical Practice, Atlanta, Georgia

    Mike LaPenna is the consummate medical staff business consultant. His impressive depth of knowledge coupled with his common sense approach has led to successful resolution of a broad array of issues we have faced in managing the business organization, compensation, and management of our physicians and their practices. His words of wisdom and advice regarding physician integration are welcome in this turbulent time of reform and aggregation of health care entities.
    —Susan Mendelowitz, RN FACHE, President and COO, Bergen Regional Medical Center, Paramus, New Jersey
    Paul C. Mendelowitz, MD, MPH, Former Chief Medical Officer, Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, New Jersey

    No health care environment is tougher than New York. When change occurs, it is rapid and dramatic. We look to experts who have a proven track record of managing change, Mike La Penna assisted us with the development of an IPA that numbered over 5,000 providers and a dozen institutions at a time when managed care first emerged. He fashioned the governance as well as the value proposition for all of the stakeholders. I welcome any book that captures his expertise and experience.
    Dr. Anthony J. Gagliardi, M.D., Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, and Charter Trustee of SERVITAS IPA of Greater New York

    In this time of turmoil and turbulence in relations between hospitals and their medical staff members and with all the different models emerging, it is a help to have a concise review of the options along with practical examples of structure and governance and income distribution. This book is a primer on how hospitals and doctors can find common ground to move from independence to collaboration to some level of true integration.
    —Ahmed Abdelsalam, MD, FACS, Managing Partner, Chicagoland Retinal Consultants, LLC

    In the process of working in clinical and administrative medical positions for decades, I have had the pleasure of doing a number of joint projects with Mr. La Penna and his team. I am enthused to see that the experience and insight of his years of consulting in the hospital-physician ecosystem have finally made it into print. Anyone who is working with physician transactions will find some solace in knowing that some of us have been there before! This book suggests a number of ways to improve the reader's chances of succeeding in the very complex world of the new medical staff.
    William Cunningham, D.O., M.H.A., Assistant Dean College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University