Welcome to Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting & Management

#healthcareconsulting

The One-Stop Shop for Doctors!

by

The One-Stop Shop for Doctors

With extensive experience consulting for doctors and medical practices, Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting and Management has built a trusted network of esteemed business professionals. Through our work, we’ve identified recurring challenges that many practices encounter, particularly in the areas of employee benefits and human resources. Beyond practice-level concerns, we often discover individual challenges faced by physicians, such as insufficient retirement planning or a complete lack of strategy. By partnering with exceptional experts, we deliver customized solutions designed to support both the operational needs of practices and the personal goals of physicians.

We proudly call ourselves the “One-Stop Shop for Doctors.” As a physician-focused healthcare consulting company, our mission is to provide tailored solutions for doctors, whether they are solo practitioners, part of a group, or practice owners. We specialize in addressing their unique needs, from managing social media and building a strong personal brand as a hospital employee to launching a new practice or revitalizing an existing one.

For every challenge, we bring expertise and dedication. And in areas where additional specialized skills are needed, we collaborate with top professionals within our trusted Cornerstone Network to ensure comprehensive, high-quality solutions. Whatever the scenario, we’re here to support physicians every step of the way.

When consulting for medical practices, we often find that employee benefits are an area in dire need of improvement. Two major categories where significant savings can be achieved are retirement plans and health plans.

In many cases, practices establish broker relationships for these benefits years earlier and then leave them unchecked. Over time, these brokers continue to earn commissions while offering little to no added value. Health plan premiums steadily increase each year, and many practices simply accept these hikes as inevitable. Meanwhile, retirement plans often go unnoticed, with practices unaware of the high percentage rates they’re paying, the performance of their investments, or the hidden fees involved.

At Cornerstone, our healthcare consulting services include a thorough review of employee benefits, and the results often leave practice owners stunned. We’ve uncovered retirement plans with fees exceeding 2%, excessive TPA costs, and inappropriate employee charges. For example, we recently helped one private practice save nearly $40,000 on their retirement plan alone.

By taking a closer look at these critical areas, practices can unlock substantial savings while providing better benefits for their employees.

When evaluating practice health plans, simply opting for the cheapest option might seem convenient, but it doesn’t truly address the needs of the practice. Instead, we take a comprehensive approach, analyzing the practice’s size and exploring opportunities that align with its unique circumstances. For instance, we worked with a practice in New York that was large enough to transition to a partially self-funded model. This strategic shift was projected to save them up to $30,000 in just the first year. Over time, as they gained a clearer understanding of their annual expenditures, they were able to take on more calculated risks, unlocking even greater savings.

At Cornerstone, we partner with Planned Futures Financial to address retirement plans for medical practices. Beyond retirement planning, we also evaluate a practice’s Group Life and Disability Insurance and assess whether a buy-sell insurance policy is in place. Surprisingly, many practice owners are unfamiliar with buy-sell insurance and, upon learning its purpose, often regret not initiating a policy sooner. While buy-sell insurance is crucial, it’s important to establish a clear succession plan before purchasing a policy.

Unfortunately, succession planning is a topic many practices avoid, often leading to contentious discussions down the line. For physicians considering partnership in a medical practice, one of the most valuable pieces of advice we can offer is to ensure that a robust succession plan is in place from the outset.

Each medical specialty brings its own considerations. For instance, in OBGYN practices, it’s essential to determine how partners are financially handled once they stop performing obstetrics. These important conversations, if delayed, often lead to conflict, so addressing them early is key.

Need support navigating these critical discussions? We can connect you with experienced healthcare attorneys to guide the process and ensure your practice’s long-term success.

When reviewing employee benefits, it’s crucial to take a comprehensive look at your human resources department as a whole. Far too often, we encounter practices operating without proper job descriptions for staff, or relying on outdated, paper-based descriptions that haven’t been revised in over a decade. If job descriptions are missing or obsolete, it’s likely that the employee benefits manual is also outdated—or doesn’t exist at all.

It’s surprising how frequently we see practices hiring staff without a clear job description or an employee manual. This lack of structure not only creates accountability issues but also leaves the organization vulnerable. Unsurprisingly, these situations often lead to workplaces plagued by toxic employees, who contribute significantly to operational challenges. Without established processes for addressing misconduct or managing termination, these problems escalate unchecked.

When was the last time your medical practice got a check-up? A simple review of your expense report could save you thousands of dollars. Perhaps your practice is thriving, but you’re unsure if your personal retirement plan is optimized or if you have adequate disability insurance. Maybe your operations are running smoothly, but you’re struggling to navigate social media marketing. Or you could be a hospital-employed physician looking to maintain your personal brand and improve how you market yourself. Whatever your needs, we’re here to help! Visit our website to explore our healthcare consulting services and schedule a consultation today.

Cornerstone and Azeros Introduce Health Plan Innovation

by

BUFFALO, NY, November 18, 2021- Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting and Azeros Health Plans intend to bring change to Western New York healthcare delivery and funding. “Our goal is not to do what is easy,” says Melissa (Missy) Starowitz, Owner of Cornerstone. “We will do what is necessary for the employer community that to date has been ill-served by the healthcare infrastructure.” 

Azeros designs health plans that provide quality care and lower costs to employers. Cornerstone provides consulting and marketing services to medical professionals and practices. Combining their collective backgrounds, the companies have teamed up to introduce the region to Direct Primary Care (DPC) supported by an Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO).

The EPO model provides physicians an independence from the “Mother – May I?” oversight of health insurers and the outdated fee-for-service medicine that complicates billing and payment.  Under the DPC model, new clinics offer employees experience greater access to primary care at a fixed monthly payment and zero co-pays for the care. When combined with an international specialty pharmacy program, employers save 20% off current costs.

Mrs. Starowitz formerly owned urgent care centers and developed tailored programs such as college student telemedicine and occupational health combined with on-site health centers.    

Azeros CEO Ron Zoeller was the founder and CEO of North American Health Plans in 1983, which administered self-funded plans for over 400 groups and 400,000 members, paying $2 billion in annual claims. Azeros partner Kevin Gannon, an employee benefits broker over 35 years, was the founder/President of Niagara Benefits Group and later led the growth of M & T Benefits Agency.

While building the Western New York EPO, the companies will introduce employers to Direct Primary Care vendors PeopleOne Health and Everside Health. The DPC converts an existing medical facility or builds a new clinic at their expense.

The EPO is not exclusive to primary care providers or those operating with a DPC model. The EPO network extends a much-needed opportunity to all physician specialty types by offering them independence, visit capacity and cost control. Cornerstone and Azeros are excited to share this model with the physicians and employers of Western New York.

About Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting and Management

Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting is a physician-centric company with the experience, expertise, and resources to assist physicians in many aspects of their professional lives. They offer an array of services for individual physicians or entire practices including marketing and branding needs, sustainable organizational change, and opening new practices. For more information visit their website at cornerstonehealthcareconsulting.com

About Azeros Health Plans, LLC

Azeros Health Plans is the only Managing General Administrator in the self-funded insured health plan industry. They provide employers with transparency and plans that significantly reduce their costs, as well as offer an international pharmacy benefits program to help employers save on prescription drug costs. For more information visit their website at azeros1.com

Contact

Cornerstone: Melissa (Missy) Starowitz, mstarowitz@cm-hi.com, 585.409.7624

Azeros: Kevin Gannon, k.gannon@azeros1.com, 716.913.4789

Cornerstone and Azeros Introduce Health Plan Innovation

IV Hydration Therapy! All You Need to Know!

by

The benefits of IV hydration therapy are vast. To most people, it is a luxury to get intravenous fluids when feeling under the weather or after surgery. But at Vivify Hydration Lounge and Medispa in Batavia, NY vitamins provided intravenously can also be used to help prevent inflammation and dehydration in athletes, busy moms with toddlers running around their feet, patients with chronic illness in need of supplementation, or someone who just wants to look better and feel better!

Our recent Tune in Tuesday interview was with Michelle Maniace, owner of Vivify Hydration Lounge and Medispa. In the video below, she will tell you all about IV hydration therapy so you can decide for yourself if this is something that would benefit you or someone you know. In the video, she makes an interesting point regarding the benefit of receiving vitamins intravenously versus orally. She says that an issue with taking vitamins orally, is that when processed through the digestive system, your body is not always absorbing them, and therefore not receiving the intended benefits. However, with IV vitamins, they go directly into your bloodstream, allowing for 100% absorption.

When asked who the ideal candidate would be for IV Hydration therapy, Michelle said it could essentially be anyone, although she emphasized the significant benefits for patients with chronic conditions, as well as bariatric patients. She said patients with Cancer undergoing chemotherapy, benefit from intravenous vitamin C, among others. Additionally, she spoke about other infusions that can benefit patients with autoimmune disorders for example, such as one IV pack that assists in the detoxification of the liver.

IV therapy isn’t just for those who are sick though. It also benefits athletes, as well as those who are looking to improve the appearance of their skin through some biotin, and other intravenous vitamins. And, lest we forget…did you drink a little too much last night? No worries, Michelle has you covered with her hangover package.

Interested to learn more? Listen to the video below.

IV Hydration Therapy! All You Need to Know

Need help opening your medical or wellness practice? Click here to learn more!

Fighting to Lower Health Plan Costs!

by

Fighting to Lower Health Plan Costs

From the humble Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga to the owner of a large health plan, consisting of 400,000 members and clients such as the University of Notre Dame, Dunkin Donuts and Fisher-Price Toys, Ron Zoeller knows all there is to know about health insurance.

Similarly, his business partner, Kevin Gannon, one of eight children raised in Lackawanna, New York, rose from his beginnings as a broker of life insurance, to owning and selling his own brokerage, to joining Ron in the development of Azeros Health Plans in 2019.

As the only Managing General Administrator in the Self-Funded health insurance industry, Azeros is about more than selling employer health plans. Using their combined years’ worth of experience, they are seeking to partner with employers to seek solutions that improve their bottom line and positively benefit their employees. Companies possessing 100+ employees will benefit in becoming self-funded by removing the “fat” that goes toward health insurance admin and brokerage fees. Instead, they will pay dollar-for-dollar toward their expenses, ultimately saving significantly on their health plan costs.

Transitioning companies to self-funded health insurance isn’t the only way Ron and Kevin are saving money for their clients. Additionally, they employ the practice of Reference Based Pricing (RBP), as well as a prescription benefits management program that is saving employers as much as 30% on prescription costs! Never heard of RBP? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Typically, in-patient charges can result in charges that are 250-400% of Medicare. Through Reference Based Pricing, Azeros works to obtain charges that are 150-200% of Medicare, half of what they typically would be!

Interested to learn more about what Ron and Kevin and the Azeros team can do for your company? Listen to this video to learn more, as well as head to their website at www.azeros1.com There, you can use a tool they have named the “Under-Righter”, to see what savings you may be able to achieve. Under 100 employees? That’s okay, they can still assist your organization as a fully insured employer, including still being able to assist with the significant prescription medicine savings! And yes, even if your company has already renewed their annual plan, they can assist you at any time!

Listen in as Ron and Kevin discuss their backgrounds, what they’re working on now, and how Azeros and Cornerstone are collaborating to help both employers and physicians! Also, stick around for the end, when Ron tells us the story of when the Bills almost left Buffalo, and how he influenced them staying.

Physician-Centric Consulting Services!

by

Independent physicians need an ally.  Provider practices are consolidating everywhere.  Hospital systems are assuming control and purport to represent the physician perspective.  In a two-year period, the 2,800 U.S. hospital systems have bought 8,000 medical practices.

National health insurers are also in the fray, now buying regional medical groups.  United Healthcare has purchased the largest independent medical practice in Massachusetts.  United, Aetna, and Cigna aren’t yet a significant presence in Buffalo or Rochester, but when that occurs, relationships will change.

In this new environment, Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting and Management represents group practices, sole practitioners, and hospital – employed doctors.  Working as an employee for a healthcare system does not eliminate the need for an independent brand identity.

We are the physician’s “agent” – whatever is needed, we provide analysis and insight.   As important, we implement our recommendations.  Our functions can include marketing, branding, medical billing, the opening of a new practice, or a merger with another.  All services are confidential, of course.

Being aware of industry trends is essential to our business.  The rising cost of medical care to Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial (employer) budgets has put pressure on payer/provider relationships.

Western New York is not immune to the dynamic.  Why did UPMC/Pittsburgh, itself both a hospital system and health insurer, buy WCA Hospital in Jamestown?  Why did HealthNow Blue Cross allow itself to be taken over by Highmark/Pittsburgh and what will it mean to Buffalo providers?

The ultimate healthcare goal is to serve the patient; their needs get lost in the typical shuffle.  Health plan deductibles have increased dramatically, and some medical groups perform front-end credit checks on new patients.  Access to primary care is a major problem.

As Cornerstone moves forward, it has partnered with Azeros Health Plans in developing an Exclusive Provider Organization which offers visit capacity while eliminating co-pays.   The EPO model offers much needed physician independence, access to primary care, and cost control.

We want to be the trusted advisor of the medical practice.  No job is too big or too small.  Schedule a consultation via our website at www.cornerstonehealthcareconsulting.com.

Physician-Centric Consulting Services

Making Private Medical Practices Sustainable

by

In today’s world of big corporate health care systems, private medical practices are a space for patients who want a different experience and physicians who do not want to work in a big system structure. Private medical practices often face sustainability issues, many physicians find themselves looking at the possibility of selling or ceasing operations. Melissa Starowitz, the founder of Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting and Management, is an expert in healthcare administration and management, specializing in guiding private physician practices into a more sustainable future, increasing business and quality of patient care.

Starowitz has a long history of successfully running multiple practices of her own and was offering telemedicine well before the COVID-19 pandemic made it so popular. Now, she is working to help private practice physicians turn their business around with her unique and highly effective turnaround consulting method. Her goal is to keep private practices in business and allow practitioners to focus on their area of expertise, treating patients.

Starowitz‘s approach is distinctly different than most, setting her apart from other healthcare management consultants. Most consultants come in, review the practice, identify problem areas, develop a plan to address them, then leave. Starowitz explains that she takes a whole-picture approach, she is not just going to give a practice a once over and some suggestions. Instead, she conducts a thorough, very in-depth examination of the business, getting into the details about literally everything to gain a full perspective of how the business operates, and where things can be improved. Her goal is to reduce both operating costs and overhead, once she is done identifying areas and methods of improvement, she sticks around to implement them.

Starowitz focuses on areas that are often overlooked when practitioners are trying to figure out why their business is not sustainable. Part of the process is in-depth, confidential interviews with every member of the staff, and determining if personnel are in the right positions for their education and skills. It is often the case that someone who may not have the right skill set is making decisions about things like benefits packages, vendors, supply chain contracts, and more that end up costing the practice money. Starowitz goes through the practice top to bottom with a fine-tooth comb, then develops a detailed plan, specific to that practice’s needs, to move forward.

One of the areas that showcases Starowitz as a changemaker is that she is willing to do whatever it takes to help a private practice turn around its business and has the skills to back it up. She will do everything from implementing websites and marketing, doing social media, rebranding, engaging the staff, and more. A big part of the work is improving outdated technology, Starowitz is hands-on, she will install phone systems herself if need be!

Starowitz is passionate about high-quality medical care and is a shining example of an independent woman in business. She always had an entrepreneurial mindset, starting a lawn mowing business in college to support herself. Originally, she planned to study clinical medicine, eventually realizing her skills were better placed in management, where she made her passion for providing the best possible care for patients come to life. As an only parent to her young son, Starowitz is an amazing example of a driven businesswoman who has made her mark, building a business to meet her own needs as well as those of her clients. Learn more about Starowitz and her impressive model of turnaround consulting on her website, and connect with her on LinkedIn and Facebook!

Making Private Medical Practices Sustainable