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Reducing Medical Practice Expenses

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Do you feel like you are constantly fighting to keep your medical practice afloat? Are you looking for ways to reduce your expenses and improve your bottom line? If so, you’re not alone. In this post, we’ll explain our approach to reducing medical practice expenses, and how we saved one practice as much as $260,000!

A common concern echoed by physicians is the issue of working more yet earning less. On one side of the equation, everyone knows reimbursements continue to decline and insurance companies are always looking for reasons to deny your claims. We could get on a soapbox as to why you should consider Direct Primary Care/Direct Specialty Care, but we’ll save that for a different post. But what about the other side of the equation? Have you evaluated how much the practice is spending, and on what?

When Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting is retained to evaluate your practice, one of the first things we will ask you for is a copy of an expense report from the last 12 months. This report will provide us with a few initial clues for the low hanging fruit of where you are paying too much. For example, we will immediately review your medical supply costs, as well as medical waste costs. With respect to medical waste, there is a certain vendor that is notorious for ripping off medical practices. We have saved practices thousands of dollars just in medical waste services because of this vendor. To give you an example, below represents a former client who had waste services with this vendor for two of their locations. It shows what they were paying for medical waste with the former vendor versus what they are now paying with the new vendor, and total savings.

Evidently, this was a large savings, and it may seem like this was a one-time occurrence. However, it was not. Whenever we see this vendor, we know the client is paying too much money. Often, the medical practice is unaware there is a different choice than that vendor. Even if they assumed there must be an alternate vendor to the one they are using, they have no idea who that would be. Additionally, they often get locked into contracts and see it as impossible to get out. This particular vendor has been sued in the State of New York for violating contractual law, not notifying the client their contracts were set to expire within 60 days. As a result, the clients were locked into another year or more, paying these prices. Fortunately, the lawsuit against them was a success. Therefore, we have been successful in getting clients out of existing contracts with this vendor, citing the recent lawsuit.

Similarly, we always look to see who the practice is using for their medical supplies. There are a couple culprit vendors that are known to charge too much. We have a preferred medical supply vendor we like to work with, who many physicians don’t even know exist. Each time we have worked with them, they have saved our clients more than 20% on medical supply costs. Also, we have had scenarios where practices have switched to them, and suddenly their former vendor is willing to match those prices. That confirms they can significantly lower their prices. But if no one is watching the pricing as it goes up year to year, and no one knows there are options for other vendors, then they will continue to get away with charging too much.

            Another area for big savings is within employee benefits. As mentioned in a previous blog titled, The One-Stop Shop for Doctors, both the retirement plan and health plan are often in need of review and revision. Within the Cornerstone Network, we have professionals we regularly work with, who have been incredibly resourceful in assisting our clients. Planned Futures Financial primarily deals in the medical industry and is our go-to when it comes to retirement planning as well as life and disability insurance. One client they saved over $40,000 between what was saved in reducing their retirement plan expenses and group disability insurance, as well as eliminating the cost of their TPA. Azeros Health Plans is our go-to for health insurance costs. Co-owners Ron Zoeller and Kevin Gannon previously operated their own companies for years before opening Azeros together. In addition to assisting us with health plans, we also work with Azeros on Direct Primary Care initiatives.

            Although our intent is to save you money, it is also our responsibility to ensure you have the proper resources to operate your practice. If it means we need to recommend a new vendor that may cost you a little money, but you are properly covered, we will do that. One area this could happen, is with your business insurance. We collaborate with Steinmiller Insurance, who are well versed in understanding medical practice coverage needs. They are very familiar with the HIPAA laws, as well as the need for data protection. Upon reviewing your current insurance coverage, they may match what you have and save you money. But they may also suggest adding important coverage that you do not currently have, which will cost you a little more, but could protect you in a big way.

When evaluating your expenses, we don’t just go for the low hanging fruit, or the large expenses. We will thoroughly review everything, both big and small. In addition to the recommended changes, we will help facilitate them! From reviewing expenses, to negotiating with vendors, to executing the change. We have done everything from counting inventory to helping to install new phone systems to assisting with the transition form server based EMR to cloud based EMR.

With insurance reimbursements declining the ability for medical practices to reduce expenses is a top priority. We can help you! Schedule a consult today, so we can get started!

The One-Stop Shop for Doctors!

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After years of consulting for doctors and medical practices, Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting has built a network of highly regarded business professionals to collaborate with. When consulting, we often discover similar problems at each practice. A couple common denominators are in the areas of benefits, as well as human resources. As we tackle practice level problems, it is not unusual for us to identify individual physician problems, such as poor retirement planning or lack thereof, and more. Let’s dive in further to how we collaborate with some of these great professionals and provide solutions for physicians!

We recently coined the term, One-Stop Shop for Doctors! As a physician centric healthcare consulting company, we seek to provide solutions to physicians whether they are a solo practitioner, employed by a group, and/or own their own practice. We could provide examples for how we are assisting physicians in each of these areas of employment. Whether it is to manage their social media, providing them brand identity as a hospital employee, to open them a practice, or fix an existing one, we can do it all. And in the areas, we may not have the skillset or expertise to provide, we can facilitate solutions through top professionals within what we call the Cornerstone Network.

When consulting for medical practices, employee benefits is regularly an area in need of repair. The two areas of benefits we have found big savings in are the retirement plan, as well as health plan. Typically, what happens is the practice selects a broker relationship in both these areas years prior. Over time, the brokers earn a commission for essentially doing nothing. Annually, health plan premiums go up, and practices just accept that as a norm and move on, and the retirement plan goes under the radar, without regard to what percentage rate the practice is paying, how the investments are doing, etc. When providing healthcare consulting services, Cornerstone reviews everything; the practice owners are shocked by the findings. We have discovered practices paying over 2% on their retirement plans, egregious TPA costs, inappropriate employee fees, etc. One private practice, we saved them close to $40,000 on their retirement plan!

When reviewing practice health plans, we could take the easy route and just look for lower cost options, but that isn’t really providing a solution. Instead, we take a hard look at the practice size and opportunities that exist as a result. For example, one practice was large enough to become partially self-funded in the State of New York. As a result, they were scheduled to save as much as $30,000 in the first year, and no less than $8,000. Each year, as they better understood their annual expenditure, they could become more aggressive in their risk and potential savings.

Planned Futures Financial is who Cornerstone collaborates with to tackle medical practice retirement plans. In working with Planned Futures Financial, they also review the practice’s Group Life and Disability Insurance, as well as whether a practice has buy-sell insurance. We regularly discover that most practice owners have no idea what buy-sell insurance is, and upon learning about it, wish they had started a policy years prior. Although buy-sell insurance is necessary, before purchasing a policy there should be a succession plan in place. Sadly, most practices we have consulted for have avoided the topic of succession planning, and it regularly becomes a topic for debate. There are many pieces of advice we could provide to a physician considering becoming a partner in a practice, but one of the most important things we could tell you, is to ensure there is a succession plan first. Each specialty has their uniqueness as well. For example, within an OBYN practice it is important to discuss how partners are treated financially once they stop doing obstetrics. These conversations are important early on, as many times they do not end positively if discussed later. Need a good healthcare attorney to support you in these discussions? We have that relationship as well! If employee benefits are being reviewed, it is imperative to also review your human resource department entirely. Often time, we see practices without job descriptions for their staff, or job descriptions that are paper written and haven’t been updated in more than ten years. If the job descriptions haven’t been updated or are non-existent, the employee benefits manual is also either in severe need for an update or non-existent. It’s always baffling to us how practices are hiring without either a job description or an employee manual. It’s inappropriate and there is nothing to hold staff accountable. As you may have assumed, we unfortunately discover these practices have toxic employees that have contributed to many of their organizational problems, but the practice has no process for disciplining them and/or terminating them. Therefore, they are allowed to continue to spread toxicity, of which invariably leads to other toxic employees joining them.

Has your medical practice had a check-up lately? Just having us review an expense report could save you thousands of dollars! Or maybe your practice is in great shape, but you’re unsure if you yourself have the best retirement planning in place, or proper disability insurance. Or maybe your practice is running smoothly but has no idea how to market on social media. Or maybe you’re a physician who is employed by a hospital, needing help with maintaining your own brand identity, and how to market that. Whatever it is, we can help! Click here to visit our website to learn more about our healthcare consulting services and schedule a consult!

Cornerstone and Azeros Introduce Health Plan Innovation

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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) Marsocci, 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.

Ms. Marsocci 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) Marsocci, missymarsocci@cm-hi.com, 585.409.7624

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

Fighting to Lower Health Plan Costs!

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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.