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How to Open a Medical Practice

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Starting your own medical practice can be an exciting and rewarding endeavor, but it also requires careful planning and execution. Here are a few things to consider in order to successfully open a medical practice:

1. Setup Legal Entity

Each state has their own laws on what is required with respect to the type of legal entity required for a medical practice. Additionally, these laws also specify who can legally own a practice.

2. Choose a Location

Select a convenient and accessible location for your practice. Consider factors like demographics, competition, zoning laws, and the availability of necessary infrastructure and resources, as well as whether you intend to own or lease the space.

3. Complete Payor Credentialing

Research what the insurance companies require for credentialing. Complete and submit required applications well in advance of opening. Approval can take up to 6 months!

4. Set Up Your Finances

Determine your startup costs, secure funding through investors or loans, and establish business banking and accounting systems. Ensure you have adequate insurance coverage as well.

5. Hire and Train Your Team

Recruit qualified medical and administrative staff to support the day-to-day operations of your practice. Provide comprehensive training to ensure a smooth patient experience.

6. Invest in the Right Equipment and Technology

Equip your practice with the necessary medical equipment, supplies, and technology to deliver high-quality care and streamline your operations.

7. Develop Policies and Procedures

Establish clear policies and procedures for patient intake, appointment scheduling, billing, record-keeping, and other essential functions.

8. Market Your Practice

Develop a comprehensive marketing plan to attract new patients and build your brand. This may include a website, social media presence, local advertising, and community outreach.

  1. Choose an EMR and Billing System. Implement a billing system to ensure that you can accurately bill patients and insurance companies for your services. This may involve hiring a billing specialist or using a third-party billing service. Choose an EMR that is right for you.

10. Continuously Improve and Adapt

Monitor your practice’s performance, gather patient feedback, and make adjustments as needed to optimize your operations and better serve your patients.

Opening a medical practice requires a significant investment of time, effort, and resources, but with careful planning and execution, you can build a thriving and successful healthcare business.

Does it feel a bit overwhelming? Looking for a startup medical practice consultant? We provide a turnkey solution for all your startup needs. Having experience opening multiple practices across various states and specialties, let us help you! We have established relationships with each of the vendors needed above.

Need help after opening? We can assist with that, too! Whether you need us to manage the entire back-office or just provide medical billing, we can help!

Interested in learning more? On our website, you can schedule a FREE consultation. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to Open a Medical Practice

Private Practice Finds New Hope with Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting

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LEROY, NY —Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting and Management is bringing private practice back for doctors across the country. The consulting firm provides a comprehensive solution to help physicians open and operate successful private practices.

After years of declining private practice numbers, Cornerstone aims to revive this model of care. The company currently has a presence in 17 states, managing all aspects of private practice operations. This allows doctors to focus on patient care rather than administrative burdens.

“We believe private practice provides the best care experience for both doctors and patients,” said Melissa (Missy) Starowitz, Owner of Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting. “Our goal is to make private practice a viable and rewarding choice once again.”

In 2023 alone, Cornerstone supported numerous new practice openings. The company has an ambitious expansion plan for 2024, with many more private practices in the pipeline across several new states.

“The response from doctors has been tremendous,” Starowitz said. “We provide everything needed to run an independent practice, from finding office space to hiring staff to managing billing. Doctors can finally practice medicine on their terms.”

Cornerstone’s unique model offers hope for the future of private practice in America. As the company empowers more physicians to open their own clinics, it’s bringing personalized care back to communities nationwide.

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

Contact

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

Private Practice Finds New Hope With Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting

Buyout Should Be a Future Plan, Not an Emergency!

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It’s no secret that the healthcare industry is in a state of flux. Many things have led to changes in the way doctors and hospitals do business, and those changes are only going to become more widespread in the coming years. For many physicians, this means that now is the time to start thinking about buyout as a future plan, rather than an emergency measure. In the video embedded below, we’ll explore why buyout should be a key part of your long-term career strategy, and we’ll offer some tips on how to make it happen. So read on – your future may

depend on it!

Succession planning should not become a contentious debate among physician partners; however, at Cornerstone, we have frequently witnessed this happen with multiple medical practices. Sadly, the topic typically goes years of never being discussed, to suddenly coming up because of situations that require emergency planning, and/or junior partners possessing a feeling of being treated unfairly. With respect to the latter, don’t even think about joining a medical practice as a partner unless you’ve had the tough questions answered first. For example, ask about call schedule requirements, how money is dispersed, what happens when a partner begins to plan to retire, such as an OBGYN who discontinues doing OB, etc. Once your questions are answered to your satisfaction, then make sure they are in writing before you sign.

A part of the succession planning discussion should be physician partner buyouts, and how to plan for that. A buyout is not always the result of retirement. The discussion should also be focused on a partner becoming disabled, as well as if the need arose to terminate a partner prior to retirement. When it comes to buyout, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The first step is to sit down with your partners and hash out the details. In the video embedded below, we sat with Jim Ginnane and Alex Heringer from Planned Futures Financial to ask them a few questions for how to prepare for buyout. Here are the questions we asked them:

  1. At what point should the owners start exit planning?
  2. What are the different types of buy/sell agreements?
  3. What do you do when the potential successor (s) don’t have sufficient money to buy you out?
  4. What are the usual funding vehicles for buy/sell agreements?

As you can see, succession planning is important for any medical practice. By taking the time to develop a plan and put measures in place to ensure a smooth transition, your practice can survive – even thrive – after you retire or move on. If you are preparing for a buyout, make sure you work with an experienced team of advisors who can help guide you through the process and minimize disruptions to patient care. Want more tips like this? Check out our blog page! Need some guidance? Schedule a consultation today!

Buyout Should Be a Future Plan, Not an Emergency

Reduce Medical Practice Expenses

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Reduce Medical Practice Expenses

Are you struggling to keep your medical practice financially stable? Searching for effective ways to cut costs and boost your bottom line? You’re not alone. In this post, we’ll share our proven strategies to reduce medical practice expenses—including how we helped one practice save an impressive $260,000!

A frequent concern among physicians is the frustrating reality of working harder while earning less. On one hand, declining reimbursements and relentless claim denials from insurance companies are well-known challenges. But what about the other side of the equation? Have you taken a closer look at your practice’s spending—where the money is going and how it’s being used?

When Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting and Management evaluates your practice, one of the first items we request is a detailed expense report from the past 12 months. This report provides valuable insights into areas where you may be overspending, allowing us to identify quick wins for cost savings.

For instance, we prioritize analyzing your medical supply and medical waste expenses. In the case of medical waste, one vendor in particular has a reputation for overcharging medical practices. By addressing this issue, we have helped clients save thousands of dollars on waste management alone.

To illustrate, here’s an example from a former client with two locations. Their original vendor was significantly overcharging for waste services, but after switching to a new vendor, they achieved substantial savings. The comparison below highlights the costs under the previous vendor versus the current one, along with the total savings realized.

This case represented significant cost savings for the client, and while it might seem like an isolated incident, it was far from unique. Time and again, when we encounter this particular vendor, it’s clear the client is overpaying. Many medical practices are simply unaware that alternatives exist. Even when they suspect other vendors might be available, they often have no idea where to begin their search.

Compounding the issue, clients frequently find themselves locked into restrictive contracts, believing there’s no way out. This vendor has even faced a lawsuit in New York for breaching contractual law by failing to notify clients within the required 60 days that their contracts were set to renew. As a result, many practices were unknowingly locked into extended agreements at inflated rates. Thankfully, the lawsuit was resolved in favor of the clients, setting a precedent we’ve successfully used to help other clients break free from these contracts.

We always take a close look at the vendors practices use for their medical supplies, as some are notorious for overcharging. We recommend a preferred medical supply vendor that many physicians aren’t even aware of. In every instance we’ve worked with them, they’ve saved our clients over 20% on supply costs. In some cases, simply switching to this vendor has prompted the previous supplier to suddenly match those lower prices—proof that they were charging more than necessary all along. The problem is, if no one is monitoring year-over-year price increases or exploring alternative vendors, these overcharges go unnoticed, allowing suppliers to continue inflating costs.

Employee benefits present another significant opportunity for cost savings. As highlighted in our previous blog, The One-Stop Shop for Doctors, both retirement and health plans often require careful review and updates. Within the Cornerstone Network, we collaborate with trusted professionals who consistently deliver exceptional results for our clients.

For retirement planning, as well as life and disability insurance, we rely on Planned Futures Financial. Specializing in the medical industry, they’ve proven to be a valuable partner. In one notable case, they saved a client over $40,000 by reducing retirement plan expenses, lowering group disability insurance costs, and eliminating TPA fees.

For health insurance, Azeros Health Plans is our go-to solution. Co-owners Ron Zoeller and Kevin Gannon bring years of experience from running their own companies before founding Azeros together. Beyond optimizing health plans, we also work closely with Azeros on Direct Primary Care initiatives, further streamlining healthcare costs for our clients.

By leveraging these strategic partnerships, we help ensure our clients maximize savings while maintaining top-tier benefits for their teams.

Our primary goal is to help you save money, but we also believe in ensuring you have the right resources to run your practice effectively. If that means recommending a new vendor that might cost a bit more but provides the coverage you truly need, we won’t hesitate to do so. One example of this is your business insurance.

We work closely with Steinmiller Insurance, specialists in medical practice coverage. They have a deep understanding of HIPAA regulations and the critical importance of data protection. When reviewing your current insurance, they may be able to match your coverage and save you money. However, they might also identify gaps in your coverage and recommend adding essential protections. While this could increase costs slightly, it could save you from much larger risks down the road.

When analyzing your expenses, we go beyond just targeting the obvious or the biggest costs. Our approach is comprehensive—we meticulously review every detail, big or small. Beyond providing recommendations, we actively assist in implementing them. From expense analysis and vendor negotiations to executing changes, we’re with you every step of the way. Our experience spans everything from inventory audits and installing new phone systems to transitioning from server-based EMR to cloud-based solutions.

As insurance reimbursements continue to decline, reducing expenses has become a top priority for medical practices. Let us help you streamline your operations and cut costs. Schedule a consultation today, and let’s get started!

Medical Practice Marketing – Getting Started!

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As a physician, you are among the brightest individuals in the country! You have survived years of rigorous schooling and training, learning words most of us cannot even pronounce. But this new era of marketing has got you scratching your head in confusion. From social media to google reviews, and beyond, you don’t even know where to start. Good news! That’s where we come in!

As fellow healthcare professionals, we understand all that you are up against. In addition to providing marketing, we are working with physicians to help them sustain their medical practices; also, we are opening new medical practices, providing practice management support and more. Who better to be the voice for physicians than a company who is living in their world, slaying the same giants? Commonly, physicians will say things such as, “I don’t understand this social media stuff”; or “We never had to worry about marketing until now, we just worked really hard providing great care, and the patients followed”. That was the era prior to Google ads, social media, and private equity backed medical groups. Let’s talk about what that all means.

As a minimum, practices need a decent website, and a social media presence. That’s assuming you have a practice name and are not just using your legal name. It may sound silly to say that, but we had a client who never had a name beyond their legal name that used their last names. They sounded more like an accounting or law firm. Prior to retaining Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting, they retained a well-known, expensive marketing agency, with the intention of identifying a name and a brand. That consulting agency charged them $15,000 but never provided them a name they liked. So, the marketing agency made out quite nicely, and the practice walked away with $15,000 less in their bank and no name. When Cornerstone came on board, we ran a contest among the staff, allowing them to propose a name they thought the practice should adopt. Upon review of the staff suggestions, they ended up selecting one of them as the new practice name, without paying $15,000. From there, we were able to coordinate the design of a practice logo, website, social media, and more.

Most of the time, physicians recognize the need for a good website. They realize a website is the present-day version of the yellow pages. However, they don’t always grasp the importance of social media. Why is social media important? This is where potential patients are! When patients need a new physician, the first places they are likely going to are Google, and possibly Facebook. On Google they are checking out your reviews, and on Facebook, they are reviewing your photos to get a sense of who you are, what the environment is like, etc. Beyond that, content is king! While we are all looking for the quick easy fix to increase our website search engine optimization (SEO), it is often the same laundry list of tasks that need to be done to be successful in that endeavor, with one of the items on the list being content creation.

It’s not just potential patients who are reviewing your social media accounts, but also potential employees. Like potential patients, potential employees are checking out your Facebook pictures, attempting to gain a sense of what the environment is like, if the staff look friendly, etc. The social media pages can say a lot about the practice. One of the ways Cornerstone seeks to be different, is we shy away from boring “corporate-like” posts that have the look of desperation for just putting content out. We take pride in being personable, promoting the physicians and staff, and the amazing things they are doing. Also, because of our healthcare background, we actually have some knowledge for what we are promoting. This is especially useful when generating blogs, and how certain topics may create more patient questions than answers. Understanding the practice operations significantly helps as well. It allows us to consider how the marketing will impact the staff answering the phones, and other practice logistics. And let’s not forget about HIPAA! Yes, we are well informed of those laws, abiding by them regarding patient photos, information, etc. Working with a marketing agency that does not understand these laws can leave a practice vulnerable.

 We understand it is a big jump for most practices to agree to launch social media pages. The big question they often have is which pages are needed to get started. There are many ways to answer this question, such as based on specialty, target market, etc. First and foremost, a Google Business page is a necessity. If you want to keep it simple, a Facebook page is a great start. If your practice isn’t quite ready to spend the money on a marketing agency, there are lots of resources that are easy to use, and either very affordable, or even free. A few examples of these resources are as follows:

Canva – Allows you to create attractive content. There is both a free version, as well as a very affordable Pro version. There are already custom sized templates available per the size requirements of the social media platform you are posting on.

InShot and CapCut – Video editing apps for your phone that are very easy to navigate. CapCut even has a shortcut version that designs videos using the content you populate it with. Like Canva, they offer both a free version, as well as very affordable pro versions.

Hootsuite – Looking for efficiency, with the ability to post the same content across multiple platforms? Hootsuite is a great option. The free version allows you to add up to three of your social media platforms.

Later.com – When browsing Instagram, you may have seen the Link in Bio feature. To add this feature, you can do so for free on Later.com. Like Hootsuite, you can schedule and publish social media posts from this one location. Their free version offers up to 15 social media platforms.

MailChimp – In need of something to help you with email marketing? MailChimp provides a free version that allows you to have up to 2,000 contacts.  

Many of the above resources can integrate with other programs. MailChimp, for example, can integrate with Facebook, as well as Survey Monkey, who you may be using for your patient satisfaction surveys. If that all still sounds way too confusing, and you just want to outsource your marketing, give Cornerstone a call! We will work with you on a plan that complements your practice in all the best ways possible, including affordability.

Lastly, once medical practices make the decision to develop a marketing program, they tend to get a bit overzealous and want us to dive into everything immediately. While we love and respect your enthusiasm, you will hear us recite the need to first form a foundation for which we can build from. Marketing isn’t the only service we recite the need for a foundation. In fact, I think we recite that for all our service lines, because we think it’s that important. With respect to marketing, it must start with a website, then social media, so on and so forth. Google ads for example, can be very effective, but without an established website, you are limiting the effectiveness. In addition to Google ads, once the foundation is laid, we can work on patient satisfaction programs, physician referral programs, and more. Interested to learn more about how Cornerstone Healthcare Consulting can help you with your marketing needs? Click HERE to schedule a consult!

Medical Practice Marketing

Making Private Medical Practices Sustainable

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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