Electronic Health Reporter

By Elliot Ziegelman, vice president of enterprise sales, ModMed.

The specialty healthcare landscape has experienced a rapid expansion of enterprise platform practices fueled by private equity activity and other consolidation of smaller practices. To support the operational needs of these larger-scale practices, many have structured as management service organizations (MSOs) and physician practice management (PPM) organizations to streamline operational workflows and services, such as revenue cycle management, billing, staffing, IT services, and more.

But with more practices consolidated under one entity, newer MSOs have found themselves juggling an excess of assets and disparate systems, which stand in the way of efficient growth. Enterprise practices will need to leverage the right mix of change management, process optimization, and innovative technology to prepare their newly restructured organizations for operational efficiency and scalability.

Put Communication First

Change isn’t easy, which is why it’s essential for enterprise leaders to communicate their vision for the future of the practice. While physicians may already be looped in, practice managers, billers, and others may be unsure what being part of an MSO or private equity–backed organization means, and what the future will look like for their practices.

Clearly communicating why the organization is consolidating software platforms or adopting a new patient communication solution, as it supports the new direction of the business, helps critical team members understand how this period of transition can benefit them in the long run and will ease potential resistance to that change. Additionally, they’ll have a clearer understanding of how they can support the practice throughout the transition.

Leveraging modernized patient communication platforms and proactively communicating business changes that affect patient delivery processes will also help keep a practice competitive and patient-friendly during times of consolidation. Nearly seven in 10 patients place importance on receiving text message reminders for upcoming appointments. A targeted solution is to adopt text messaging and web chat tools to  lower phone call volume, relieve burden on administrative staff, and reduce phone hold times for patients.

Centralizing all communication channels — from phone calls to text messages to voicemails — into a single platform where they can be triaged quickly is equally important. This doesn’t just help answer patients’ questions more quickly and help improve satisfaction and retention. It also enhances leadership’s visibility into practice communications, helping identify opportunities for improvement, standardization, and automation—key factors for rapidly evolving organizations.

Consolidate Disparate Systems

Streamlining workflows across the enterprise is essential for quality control, which in turn maximizes the value of the practice as a whole. During times of quick expansion and resource consolidation, it’s necessary for provider organizations to prioritize efficiency without compromising high-quality patient care.

Separate practices are likely to utilize different electronic health records (EHR) and practice management systems, so consolidating the various systems into an all-in-one solution will enable easier and quicker integration across all newly connected practices. Ultimately, this will improve data sharing and performance tracking of the combined enterprise in the long term.

Auditing existing solutions for redundancies and selecting the platforms that will work together can be time-consuming and complex, however, it’s one of the most important steps in setting up a newly merged organization for long-term success.

Centralize Analytics and Data

One of the keys to growth across an enterprise is consistency, which isn’t achievable without data-driven decision-making. However, without access to comprehensive cross-practice data and analytics, decisions are often made in silos, leading to inconsistent strategies and inefficiencies across the spectrum.

Analytics tools are crucial for gaining visibility into merging practices’ performance and enabling practices to drive value through improved patient care and reduced costs. While there are many options available for practice analytics software, some rise above the others with functionalities that are key to growing practices.

MSOs and enterprise practice leaders should look for tools that are fully integrated into existing systems and enable customizable and actionable reports. These tools should include features to easily display benchmarks across critical business indicators, such as clinical trends and finances. This allows practice leaders to have insight into how each practice is growing in balance with the others and where there are other opportunities for growth or financial savings.

Prioritize Partnership and Training

Adopting the right technology that can not only build value after accelerated expansion but also continue to scale along with the organization is an important piece of the puzzle. But finding a great platform isn’t enough. To maximize returns on investments into new or consolidated technologies, practice leaders should ensure that their solution vendors will act as true partners. Selecting vendors that provide direct deployment—rather than relying on third-party partners—can help organizations become more self-sufficient.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to maximizing efficiency and value across enterprise practices. However, identifying core obstacles to growth and developing targeted strategies to overcome them is the first step. Ultimately, by harnessing the right combination of technology, communication, and business growth strategies, MSOs can help build more agile, patient-centered practices that drive healthcare delivery and the expansion of their businesses.