Eyeworld

26 Ophthalmology Business • July 2017 approaches is that little change is expected, "then you've got a clear line with whatever strategic plan you have," Mr. Pinto said. "If, on the other hand, the word from the local intelligentsia is, 'You're not going to be able to have access to patients out- side of our health system,' then you need to rethink what you're doing." In terms of sensitive areas for the practice to avoid discussing, Mr. Pinto suggested just applying com- mon sense. "If you have strategically import- ant information that you don't want out of the bag, like where you're going to open a satellite office or a merger that's around the corner that is premature to announce, you certainly wouldn't want to answer questions that reveal what you don't want to disclose," Mr. Pinto said. Long-term effort Talking to others in the local health- care market should be an ongoing effort, Mr. Pinto said. "It's important to do this not just one time and say, 'We're done,' but to do it once a year to once every two years—depending on how kinetic your market is. Get back out there and ask the questions again," Mr. Pinto said. "Things could change." Practices have seen benefits from such long-term dialogue. One client of Mr. Pinto's cited the relationship such discussions built with a hospi- tal for leading that organization to ask the practice to join its diabetic screening program. OB Contact information Pinto: pintoinc@aol.com Kropiewnicki: mkrop@healthcaregroup.com "We've talked to executive di- rectors at large multispecialty clinics who are plugged into what is hap- pening," Mr. Pinto said. "We'll often talk to ambulatory care business directors from expanding health sys- tems that are growing beyond their original acute care mission. We even talk to health management professors at local universities." Healthcare management depart- ment educators often use their local marketplaces as labs to understand changes happening in the overall healthcare system. Additionally, you can talk to include local optometrists, especially if you're looking to add services that might benefit from their referrals, Mr. Kropiewnicki said. "You want to make sure that the optometrists who are other- wise happy with your services and willing to refer to you understand what else you've got available," Mr. Kropiewnicki said. "If they're happy doing it for the cataract work, why wouldn't they do it for glaucoma work?" What to ask Questions practice leaders should ask local healthcare leaders include: What is the current status of the healthcare system in the local area? How do they see that changing over the next decade? If the healthcare leader was CEO of their practice, what would they be doing differently to meet the future they envision? Who else should the practice leader meet with to get a better understand- ing of how the local market will align? "Those questions get you the answers you need to be able to make your own internal strategic deci- sions," Mr. Pinto said. For example, if the opinion of the people a practice leader health system or hospital and sit down for half an hour and talk shop," Mr. Pinto said. "They're trying to learn about the community in their own right. By meeting with you they might learn something about what is happening in the eyecare space." Mr. Pinto noted that hospitals and health systems can complicate a practice's plans in ways beyond expanding their own eye services or buying up ophthalmology practices. For instance, those organizations may be developing their own insur- ance products with provider net- works that exclude the practice. Mark E. Kropiewnicki, pres- ident and attorney, Health Care Law Associates, Philadelphia, said hospitals and insurers would likely have access to local information on demographics, trends, catchment areas where people are coming from, and the services that are needed. Although hospitals may not have much of an ophthalmology-specific focus, they at least have information that would be effective for medical practices generally. That type of information can help practices figure out where it's best to place new satel- lite offices. Mr. Kropiewnicki identified the launching of satellite offices as a trend in some regions, which is spurred by practices realizing they need to look at different areas with higher population growth or better patient demographics if they want to expand. "Nowadays the idea is, 'We will buy up a guy in the next town over, and then we already have a ready- made patient base and can increase our marketing from that base,'" Mr. Kropiewnicki said. Others to talk to include senior provider-relations representatives at regionally important payers. continued from page 24

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