Don’t Forget the Second Wave of WRVU Changes

by Karin Chernoff Kaplan, Managing Director

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The First Wave 2021 was the big year for WRVU changes associated with CMS’s extensive and far-reaching updates to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). The changes, designed to ultimately be budget neutral, restructured reimbursement to increase payments to cognitive specialists (such as primary care and other medical specialties) and reduce reimbursement to procedure-based specialists. […]

Building a Community Physician Network for Your AMC: 5 Things to Consider

by Rudd Kierstead, Principal

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Academic medical centers’ survival increasingly depends on strong relations with community physicians. More AMCs are developing their own community physician enterprises with the goal of supporting the tripartite mission of academic medicine. Even as AMC-led health systems consider new relationships with large independent physician practices and emerging practice aggregators, they must have a sound model […]

Assigning Proxy wRVUs for Physician Activity: Pros and Cons

by Richard Chasinoff, Director
and Monica Nuñez, Manager

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As hospitals and health systems continue to evaluate how they compensate physicians, some have expanded upon their work relative value unit (wRVU) based compensation models to include activities for which wRVUs may not currently be assigned. We are seeing this trend applied to administrative activities—such as attendance and participation in committee meetings—and clinical activities that […]

2023 High-Impact Initiatives: Emerging from the Crisis

by Mark Dubow, Director
and Meredith Inniger, Principal

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Leaders of hospitals and health systems face an array of difficult challenges as they move into 2023. In light of the challenges providers face, the Veralon team has identified high-impact initiatives that may help systems turn the corner for a brighter 2023. Briefly, the challenges include: Weakened balance sheets that limit capital available for new […]

Podcast: Physician Practice Mergers and Acquisitions – Trends in the Health Care Industry

by Daniel M. Grauman, Managing Director & CEO
Podcast

Host Ericka Adler, Roetzel shareholder and Health Law Practice Group Leader, is joined by fellow Roetzel shareholder David Hochman, and special guest Dan Grauman, Veralon Managing Director and CEO, to discuss evaluating and planning for healthcare practice mergers and acquisitions. Dan Grauman talks about the ongoing trends of consolidation he sees in healthcare, the important […]

Fair Play, Fair Pay: Assuring Provider Pay Equity

by Karin Chernoff Kaplan, Managing Director

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It’s not easy to determine if there is equity in provider compensation across your organization, given the many departments, specialties, and roles—but it’s essential. Consider the following hypothetical: A local news source reports a 30% pay discrepancy between your male and female maintenance employees performing the same work. Chances are you would rather not have […]

Beyond ‘Shark Tank’: Applying Healthcare Valuation Multiples Is Harder than It Seems

by Daniel M. Grauman, Managing Director & CEO
and Jessica E. Stack, Principal

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It’s a familiar scene from a blockbuster show: A billionaire investor sizes up a company by dividing the value of the company by its annual profit to find the multiple. It’s a metric used to assess the market value of an asset, and in the world of “Shark Tank,” it comes to investors quickly and […]

Why It’s Time to Update Your Physician Compensation Model

by Karin Chernoff Kaplan, Managing Director

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It’s time to stop playing “kick the can” when it comes to physician compensation in hospitals and health systems. When the 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) sought to restructure physician reimbursement by increasing payment to cognitive care specialists such as primary care physicians and reducing reimbursement for procedure-based specialists, it was a move designed […]

Hospital M&A: 3 Key Considerations to Reach a Fair Deal

by Daniel M. Grauman, Managing Director & CEO
and Kevin Cope, Manager

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Board members of not-for-profit community hospitals face enormous pressure to protect their community’s access to care. Even when the economic reasons for hospital mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are compelling, the decision to cede control to another system cannot be made based on purchase price alone. It’s just one reason why not-for-profit board members must understand […]