subject: How Is Health Care Sustainable With The Level Of General Inflation And The Growth In The Economy [print this page] With an eye to your medical practice management, including dollars spent on healthcare marketing, healthcare advertising and public relations, you will want to be in the know regarding various current issues, including healthcare and insurance reform, and the question of whether health care is sustainable with the level of general inflation and growth in the economy. In short, will your medical practice suffer monetarily with current changes? Also, is now the time to consider opening a medical practice?
One issue regarding sustainability is the looming Medicare pay cut. Doctors have made is clear that Medicares controversial sustainable-growth-rate (SGR) formula for physician reimbursement is unacceptable and needs to be rewritten. As a doctor or as a group medical practice concern, a very real scenario is that you might not be able to accept Medicare patients if it cuts too much into your bottom line. Medical marketing and medical advertising and public relations can go only so far to assuage the fears of some of your Medicare-recipient patients in this regard. The complication question arises of: If the economy cannot match the growth expected in the medical field, how can doctors still make money?
Your medical practice management may need to start including activism, and proactive marketing and medical advertising campaigns, explaining your position. The American Medical Association is pressing hard for changes to the current SGR bill. They see the proposed 21% cut as untenable regarding the ability to maintain current care standards with lowered pay rates. A very real problem, however, with not making these cuts, is the huge hit the Federal deficit will take with inflation running rampant and nothing matching coming in to maintain the Medicare coffers. Assuring your Medicare patients that they are safe with you as their doctor may not be realistic, and you may be forced to spend your medical marketing budget getting non-Medicare patients.
Whatever your feeling about standard Medicare and proposed cuts, or how sustainable your level of medical practice is with the general inflation and growth (or lack thereof) in the economy, your medical practice public face (in the form of medical practice marketing, healthcare advertising,) may have to decide to reassure your patients that their care will still be outstanding and uninterrupted. If you decide to start a medical practice in these unsure times, know that part of your initial budget will need to be set aside for an aggressive medical marketing campaign, and that your medical practice management team will need to prepare for lengthy sessions on how to get new patients through the doors, or how to keep current patients happy.
Your patients should not have to worry about whether you will be around for them tomorrow, based solely on questions of Medicare money, but it is a very real issue facing the healthcare profession. Keeping the public reassured in a time where their services may be cut by their trusted physician, or he or she may have to suspend service altogether is a tough hurdle to overcome, but one which is necessary in this uncertain economy.
