Owning a medical business is like being a C.E.O., patient advocate, accountant, human resources manager, medical healer and office manager all rolled into one. One job title that most physicians put last in their ever-growing list of roles is that of retirement planner. Ensuring that you have your long term financial house in order is often neglected in favor of dealing with all the short term problems that a medical business faces. The mere act of thinking about early retirement forces physicians to look at all of their business practices and make the hard decisions that always seem to be put off in favor of the daily practice needs. Planning for the future can seem daunting, but forcing this personal and professional review is the best thing physicians and owners can do to ensure all their hard work, education, and patient care pays off.

I am often told by clients that they don’t feel that they have any leverage when dealing with insurance payers to get better rates. The reality is that every practice has a certain amount of leverage when dealing with the insurance payers at the negotiation table. Even a smaller practice can certainly find ways to argue for better rates. In fact, small groups have an even better opportunity than they realize simply due to the fact that insurance payers don’t want to see consolidation or see you join another group.