Concierge Medical Practice Expert Breaks Down Step-by-step Business Development for Physicians

May 2, 2012 - PRLog -- When Maria Todd isn't busy contracting with hospitals, health insurers and other healthcare providers, she teaches others how to improve their healthcare business. She shares her tips and techniques with physicians and hospitals in her upcoming book Handbook of Concierge Medical Practice Development (2013, Productivity Press) to be released next spring.  Todd executed the publishing agreement today, her 11th professional trade book. Tom Blue, Executive Director of the American Academy of Private Physicians (AAPP) has confirmed he will write the foreword of this timely and necessary "how to" manual for physicians, practice administrator and hospital executives of employed physicians.

Todd invites readers to learn more about the techniques of concierge medical practice development, ways to improve provider skill sets, technology, infrastructure, communications, quality, safety and get new marketing ideas. She also shares her personal stories from more than 30 years in the business. She quickly goes over the philosophy behind concierge medical practice management and operations and its opportunities and fallacies, before launching into a set of projects for her readers. The projects not only include instructions, but also some information that hospitals, physicians, and their administrators might not know such as little-known facts, how to negotiate membership agreements with patients, strategic negotiation nuances with insurers, why doctors should care about third-party reimbursement, and how the business may (or may not) involve group health and employer-sponsored health insurance programs going forward as the nascent market matures.

The included projects aim to help concierge medical practice hopefuls develop their discipline and techniques, such as how to build practice operational infrastructure, policies and procedures for membership subscribers patients, and how to manage the episode of care from diagnosis through post operative outcomes, wellness, patient centered medical home, and outcomes measurement in a different setting from the traditional medical practice. While Todd focuses on the infrastructure and benchmarking to prove the validity and value of the program, she also instructs readers how to create compelling arguments to third-party payers based on realistic market conditions, if this is what they wish to do. She also covers the non-clinical fundamentals of being a amenities-based medical provider, such as the staffing, marketing, and logistics of concierge medicine.

"For years' I've been consulting in the field with my colleagues in through our varied Mercury Healthcare consultancies, I wished I could have offered this book prior to our arrival onsite at the clients' locations," Todd says. "Now there is such a book and we can share what we know and help others better themselves even if there is no budget for consultants."

The book will be used as a textbook included in courses taught at the Managed Care Institute. An upcoming seminar on Concierge Medical Practice Development will be offered in the summer, in Denver. We may offer another program in Dubai UAE in the fall, as this business model is also gaining traction on the international health delivery scene, according to experts in the GCC region.

She and colleague Arney Benson, MBA, a gifted business analyst will collaborate on the manuscript. Benson brings comparative analyses and nuances  that differentiate the private boutique practice from those associated with corporate influences of franchise practices organized and operated by affiliates of Signature MD, Medley, MDVIP and others. The book will get granular as he reviews a plethora of creative funding options for concierge medical practice startup. Benson will address SBA loans, cash management strategies, strategic partnerships, and funding from membership subscriptions while Todd focuses more on the operational aspects, regulatory compliance, and reimbursement matters.

Intended Audience

Todd hopes that "Handbook of Concierge Medical Practice Development"  becomes a guide for aspiring physicians who want a different business arrangement in which the practice of medicine is more personalized.  She hopes that journalists and media outlets who report on concierge practice industry developments and need a critical guide will also refer to the variety of examples, checklists and best practices in the book in order to ask deeper, critical questions before simply echoing stories of the past.

She believes her stories and techniques will inspire readers to improve and better structure their concierge medical practice offering and make them even better, safer, more responsive healthcare provider organizations, not just copies of early adopters.

Availability
"Handbook of Concierge Practice Development will be available for sale online at Amazon.com and through the Publisher, Productivity Press, at ProductivityPress.com.  The book will also be out in Kindle and other e-book reader formats soon, but no date has yet been announced.

About Maria Todd
Maria Todd has been involved in healthcare, benefits management, practice management, and medical travel logistics for more than 30 years. She is the founder of Mercury Healthcare International, which owns the largest health travel management company focused on medical tourism program development for the employer group health and wellness markets, expatriate group health benefits management and emergency assistance for traveling employees. She started her career in healthcare administration in 1985.

She is the author of 9 previous industry best-selling books, she has personally assisted in the project development of more than successful 1500 integrated health delivery systems worldwide since 1993, and twenty concierge medical practices for physicians throughout the USA and abroad. She holds advanced degrees in health administration, is a health law paralegal, a certified mediator, a former surgical nurse and former contract negotiator for a large HMO that is now a part of United Healthcare.