Helping Physicians Maintain Autonomy

There have been a lot of changes in the health industry. Physicians are finding that they have to deal with a host of issues that affect their business, including new regulations, EMR integration and new payment models. For the primary care physician who is still in private practice, dealing with these can be time consuming, which is where physician networks come in.

Although there has been a huge shift toward hospital employment, networks like Physician Proviso can help those physicians who want to maintain their autonomy. Through P2 physicians can get help from other members or from experts that the network uses to help provide solutions.

“The core mission that we have is to really bring about a renaissance for primary care private practice physicians,” says David Crais, president of P2.

P2 is in the midst of its soft launch phase and is active in 15 states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

There are other organizations also trying to help physicians stay independent, but Crais feels confident that P2 can be dominate because he sees other networks are pushing the concierge model. The concierge model has seen resistance because it encourages physicians to drop older patients who aren’t willing to pay as much. Unfortunately, the older patients have also been with the physician the longest and have been the most loyal.

“We’re changing the practice based on the patient mix and the payer mix,” Crais says. “None of them are addressing holistically the practice like we can.”

Of course, being a member of an organization like P2 isn’t free or cheap. There are tiers and on the low end, physicians can interact with others in the network for $3,000 a year. On the high end, physicians get much more for $10,000.

For the highest tier, a partner company will implement EMR technology so the physicians won’t have to worry about setting it up. The program can be easily put into place without a loss of productivity on the part of the physician.

“The solutions aren’t just financial,” Crais says. “It’s holistic in a sense of a multifaceted approach to say that there are major macro trends from multiple areas and you really have to address all of them.”

Already, the company is looking at what else it can offer physicians. Members are pushing the network to help form Accountable Care Organizations. According to Crais, P2 will want to wait a little longer and make sure that the model is going to stick, but the organization would definitely want to help facilitate that if it’s what members want.

According to Crais, P2 is looking to help physicians reduce costs and provide better quality of care, two issues that are hot topics right now.

“Everyone in health care is trying to drive that, but we feel like we have the right mix to make it happen,” he says. “We want to facilitate the resurgence of the private practice and help them be profitable and autonomous.”