Amit Mirchandani, MD, is a pain management physician at the Dallas-based SEVA Med Care.
Dr. Mirchandani will serve on the presentation “Managing an ASC without a Corporate Partner” at Becker’s ASC Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference on Oct. 27-29 in Chicago.
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Question: What is the smartest thing you've done in the last year to set your organization up for success?
Amit Mirchandani: One of the smartest things we have done is incorporate virtual medical assistants into our organization. Not just work from home VMAs, but properly organized and managed VMAs. There is a big difference. COVID was a natural stress test to many organizations, but especially to healthcare, and brought on a need to outsource tasks remotely.
To add redundancy virtually to roles such as patient incoming calls, referral processing, patient registration, scheduling, authorization, billing and collections has been a tremendous stabilizer at a reduced cost. It has worked so well for us, we are helping many of our colleagues integrate VMAs into their organizations as well.
Q: What are you most excited about right now and what makes you nervous?
AM: It is always exciting to be a physician. We have the best job in the world. To help patients in need is a tremendous role and delivers tremendous satisfaction and reward. Procedures in our specialty — pain management — are becoming more sophisticated, incisions are becoming smaller and opportunities to help patients who previously weren’t good candidates for intervention is increasing, all while pushing to reduce the need for opiates.
Healthcare economics is always challenging, however. With inflation and employee wages increasing at an unprecedented rate, reimbursements from insurances will lag comparatively. I encourage all of my independent colleagues to hunker down, be proactive in managing overheads, add VMAs and create a plan to market digitally straight to patients.
Q: How are you thinking about growth over the next 12 months?
AM: In the next 12 months, it will be important to work ON your business, on your practice. With external stresses come massive opportunities. Start asking yourself questions now: Is your EMR truly best for your practice? Are you getting stuck with authorizations? Are you getting too many denials? Why are patients falling off your schedule? Are you getting paid in a timely manner?
Our revenue cycle team has actually done a great job and been a strong partner for us, giving us a competitive advantage. The next 12 months are similar to the last 12 months for us. It is about strategically contracting, decreasing inefficiencies, integrating systems and growing stronger, like taking an open hand and creating a fist that is more aligned and more powerful.
Q: What will healthcare executives and leaders need to be effective leaders for the next five years?
AM: Healthcare leaders must be able to manage two things: systems & people. Systems require a relentless pursuit of getting more granular and basing future decisions on sound data. People require a more personal, authentic touch to make their key employees feel that they are important in the overall growth and direction of the vision of the company.
Q: What is your strategy for recruiting and retaining great teams?
AM: Everyone knows that this is an imperfect process. Everyone has faced challenges within the employment market this year. A job is no longer an identity for people. Younger employees, for example, seem to be very comfortable with career mobility, whether taking another job or even switching careers altogether.
A team is formed over time. It takes leadership, hard work, chemistry and a little luck. A good work atmosphere, healthy pay and good work are often enough to help bring someone into the organization, but leadership and connection is necessary to groom and retain that staff member. On a healthcare team, instead of always recruiting leaders, it is important to allow some leaders to emerge from the pack. Many of the best leaders are staff members who have excelled at their initial role, thus earning an expanded role and pay within the organization.