As growing reimbursement pressures force innovation, several dermatologists are banding together to increase their negotiating power and efficiency.
Becker's ASC Review spoke to Dallas-based Platinum Dermatology Partners CEO Greg DeAtkine about the company and the state of the dermatology industry.
Note: Responses have been edited for style and clarity.
Question: What has fueled Platinum Dermatology Partners' recent growth?
Greg DeAtkine: In today's market, as pressures increase on private practice physicians, and payers and health systems continue to consolidate, dermatologists are seeing and better understanding the vast benefits aggregation and partnership with a larger organization can have on the health of their practice.
Practices joining Platinum Dermatology Partners are interested in the resources of a larger organization but want to maintain their influence over how care is provided and how the business is run. Platinum's model is based on alignment with our physician partners. This is primarily achieved by physicians owning a substantial stake in Platinum, as well as through clinical governance mechanisms via our all-physician clinical advisory board.
Q: Three years from now, what will Platinum Dermatology Partners look like? What is the company's ultimate vision?
GD: We have a strong market-focused strategy. We will continue to focus on and invest in our existing markets in Texas and Arizona to increase our market share and geographical density while we opportunistically evaluate new markets. While growth is always a key element to success, our vision is to build a high degree of geographical density in select markets with the most reputable physicians that practice the best medicine and do what is good for the specialty of dermatology.
Q: What is the state of the dermatology industry? How has it changed over the last few years and what is in store for the future?
GD: The dermatology industry continues to experience meaningful growth due to widely known drivers such as an aging and growing population needing treatment for a variety of skin cancers and diseases, combined with a growing demand for cosmetic treatments. These factors have driven interest in the space from institutional investors. Meanwhile, system-wide pressures have made it more difficult for private practice owners to operate. These two forces have driven a wave of consolidation.
Today, it is no longer a secret that this specialty, like many others, is in the middle of consolidating itself as a response to pressures inherent within our country's healthcare system, as well as physicians finding a partnership more appealing than the alternative. It has become a crowded space with players of varying degrees of experience trying to enter. This dynamic makes it critical that physicians partner with a group with which they align and share a view on how care is delivered and overseen. We feel good about our level of expertise, having built a strong management team with decades of experience in the field, as well as taking the time to create a differentiated model that is entirely focused on physician alignment. We have worked hard to create a space where physicians will want to practice for decades.
We believe the next several years will be filled with continued investments in the dermatology field, with further aggregation into other geographic markets. We firmly believe that as word spreads and more physician owners see the benefits of aggregation, more practices will come on board.
Q: Why does Platinum Dermatology Partners take on a physician partnership model versus a traditional management-style model?
GD: The Platinum partnership model is indicative of our philosophy and structure, whereby our physician partners join the Platinum network to become an owner of a much larger, more valuable organization in Platinum. Our physician partners are just that – our partners, not our workforce. They own a significant portion of Platinum and are intimately involved in the strategic direction of our business.
We attract the unique physicians who want the benefits of a larger organization while maintaining their autonomy and remaining involved in the business of both their practice and Platinum. While we do provide management services to Platinum practices, we firmly believe that having aligned incentives between physician partners and management, created through this partnership model, is the most effective way to manage a business like ours. Our model emphasizes our physician partners' continued focus on quality care delivery with measurable metrics and a governance model that allows our physicians to act together as a whole. Dermatologists choose Platinum to collaborate with like-minded physicians and management who believe that taking care of patients in a personalized, highly attentive manner is the best way to attract patients and keep them coming back for high-quality dermatology care.