Surgery Center Partners

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November/December 2007

In this month's issue:

Owning an Ambulatory Surgery Center - Part of Your Retirement Planning?
Boom or Bust? Attracting and Keeping Baby Boomer Patients - Part 1

Owning an Ambulatory Surgery Center - Part of Your Retirement Planning?

Often physicians who are nearing retirement think it is too late in their career to own ambulatory surgery center. But in reality, becoming a partner in a center may be a great way to add to your retirement "nest egg" and ease your transition into a new lifestyle. Every physician should have an exit strategy to ensure that decades of caring for others results in a financially comfortable and worry-free retirement. Surgery center ownership can be an important part of your retirement planning.

Every physician looking forward to retirement must face the facts:

An existing practice has minimal financial value. Although you spent years of your life building up your practice, your practice was not building equity. Its value is based solely on your labor, so when you're not working, your practice is not generating income. Further, today it is rare that a physician will pay you a significant sum of money to purchase your practice.
Physicians are responsible for their patients. When you want to retire, you need to be able to "hand off" this responsibility to another physician. The physician who takes over your practice is relieving you of this liability - but this only occurs if someone wants to take over your caseload.

The harsh truth is that no matter how long and hard you have worked to build your practice, no one is going to properly reward your investment of time and energy. Usually, the best you can expect is that another physician will take over your caseload, relieve you of your legal and ethical responsibilities, and perhaps pay you a relatively small sum for the goodwill you have generated.

However, if you own a surgery center, your investment can build equity that can be used to:

Recruit a new physician to your practice. Today's graduating fellows understand the significant income potential of center ownership. In fact, few want to join an existing practice unless the opportunity to be a partner in a center is already available or will be in the near future. To be competitive in today's recruiting market, you need to offer this financial incentive to a new partner.
Obtain additional income as you prepare to retire. While you are still practicing, you should avail yourself of all the additional revenue possible. Then, when you are ready to scale back your workload or stop practicing entirely, there are many ways for you to leave the surgery center and for a new physician to become a partner. Your financial and/or business advisor can help you determine the legal and ethical approach that best fits the financial needs of everyone involved.

You've worked hard to build a practice. While it has provided you with income from professional fees, you could be earning more. You could be earning facility fees too - but only if you become a partner in a freestanding center. Ownership is a great way to increase your income as you transition to retirement - scooping up all of the income you can, while you can. It also provides a younger doctor with an incentive to take over your practice and the responsibility for your patients, allowing you to thoroughly enjoy your retirement years.

Surgery Center Partners can help you own a profitable, attractive, well-equipped surgery center where you can deliver high quality care. As our partner, you can rely on our expert staff to handle all aspects of developing and managing your center. It's the hassle-free solution to center ownership.

Boom or Bust? Attracting and Keeping Baby Boomer Patients - Part 1

Unlike their Depression-era parents, Americans born between 1946 and 1964 grew up in an age of relative prosperity, which has affected their life experiences and expectations. Thanks to its sheer size (77 million strong), high level of education and achievement, and today's life expectancy of 77.4 years, this generation will have a profound impact on how medical services are marketed, delivered, evaluated, and paid for. While there is considerable social, ethnic, and economic diversity among Boomers, there are some commonalities that physicians should take into account when marketing and delivering their services:

High expectations - for their lives and their service providers
Most continue to work and earn, so they value their time
Crave convenience and stress reduction (getting what they want when they want it)
Inclined to be independent versus crowd followers - they like to feel special
Love choice and see life as a smorgasbord
Ready to make decisions, but on their own terms and timetable
Desire information (the more sources the better)
Use the Internet and other technologies
Want to live longer, while looking and feeling healthy
Like novelty and new experiences
Want to prevent disease and disability, not just treat problems as they occur
See the future as a "second half of life," not a period of decline and reduced options
Have money, but are sophisticated buyers who look for value.

In summary, Boomers want convenience and control. In our next issue, we'll suggest ways you can make your services attractive to this important group.