Huron Healthcare Identifies Four Keys to Building a High Performance Physician Group

Capturing Performance Improvement Opportunities in a Post-Reform Environment

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Huron Consulting Group today released a Huron Healthcare briefing entitled, “Building a High Performance Physician Group Practice: Four Key Post-Reform Challenges.”

“To operate from a position of strength, physician practices need to take a fresh look at the fundamentals. Efficient practice design reduces staffing needs and enables medical practices to reduce overhead”

In the briefing, Timothy Ogonoski and Victor Arnold, managing directors, Huron Healthcare’s Physician solution, identify the four pressing issues facing physician groups:

• Dealing with operating costs that are rising more rapidly than revenues.
• Ensuring appropriate physician compensation and productive capacity in an environment of declining reimbursement.
• Preparing for business models that place a premium on quality and outcomes and place a greater share of financial risk on the practice.
• Properly aligning the group with the overall health system to enable movement from volume to value.

“To operate from a position of strength, physician practices need to take a fresh look at the fundamentals. Efficient practice design reduces staffing needs and enables medical practices to reduce overhead,” said Tim Ogonoski, managing director, Huron Healthcare’s Physician solution. “This drives down operating costs and increases patient throughput while maintaining or increasing physician satisfaction, clinical outcomes and patient safety.”

“Most physician practices have the opportunity to improve performance from 10-20% by becoming more operationally efficient and effective,” said Vic Arnold, managing director, Huron Healthcare’s Physician solution. “Reducing expenses and gaining operating capital will help medical groups fund the changes they will need to make to thrive under reform, as well as improve the affordability and quality of the care they deliver.”

Ogonoski and Arnold also share their thoughts on the need to gain access to more data on patients’ experience of care to be prepared to take on risk for outcomes, and undertaking a fresh evaluation of physician compensation, trading some productivity incentives for a more balanced approach that rewards good physician “citizenship.” These two additional imperatives will help lay groundwork for the volume to value shift.

The full briefing is available at: http://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/Insights/Perspective/Healthcare/High%20Performance%20Physician%20Briefing.aspx.

In January, Huron Healthcare will release the next edition of the CEO Forum report. The report shares insights from hospital, health system and academic medical center CEOs about issues facing the healthcare industry. Read the 2012 CEO Forum report and learn more at: http://www.healthcareceoforum.com/.

To speak with Timothy Ogonoski, Victor Arnold or another Huron Healthcare expert on issues impacting hospitals, health systems or academic medical centers, please contact:

Jennifer Frost Hennagir
312-880-3260
[e-mail]

Jenna Nichols
312-880-5693
[e-mail]

About Huron Healthcare

Huron Healthcare partners with clients to provide comprehensive performance improvement solutions that improve quality, increase revenue, reduce expenses, and increase physician, patient, and employee satisfaction across the healthcare enterprise. Clients include national and regional integrated healthcare systems, leading academic medical centers, community hospitals and physician practices. Modern Healthcare ranked Huron Healthcare third on its 2012 list of the largest healthcare management consulting firms. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com/healthcare or follow us on Twitter: @Huron.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, reduce costs, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, leading academic institutions, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.