At the Becker's Hospital Review CEO Strategy Roundtable in Chicago on Nov. 5, Andrew Hayek, president and CEO of Irving, Texas-based Surgical Care Affiliates, and John Scholl, executive vice president and CSO of Texas Health Resources, discussed how physician joint ventures can fit into various payment models.
Below are four takeaways from the dialogue.
1. Figuring out an economic model when aligning is key. When aligning with physicians, agreeing on economic model can present a dilemma.
"If you can't figure out an economic model, alignment is a lot harder because there are a lot of options for these physicians," said Mr. Scholl.
2. The geography of joint ventures is crucial. Location and proximity are important factors to consider when exploring joint ventures, which should have some deliberation behind them.
"Strategically, where you place these ventures matters," said Mr. Scholl. "THR wasn't just about building them alongside our existing hospital structures and then just destroying our economics. We've been very deliberate about where we select and where we build."
3. Don't underestimate data and analytics. Health IT tools can be leveraged to the advantage of joint ventures.
"To succeed in bending the cost curve or having a lower-cost delivery model and still maintain the economics for your physicians, great data, analytics, benchmarking and the ability to bring down the total cost of rendering a case is absolutely necessary," said. Mr. Hayek.
4. The goals of population health can help align providers and big payers in a market. With health systems and multispecialty groups, or health systems and payers, there are opportunities to explore through population health, particularly since surgery makes up 30 cents on the dollar of total medical spend.
"For many of SCA's health systems, they either have or fear having an at-risk medical group, a group of primary care physicians that is independent of the health system," said Mr. Hayek. "A population health strategy can be a way of coming together, and frankly, joining forces and working together collaboratively."