Mike Fleischman – Stroudwater Associates
by Richard Stokes
The March educational session is nearly upon us so I’m writing this ‘pre-presentation’ blog to give us all a little taste as to what we can expect from our next speaker: Mike Fleischman with Stroudwater Associates. Mike is coming to us with over 35 years of experience, knowledge and consulting expertise in the healthcare field so I know we can all expect to walk away with something new.
Mike and I talked on the telephone and I asked if he could share some highlights of his upcoming presentation. A key theme throughout will be revenue, something I know all practices lose sleep over. With that in mind, I don’t want to give away too much of his content so I’ll focus instead on what he would like us to learn and take away from his session. Here is some of what he shared:
- The healthcare industry is changing more rapidly than in the past and it’s not all directly related to ‘Obama-Care’.
- There is limited money available for practices today.
- People need to understand that a major transition is occurring and that it is going to impact their practice one way or the other.
- The healthcare professional’s career path is changing.
Now getting information is great but actually putting it into practice is where the difference is made. So I asked Mike what would be the 2 or 3 action items that he would like audience members to leave with and implement in their organization right away. He said:
- Pay attention to compliance (not just billing and collections). The Federal Government is stepping up enforcement in areas such as OSHA and HIPAA.
- Take a good look at your organization’s operations and look for ways to ‘tighten-up’ in an effort to reduce overhead.
- Get a handle on your organization’s ‘cost accounting’.
Finally, a big part of staying current is to continually self-educate. Who has time for that, right? So, I asked Mike what resources he would suggest that would help us stay informed. His two suggestions were:
- www.fiercehealthcare.com – a great site for all healthcare professionals
- Pay attention to what the national organization for your specialty is saying.
I think this is going to be a very informative session so I hope that everyone can make it. See you all soon.
Network 1 Consulting is a 14-year-old, IT Support company in Atlanta, GA. We become – or augment – the IT department for professional services companies: law firms, medical practices and financial services firms. Our IT experts can fix computers – but what our clients really value is the industry-specific best practices we bring to their firm. This is especially important with technology, along with regulations and cyber threats, changing so rapidly. We take a proactive approach to helping our clients use technology to gain and keep their competitive advantage.
