Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1074723
13 Thought Leadership Spine is becoming a blended specialty & 2 other key trends from Dr. Charles Gordon C harles Gordon, MD, CEO of Tyler, Texas-based Precision Spine Care, is a board-certified neurosurgeon and founder of the Texas Spine & Joint Hos- pital in Tyler. roughout his career, Dr. Gordon has remained on the cutting edge of clinical and business trends in spine and neurosurgery. Here, he discussed the biggest issues for healthcare today and where he sees the best opportunity for future growth. Three big business trends affecting healthcare: 1. Consolidation of regional systems. In Texas over the past year, we saw the merger of two of the largest healthcare systems in the country: Baylor Scott and White and Memorial Hermann. is new entity will be a staggeringly large system with dozens of hospitals, hundreds of facilities and thousands of providers. ese mega-systems will have superior pricing power and obvious advantages in market share. While I don't see this as the demise of independent physicians and medical groups, those seeking to maintain independence will have to come to terms with being disadvantaged from a credentialing and pricing perspective. It seems that one key to succeeding independently is to work creatively and cooperate with the larger systems while appealing directly to consumers. Add this trend to the recent align- ment of CVS with Aetna, and it is clear that we are in for some interesting times as payers are getting into the healthcare delivery business themselves. 2. Practice integration. While not new, I see more logic in integrating surgi- cal and non-surgical practices. As surgeons work closely with complemen- tary fields such as physical medicine and rehabilitation, pain management, rheumatology, etc., patients benefit from a broader resource pool with more non-surgical options. I expect to see more insurance scrutiny for surgical recommendations and having non-surgeons in the same practice can help support good patient care and compliance with insurance requirements. 3. Blended specialty. I think we are witnessing the early stages of a blend- ed specialty where interventional pain physicians are becoming more aggressive and surgeons are embracing less invasive techniques. I sus- pect this will lead to further overlap in the fields. We see intervention- al pain physicians and surgeons alike performing [minimally invasive lumbar decompression] and placing interspinous spacers, not to men- tion vertebroplasty and neuromodulation. As more work is done by both groups in an outpatient setting, I see this trend accelerating. Growth opportunities: We believe that with interdisciplinary consolidation [there] is also an opportunity for value creation. Bringing like-minded physicians in com- plementary specialties together not only improves patient convenience, but [also] achieves some scaling efficiency and reduces overall costs. Finally, as readers of Becker's surely know, there appears to be continued regulatory and consumer support in favor of ambulatory surgery cen- ter-based procedures over those done in a traditional hospital setting, when appropriate. Technical improvements also are enabling this trend. We see this as a continued opportunity in select markets. n 3 most important areas for spine surgeons to grow their practice from Dr. Kern Singh By Laura Dyrda K ern Singh, MD, is co-director of the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute at Rush and a partner at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, both in Chicago. He is an internationally known expert in minimally invasive spine surgery and has earned recognition for his research in less invasive treatments and motion-sparing techniques. Here, Dr. Singh identified the best opportunities for future growth. Question: Where do you see the best opportunities to grow? Dr. Kern Singh: 1. Increasing ancillary utilization will allow private practices to maintain autonomy. Orthopedists are learning quickly that relying solely upon professional reve- nues is not sustainable. Rather, other avenues for revenues will need to be maximized, including durable medical equip- ment, MRI and physical therapy. 2. The Bundled Payments Care Initiative will be an area of significant growth for those practices that specialize in high volume acuity of care — total hips, knees and spine — and can provide these treatments in a cost-contained, low com- plication fashion. Margins are still large in BPCI, and with the correct infrastructure, this can still be a source of significant revenue for the private practitioner. 3. Social media and online marketing will continue to grow. The ability to capture large audiences with a smaller cost can allow all practices the ability to increase patient flow. Real time social media — Facebook, Instagram and search engine optimization — is key to the evolving world of healthcare marketing. n