Many physicians dream of opening up their own medical practice—for some, part of the thrill of entering the medical profession was due to an entrepreneurial spirit. And as Dr. Jim Dahle has pointed out numerous times throughout the years, owning your own job can be a lucrative (and burnout-preventing) decision. For him, he’d rather be the employER instead of the employEE.
Starting, building, owning, and eventually selling a practice aren’t necessarily easy steps. It takes time, energy, and focus. But if you can become a successful practice-owner, the rewards of being your own boss could be immense.
Below are a number of practice management resources that can be utilized when you’re looking to open a practice, run a practice, or sell a practice.
Once you've decided to open up your own medical practice, there are a few different options that can make sense, depending on your specific situation. These include a solo practice, a group practice, a hospital-owned practice, a federally qualified health center, or an academic health center.
One of the first things that you'll want to do on your journey to starting your own medical practice is to come up with a business plan. Whether you’re trying to raise capital from outside investors or self-funding, having a written business plan can help you as you start up your practice by identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas of concern.
There are also several different legal structures for your medical practice. Choosing the right one will depend on your specific financial and personal situation, and they could include a sole proprietorship, a general partnership, a limited partnership, a C corporation, an S corporation, or an LLC. Choosing the right business entity for your medical practice is an important decision but not an irrevocable one. Having the wrong business entity can cause you to pay significantly more in taxes or open you up to unneeded liability. Which makes it so important that your business starts off on the right foot.
As you move forward with your own medical practice, one of the most important considerations you'll have is how your office is set up and where your practice will be located. As with most real estate, the location is vital. You'll want to make sure it is convenient for as many potential clients as possible. If your practice is affiliated with a hospital or university, you'll likely want to be close to those institutions.
Think about how many square feet you'll need, what the prevailing lease rates are, and what your hours of operation should be. Plus, you’ll need to determine if the space can be rented or purchased. Many physicians make more money from selling the practice real estate than the practice itself. There are also some unique tax opportunities available by having a separate company lease the space to the practice.
While taking different forms of private and public medical insurance is important to the success of a medical practice, you also need to have insurance FOR your medical practice. Personal malpractice insurance likely won't be enough to cover the various types of liability to which you may be exposed. In addition, depending on how your practice is formed and if you have any employees, you may need to get worker's compensation insurance, health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and/or business interruption insurance. An overall umbrella insurance policy is also probably a good idea.
There are many different types and sizes of medical practice that you might be thinking of, and each requires a different level of staffing. But even the smallest type of medical practice (a sole proprietorship where you are on your own) is going to require a certain level of staffing. After all, you'll need someone to answer the phones and manage customers while you are seeing patients. The larger your practice grows, the more staffing you will need, and finding, hiring, and keeping good staff is paramount to the success of your medical practice. You will need to develop and follow policies to ensure compliance with laws, best practices, and efficient staff turnover.
Turn Unpaid Insurance Claims Into Recovered Revenue—We Handle Everything Before Time Runs Out – Medical Revenue Recovery Group, is dedicated to one mission: advocating for medical practices to help maximize revenue from unpaid claims and recover the funds rightfully owed from insurance companies. No upfront fees. No extra work for your team. No hassle.
Medify Health partners with primary care and specialty practices to provide chronic care management (CCM) and remote monitoring services (RPM) to their eligible Medicare aged patients. Our Health Coaches engage with enrolled patients each month on behalf of the practice to assist your patients with developing the tools to improve health outcomes while also ensuring that their healthcare needs are being addressed. The results for the practice will be an increase in patient compliance, improved patient engagement by eliminating the gap in care between office visits, and an increase in revenue from utilizing Medify as an extension of your staff. Because Medify bills on behalf of the provider, reimbursements are made to the practice, and the practice doesn’t pay Medify until claims have been paid. There is no financial requirement for the practice and your patients will appreciate the benefits of having a health coach.
Wisdom is full-service dental billing company that helps practices thrive financially—without the overhead. By pairing practices with expert billers who work like an extension of your team, Wisdom takes on the heavy lifting of insurance verification, claims scrubbing, and payment collection. The result: cleaner claims, faster reimbursements, and fewer dollars left on the table.
Dental practices using Wisdom see increased revenue, reduced administrative labor costs, and a significant drop in overdue A/R—all while maintaining a smooth patient experience. For practice owners, that means more financial clarity and peace of mind that operations are being handled with precision and care.
Whether you’re looking to outsource billing entirely or need expert support to grow your practice, Wisdom offers a modern, efficient way to strengthen your bottom line and support your team. Let your staff focus on patient care while Wisdom ensures the business side performs just as well.
If you start a medical practice and nobody has ever heard of you, do you even have a medical practice? While you may have gone to medical school and not business school, that doesn't mean that you can avoid marketing and advertising. Putting your name out to potential customers and patients is key to building and growing your practice. If you don't plan to do the marketing yourself, make sure that you have staff onboard that can help get out the word.
If you are affiliated with a hospital or other physician network, that may provide some of your marketing, but you may want to consider additional forms of advertising to make sure that you have a healthy pipeline of new customers coming in. Social media is probably going to be key to getting the name of your practice out in the real world.
One of the most important tasks for most practices is to ensure you will actually get paid. Most patients in the US do not pay their medical providers directly; they pay via a third-party payor like private insurance, Tricare, Medicare, or Medicaid. You will need to register with and/or contract with each of these entities. If you choose to work with these payors, you will also need to deal with denials and requests for additional information, as well as pre-authorizations. Some doctors have decided not to bother and simply charge the patients directly. This makes for a more transparent pricing model, although it's one generally used by only the most medically literate and well-to-do patients.
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