Patients aren’t the only ones bemoaning the emergence of managed-care providers as key players in U.S. health care, with tales of denied treatment for serious illnesses a staple of news reports.
Doctors say they have their own concerns under the system: more paperwork and reimbursement cuts for procedures imposed by managed-care companies.
Some physicians are even struggling simply to fend off early retirement, said Dr. Leroy Sprang, president-elect of the Illinois State Medical Society.
A Des Plaines-based company has come to the aid of such physicians by adding an entrepreneurial spirit to their practices and boosting their bottom lines.
QVS Technology Group, 1350 E. Touhy Ave., helps physicians incorporate elective procedures as divergent as laser eye correction and hair removal into their practices, said Timothy Murphy, chief executive officer of the company.
The bad news for patients is that such procedures are not covered by insurance, but the good news for doctors is that cutting out managed-care companies means quicker payments and fewer forms and phone calls.
“Sometimes doctors have no idea how to make the transition from clinically driven to market-oriented practices,” Murphy said. “Part of what we do for doctors is what we call adding a new product line to their businesses.”
Murphy, 53, along with clinical psychologist partner Sewell Gelberd and seven other employees, set up doctors in a new brand of business by acquainting them with new medical procedures, coordinating training and devising marketing plans.
QVS is retained by 75 percent of its clients to implement the new laser vision correction programs, Murphy said. Even so, the company’s former name, Quality Vision Services, is now seen as too limiting. It also assists doctors branching out to offer laser hair removal, wrinkle removal, facial peels, vein removal and other government-allowed procedures, he said.
“Patients want the procedures,” Murphy said, “and it’s cash-and-carry for the doctors.”
With a background in corporate medical marketing, Murphy hung out a consultant’s shingle in Des Plaines in 1995 and has seen the business grow strongly ever since, he said.
QVS now typically assesses about 220 medical practices a year for their viability as providers of elective services. At any one time, the company is retained by about 30 practices desiring longer-term management, company officials said.
Fees range from about $5,000 for a practice assessment and report to up to $12,000 a month for some practitioners who surrender duties including marketing (TV, radio and print advertising) and even office management to Murphy’s firm.
At only 36, ophthalmologist Mitchell Jackson said he never knew the days when reimbursements for cataract and glaucoma treatments allowed doctors “to make a good profit,” he said. Now with offices in Chicago’s North Loop, Lake Villa and Schaumburg, Jackson has expanded his practice, with Murphy’s help, to encompass laser eye corrective operations. Jackson’s offices have undertaken about 3,500 LASIK (laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis) vision-correction operations since 1995, he said.
Sprang said that although increased overhead costs and stagnant physician salaries have put a strain on many doctors, there is still no wholesale scramble by doctors to the elective surgeries.
With a strong economy and constantly evolving surgical techniques, however, Murphy believes his company’s position in the market is strong.
“Some doctors have been hit hard,” he said. “They’re looking for ways to become more entrepreneurial.”
