Medical Archives - TODAY INDIA

Understanding the Cash Only Medical Practice Market

With today’s medical environment so reliant on complicated insurance company regulations and intricate billing procedures, many physicians are looking for niche medical practices that will allow them to maintain their income standards while decreasing their paperwork at the same time. One such niche is a cash only medical practice, which is basically a medical office that does not maintain contracts with insurance companies and instead requires patients to pay cash for medical services rendered. Ending your contracts with insurance companies and building a successful cash only medical practice will likely take some time, and many physicians decide that they need to have a gradual changeover rather than an overnight exchange from an insurance pay to cash pay medical practice. If a cash pay medical practice sounds like it may be the type of office you would like to run, it may be time for you to begin doing some market research to find out if your practice has the potential to be successful:

* What is the condition of your local market? Does your local community have a large number of uninsured or affluent patients? If you do run a medical practice in an affluent community, you may be able to establish a large panel of patients-even patients with insurance-that is willing to pay cash for high quality, efficient medical care. On the other hand, if your local community has a lot of middle or lower-income residents with HMO plans, which do not give any out-of-network benefits, you may find that you have difficulty building a cash-only practice.

* Would your current patients be willing to transition to a cash pay medical practice? It is a good idea to survey your current panel of patients to find out if they would be willing to continue using your medical services if you were to change to a cash only medical practice.

* Should you continue your contracts with the more lucrative insurance companies? Not all insurance companies negotiate unappealing prices with their contracting physicians, and not every insurance firm has unreasonable paperwork requirements. You may choose to work with two or three specific insurers, while asking that patients who do not use these companies pay cash for medical services. It is your medical practice, which means you can choose whom you contract with.

* Which medical services will you provide, and how much will you charge for them? Some physicians find that they are able to see fewer patients with a cash pay medical practice, and they also discover that they are able to focus on the particular medical services that they enjoy. Perhaps you decide to focus on acute medical care rather than chronic ailments, or maybe you will choose to perform fewer diagnostic tests. Whichever services you decide to offer your cash only patients, deciding how much to charge for them will take some research. Ask other physicians, particularly other cash only physicians, in your area how much they charge; there is nothing unethical about doing this as long as there is no discussion about setting collective rates. You may also want to take into account how much your cash pay medical practice will need to net in order for you to cover your overhead expenses.

Medical Transportation Business Names

When it comes to starting a non-emergency medical transportation business it is important that you choose a suitable name. Many entrepreneurs overlook the importance that a name can play in the development of a brand. The right name can help you to make a great first impression on people in your market and it can help you to build long term relationships and reputation.

Don’t make the mistake of leaving this important decision to the last minute like other business owners do. Put some thought into coming up with a great name that will serve your ambulette business well as you develop and grow over the years.

Here are a list of points that you may consider as you go about the process of naming your non-emergency medical transportation business (NEMT business).

Relevance and Professionalism

A great name should be relevant to what your business does. Rather than having something obscure that leaves people guessing, you may as well use the words ‘medical’ and ‘transportation’ in the title. This will immediately communicate to people exactly what it is that you do.

You could even use other words that further define your services. It can be a good idea to avoid getting too specific though as you may change your business model further down the line and cater to a different section of the market.

The qualities that people will look for in a medical transportation business are of course professionalism and reliability. Your name should instill confidence in people and let them know that you are indeed a reliable operation that is committed to running a safe and reliable ambulette service. For this reason, many small business owners use their own surname or first name as a part of their business name.

Be Unique, Original and Memorable

While the word ‘transportation’ will hardly be unique in the industry you can combine it with other words to create something new and original that will stand out. Take a look at what other local non-emergency medical transportation companies have done with their names and make sure that your name clearly distinguishes your business from theirs.

A great name should be memorable. As well as giving people a good first impression it should be easy enough, and catchy enough so that it stands out in their minds over the long term. Create a list of names and then run them by some of your friends and colleagues to find out which ones have a positive impact on them. Ask them about the names again several days later and see which ones they are able to remember.

Legal Considerations

There are also important legal considerations to think about when it comes to choosing a name. You absolutely must ensure that the name that you select is not already in use by another business in the same industry. Run a names search through the database at your county clerks office and do a thorough check online to make sure that your selection will not cause you to encounter legal issues further down the road.

Practical and Functional

Good choices for names will typically be short and practical. A short name is easier to remember and more practical when it comes to using it on business cards or using it to answer the phone. Don’t mess around with words that are difficult to spell or pronounce.

You may also consider a name that works well as an acronym. For example, ‘Sacramento Transportation Services’ could be called STS for short.

Remember that you will want to get a website set up at some point. Before you finalize your choice and register a name for your business you should also snap up any relevant domain names.

Brainstorming for Ideas

To help you come up with some name ideas put a big list of relevant words together. These words could be related to your location, your industry, your market or the services that you offer. You could also come up with words related to reliability and friendliness that describe your service. Emotional sounding words can also have a strong impact.

As well as your own thoughts you can also ask other people for their opinions. Look over some of the names that other medical transportation businesses around the world are using for ideas. Names in use by businesses in the transportation and medical industries may also provide some inspiration.

Some entrepreneurs even hire branding or marketing consultants to help them come up with the right name and brand image before they go into business. It could be a good idea to seek professional help if you really feel that you are not up to this important task.

A Name to Be Proud Of

Perhaps most importantly, the owner of the business has to love its name. You ideally need a name that you can feel proud to be associated with. The right choice should inspire you, help you to focus on developing the business and make you want to work hard to grow your brand name.

Once you have started your business it is not easy to backtrack and make changes to your name. if you do so then you will come up against many expenses relating to alterations to paperwork and printed promotional materials. Changing your business name is one of the best ways to confuse and isolate your customers unless the process is carefully managed.

For the above reasons it is essential that you ensure that you have a great name for your non-emergency medical transportation business right from the start. Give this important decision the time and attention that is deserves.

Indian Medical Device Start Ups

Indian medical device industry is fragmented, price-sensitive and bogged down by infrastructure constraints like erratic power supply, low doctor-patient ratio and shortage of trained personnel to handle complex processes. These are pain points that Indian start-ups are trying to tide over to achieve market acceptance, stated Vishnu Bhat, managing director, BlueNeem Medical Devices.

Nevertheless, Indian companies are developing products for the domestic markets. When combined with enhanced service quality and after-sales support, it is seen to go a long way in positioning Indian start-ups against competition from multinational companies, he added.

The government has created a favourable eco-system through the ‘Make in India’ and the Medical Devices Rules 2017, which came into effect from January 1, 2018. While the former gives an impetus to produce quality products cost effectively, the latter prevents import dependence, Bhat told Pharmabiz in an email.

As Indian companies are predominantly in the services sector, accessing niche product development talent for specialized medical devices manufacturing has been a challenge. A lot of product development skills and hardware talent moved to services sector for better remuneration. Apart from a shortage of product designers, India poses several challenges for med-tech design and manufacturing, he noted.

Currently, though the Indian medical devices industry is on a growth trajectory and is viewed as a sunrise sector, venture capitalists and private equity firms do not see much of business potential in these companies. The sector is largely ignored, with shorter investment cycles for PE or VC firms who look to exit quickly for quick ROI (return on investment) and for the fact that Indian companies do not offer a varied product portfolio to scale-up and the segment being highly capital intensive with long gestation periods. The large R& D budgets of international companies are major deterrent for small domestic players to succeed. Moreover, VCs and PEs traditionally invest in mid-sized companies on the growth trajectory and have been reluctant to in investing in early stage medical device companies. However the outlook is quite positive, because Indian companies are aggressively pursuing innovation and we expect significant investments in the future, said Bhat.

Import dependent medical devices sector is expected to spur manufacturing through the 3 medical devices parks at Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Additionally, local consumption coupled with strong exports demand will drive domestic demand.

Going by the import dependency and existing manufacturing capabilities, it is the diagnostic imaging in-vitro diagnostics, orthopedic prosthetics and consumables that indicate promising growth prospects. Quoting a recent report, he said India’s medical-device industry is growing at 15%, which is more than double of the global growth rate of 4-6%, and is expected to become a $25-30 billion industry in India by 2025. Currently, the imports account for over 75% of the estimated US$ 5.2 billion med-tech sector.

The new medical device rules raises the credibility of Indian companies on a global platform. The industry will take centre stage, as start-ups and small medium enterprises market specialty surgical devices like stents, catheters and high-end devices used in interventional radiology, said Bhat who added that even Blue Neem is moving towards disruptive innovation from incremental innovation