Are you searching for proven strategies related to minimizing risk with a San Diego MSO?  If you considering the formation of a Management Service Organization you will need the more than four decades of experience, counsel and legal services of the healthcare and medical business lawyers at the Watkins Firm.

There are several sound business, ethical and financial reasons to consider an MSO or management Service Organization.  There are also substantial risks for the physicians and licensed medical professionals who must maintain a majority ownership position in any California healthcare entity.  Our attorneys will discuss the advantages of an MSO as well as proven strategies for minimizing risk with a San Diego MSO.

The primary reasons to consider the option of an MSO are to reduce the cost of delivering exceptional healthcare and related services while improving the experience of the patient and their overall satisfaction.  Your experienced business partners in the MSO can apply their operational expertise to run the business side of things so that the medical staff can focus on delivering an exceptional healthcare experience for their patients.

It is common for an MSO to own and maintain the building(s) associated with the practice or medical business.  The MSO can efficiently manage vendor contracts as well as non-licensed professional workers.  MSOs provide expertise relating to data processing, informational analysis as well as the protection of private patient medical information.   The Management Service Organization can even provide important services such as accounting, tax filing and even collection management.

Any Management Service Organization strategy must also carefully plan for, structure and administer these services while minimizing risk with a San Diego MSO.  The corporate documents and business plan for the MSO should address potential issues such as the management of potential disputes, a default on any financial obligation and the potential for exposure to allegations of kick-backs or other improprieties by the Medical Board of California or other professional licensing organizations.

What financial liabilities might a physician or licensed medical professional assume as a majority or minority owner in an MSO or Management Service Organization?  How will the responsibilities of a medical professional holding an ownership interest in an MSO be properly structured to separate the personal financial interests of the physician or licensed professional from the contingent liabilities of the MSO?  What are the potential risks (if any) to a professional license?  How can these potential risks be mitigated through the structure of the entity and the administration of day-to-day operations?  How will the formation of an MSO be structured to preserve important authority and supervisory oversight of critical functions such as prescriptions, billing and compliance with all local, state and federal regulations, ordinances and statutes?

Pro-Tip: “Consider an MSO like your administrator for your business. But if you’re in the healthcare business, your administrator can’t do it all. It’s complicated. And there are actual schools that can take people to learn some of the things that your administrator’s supposed to do, like coding, like billing, like compliance, like HR, like leasing, like software programs. So many things that you have to deal with, so many more clients, patients, you have to do so much that MSOs are a good option. Also, you can get non-doctors to partner with you and invest in your company to make you more profitable while you focus on being a doctor.

For example, Let’s think of two dynamics here in how the government has established an MSO for doctors. On the one hand, the evil side, they don’t want doctors to have what is called corporate practice of medicine, right? That’s “evil.” Where corporations can say, you know, ‘the kidney’s fine,’ or ‘It costs too much.’ Government types don’t want that. So there’s all these laws stopping non-doctors, investors, entrepreneurs from coming into your practice and saying, ‘you can’t do that for this patient.’

The practice of medicine and all medical decisions are to be provided by and made by licensed medical professionals, full stop. And those laws will continue to expand, as “big brother” is the scariest thing when it comes to people and business. Now on the other side, business expertise can really benefit a medical practice. All these technologies, all these experts there to help you with the business of being a doctor, they can really help. And you can bring in resources, financial resources to make you stronger, more competitive. You can get better contracts, better pay contracts with your payers. I mean, all those things can be accomplished by MSOs with qualified resources and people in them.

So, in essence, the Management Service Organization takes over many or all of the aspects of running the business side of things, and that really frees up the licensed professionals to do what they do best, which is provide exceptional care for their patients.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

If you are concerned about minimizing risk with a San Diego MSO you need to seek proven services of the healthcare and medical practice attorneys at the Watkins Firm.  The Watkins Firm will work to reduce or mitigate your exposure to risk while protecting and enhancing the success of the business and patient goals of your new MSO.

We invite you to review our podcast Episode 30 – Management Services Organizations as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.