Chicago, Illinois (February 21, 2012) –Peter Cunningham, chief executive officer of CCO Healthcare Partners will be a featured panelist at the 9th Annual Healthcare & Life Sciences Private Equity and Finance Conference.

Cunningham and other panelists will present “Expanding Healthcare Business Lines” Thursday, February 23 at 2:55 p.m. During this session, panelist will discuss market segments within the healthcare industry that are poised for growth and opportunity. In addition, Cunningham will talk about how to measure marketing ROI throughout the business line expansion process.

“The healthcare industry has undergone drastic changes recently and this trend is sure to continue,” says Cunningham. “Healthcare companies and their financial backers have to find new ways to grow their businesses in order to stay relevant in today’s environment.”

During the conference, leaders from the healthcare investment community will explore how to successfully close transactions and achieve growth by implementing the right strategies in the right markets. In addition, companies seeking investment or financing will also present.

The conference, which is Wednesday, February 22 through Thursday, February 23, will be held at The Ritz-Carlton in Chicago.

“This conference brings together both healthcare businesses seeking financial backing as well as those looking for investment opportunities,” says Cunningham. “I look forward to sharing some of the insights I’ve gleaned by working with healthcare executives and private equity firms across the country.”

This is an actual question from a typical branding exercise.

But while a creative team is taking months to debate the merits of your company as a cross trainer versus a stiletto, the competition is talking to your potential customers and setting your brand for you.

This method of brand building is inefficient and oftentimes results in an arbitrary brand image that misses the mark.

A more efficient and effective way to develop your brand is to start with an honest assessment of your company. For example, what do you do better than anyone else?

Then, talk to your current customers. Find out why they chose you over the competition; how your product or services benefit them; and which factors were the most important during their decision making process.

You might be surprised by what they say.

A great brand must do two things:
1) Tap into what matters most to your customers
2) Match the reality of what your company can deliver

Both the self-analysis and customer poll will provide valuable insight to ensure the brand you create meets the criteria above.

Cross trainer or stiletto? The question you should be asking is what brand image matches your customers’ needs. And, the even bigger question is, “Can your company fill those shoes?”

Rural Health Clinic Issues Whitepaper on Why Small Billing Balance Matters

6 Points on Building an ASC Joint Venture With an Academic Medical Center

10 Challenges Surgery Centers Can No Longer Ignore
Written by Rob Kurtz
Becker’s ASC Review
Jan. 18, 2012

The ambulatory surgery center industry is currently experiencing more uncertainty than it has in recent history. Here are 10 challenges industry experts say ASCs can no longer ignore to ensure they can remain in business and profitable in 2012 and beyond.

1. Consolidation of hospitals and employing physicians. This is an issue ASCs have seen before, but it is one ASCs need to pay close attention to and see how it plays out over the next few years, says Joseph Zasa, JD, managing and founding partner of ASD Management.

“It may be that we go through a cycle with it or it may be permanent,” he says. “I personally believe that it’s reality for the next few years but in the long run, I don’t buy that every physician is going to be an employee.”

2. Declining access to affordable capital. With the current economic climate, it is becoming more difficult to get access to affordable capital, says Lori Ramirez, founder, president and CEO of Elite Surgical Affiliates.

“ASCs have to be more creative in raising money through debt or equity,” she says. “Working with local banks [that] want depository relationships seems to be an attractive option. Also, [as a result of declining available capital], ASC companies will be forced to be more efficient. Development companies will have to build smaller, focus on specific specialties and consider turnaround facilities.”

3. Vigilance with physician recruiting. With hospital employment of physicians a growing trend, physician recruitment becomes even more important.

“You have to recruit, recruit, recruit and get people over to your ASC because as physicians age, we need people to replace them,” says Mr. Zasa. “Don’t be just resting on your laurels and what you’ve done in the past.”

4. Collaborating with hospitals. In today’s market, physician-owned surgery centers can no longer ignore the importance of continually exploring new and different ways to reposition their ASC for sustained growth and viability, says Michael McKevitt, senior vice president, business development, for Regent Surgical Health. Hospitals, he says, face the same, if not greater, challenges in trying to provide the highest standard of care at the lowest cost. Historically “tenuous” relationships between ASCs and local hospitals are changing, and forward-thinking operators of both ASCs and hospitals are finding ways to collaborate on a common vision, he says.

Collaboration can take many different forms, but the most common and emerging model Mr. McKevitt is seeing is hospital/physician ASC joint ventures, in which a local hospital acquires an existing ASC with the intent of gaining market share while concurrently establishing synergy with the larger medical community.

There are myriad reasons as to why an existing center needs to be repositioned in the market. “We pride ourselves on our collective ability to find solutions using the right tools to improve profitability for our facilities,” he says. “In the past couple years, the right tool, more often than not, has been to include the local hospital in the ownership of an ASC that previously was exclusively held by physicians. In fact, all of Regent’s six acquisitions in 2011 include local hospitals in the ownership structure. Why? ASCs are [struggling] and will continue to struggle with decreasing payments and increasing operating costs — to the point that many of the higher acuity cases can’t cover operating costs even though they represent significant surgical volume. As the ASC market matures, there are also a dwindling number of new projects and a dwindling number of new (non-aligned) partners available to replace retiring partners and bring in new patients.”

Mr. McKevitt says facilitating successful physician/hospital joint ventures is predicated on finding a common ground and balancing the need of the hospital for governance and control coupled with the physicians’ desire for efficiency and clinical autonomy. For this model to work long-term for both the physicians/ASC and the hospital, there must be give and take, according to Mr. McKevitt.

“When you are able to meet the needs of both the hospital and physicians in dealing with the uncertainty of the future healthcare economy, you have an efficient, yet profitable, business model,” he says. “In exchange for long-term gain, and in some cases survival, physicians are willing to bring in a strategic partner with the caveat that the physicians will retain control of daily operations. In turn, the hospital accesses a patient base that historically was not referred, which translates to greater market share. Give and take. The end result is a more profitable center that is positioned for long-term success.”

5. Moving away from reliance on out-of-network. ASCs can no longer count on sustaining their business through reliance on OON billing, says Mr. Zasa.

“It’s over because the payors are selling high-deductible plans that make it very difficult to go OON,” he says. “We never adopted an OON strategy. We forged relationships with payors that have gone back a long time, and that has helped us retain and negotiate reasonable increases with our current contracts. OON was essentially a short-term strategy.”

6. Marketing directly to patients. ASCs can no longer ignore the need to market directly to patients, says Scott Christiansen, partner with CCO Healthcare Partners. Physician referrals have long been the bread and butter of ASCs, but today the competition for referrals has skyrocketed and patients are doing their own research on the Internet. Long gone are the days when marketing to PCPs was enough to fill the beds and ORs, he says.

“ASCs have to help patients find them and then convince those patients to choose their surgeons,” Mr. Christiansen says. “The first priority should be to develop a website for the physician practice and center.”

However, including just your ASC’s or practice’s name and address are not enough to successfully convert that search into an appointment, he says. Patients need to be able to research whether your physician practice or surgery center is the right fit for them. Consider providing surgeon profiles, patient stories, awards and quality data on your website.

Some ASCs and practices also participate in local media stories, blog about the latest services and news and even allow patients to ask questions. “This content serves two purposes: It helps potential patients make a decision on where to receive their healthcare, and the additional content also helps search engines drive more patients to your site,” Mr. Christiansen says. “As more and more quality data becomes available, healthcare will become even more consumer-driven. By acknowledging this shift and focusing more marketing efforts toward patients, ASCs can continue to thrive.”

Ms. Ramirez says increasing competition decreases access to patients, which is forcing organizations to consider marketing directly through social networking.

“For the first time in the ASC industry I have witnessed companies recruiting directly to patients through advertising and social networking,” she says. “There was a time when only physicians were targeted. Now many ASC companies are actually marketing directly to the patients to increase volumes.”

7. Need to benchmark and maintain efficiency. It is critical for ASCs to benchmark themselves against national, regional and local standards to help ensure they run as efficiently and effectively as possible, with the highest quality possible, Mr. Zasa says.

“That’s something you can’t ignore,” he says. “Margins are tighter, and with OON going away, getting paid for the big stuff is gone so you have to now actually run your center.”

8. Creative tactics by payors. Insurance companies are finding creative ways to try to force ASCs into contracts, says Ms. Ramirez, and it is a tactic ASCs cannot sit idly by and watch.

“They are increasing deductibles, offering less PPO products and pressuring physicians [and threatening] to kick them off the panel if they do cases in out-of-network facilities,” she says. “ASCs have to band together and push back at each state level. Otherwise, there will be no leverage in negotiating.”

In addition, de novo centers will have a difficult time generating cash flow because there is a period where every ASC is OON.

“It is fraud for these insurance companies to sell PPO products and then negatively induce the patients and providers from using centers that are considered OON,” she says.

9. Significant changes to quality and safety-related regulations. Regulations and accreditation standards concerning quality, patient safety and standards of care have changed significantly in the last two years, and ASCs need to stay abreast of these changes, says Mr. Zasa.

“Quality and standard of care … is an overriding issue with our business,” he says. “We take care of people. All business issues are secondary to [this].”

10. Nursing shortage. Not only is it becoming more difficult to find adequate staffing due to the national nursing shortage, it is extremely difficult to find specialized nurses with surgery center experience, says Ms. Ramirez.

“This issue also affects retention,” she says. “The shortage creates a more competitive environment, forcing surgery center operators to offer higher salaries and better benefits to compete with the hospitals.”

To grow sales, you have to have a strategy that utilizes a mix of tactics including lead generation, channel development and, of course, branding.

The challenge, however, when employing a multi-pronged approach is to ensure that everything works in concert.  In other words, all the tactics must be anchored by a common strategy.

Think of the strategy as your map and lead generation, channel development and branding as your vehicles.

By using multiple marketing “vehicles,” you’ll reach your revenue goals more effectively and efficiently because:

• You hit your target from various angles
• You can determine in real-time which tactics bring the biggest ROI and adjust accordingly

Bottom line, there’s more to marketing than a pretty logo.  The right marketing mix gets results – sales go up, costs go down.  And even the most famous logos can’t deliver that on their own.

Cary will manage CCO national accounts as well as establish a presence in Nashville, the center of for- profit healthcare business in the U.S. In this role she will help healthcare organizations develop and execute strategic marketing plans to grow revenue and expand their reach in the marketplace. Most recently Cary was a senior advisor at Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, a healthcare public affairs firm. During her tenure at Data Systems International she managed marketing communications for the company’s 25 regional offices as well as a multi-million dollar co-op advertising program in conjunction with IBM® and Hewlett-Packard®. Cary has also served as a columnist for a Chicago-area magazine and coordinated public relations campaigns for two international trade associations.

“As a firm, we are singularly focused on helping our clients grow their businesses predictably and profitably,” says Peter Cunningham, managing partner of CCO Healthcare Partners. “It was important for us to be on the ground in Nashville not only to grow our own business, but to develop more relationships of strategic value for our clients.”

In addition to providing a range of market intelligence, CCO works with each client to develop the best strategies and marketing mix to reach their target market. The firm also consistently measures the effectiveness of each tactic against benchmarking numbers to ensure the marketing efforts are as efficient and cost-effective as possible.

Last year Chicago-based CCO enjoyed substantial growth and expects to continue to grow at an even greater pace in 2012 with the addition of new services, strategic hires, and additional geographic locations.

About CCO Healthcare Partners
CCO Healthcare Partners is a specialized marketing consulting firm that works exclusively with healthcare organizations nationwide to help them grow their revenue predicatively and profitably. Founded in 2009, the firm has offices in Chicago, Ill. and Nashville, Tenn. CCO’s team of specialists has in-depth industry knowledge and experience successfully marketing in the healthcare environment. By utilizing multi-channel strategies and consistently measuring the ROI on each tactic, CCO helps clients reach their goals efficiently and cost-effectively.

For more information visit www.CCOpartners.com.

Contact:
Kristen Allen
Media Relations
CCO Healthcare Partners
kma@ccopartners.com
312.961.4745

Healthcare reform, the patient-directed focus and a financial crisis – the shifts reverberating through the healthcare industry are big enough to register on the Richter Scale.

For many companies, the strategies that helped them become successful are ineffective in today’s healthcare environment.

To stay successful, companies have to figure out the new realities of their target market:
• What are your customers’ new priorities?
• How are your customers making decisions now?
• How does your product or service position realistically fit within your customers’ new list of priorities?

Many products and services that ranked as a high priority 2-3 years ago no longer make the top of the list today, creating a disconnect between what you offer and what your customers need.

So how do you make sure your offerings are properly aligned with your customers’ priorities?

You have to go out and talk to people – your current customers, former customers and prospective customers.

Ask them about their business goals, challenges, opportunities, industry trends and new ideas that excite them.

Then, ask the question that will give the most telling answer, “What keeps you up at night?”

Once you know your customers’ priorities and/or “pain points”, you can correctly re-align your offerings. That’s the key to a successful marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there will soon be any definitive fixes to the industry challenges mentioned above. Consequently, your target market’s priorities won’t be definitive either. So it’s important to continue this dialog on a regular basis.

That way you can make sure you’re meeting the current needs of your customers. Or, in other words, you’re setting your company up to win.

This old adage has been used repeatedly over the years by marketers when pressed about measuring marketing ROI, much to the chagrin of CEOs everywhere.

Think about it. If you’re a CEO, you’re accountable for results. If you walk into the boardroom and report that you’re not hitting your numbers and can’t provide a concrete strategy for improvement, you get fired.

So the idea that the marketing department can continuously spend money – oftentimes a significant amount –without accountability is ludicrous.

In today’s world, this 50-50 rule doesn’t cut it anymore and those still quoting it are going the way of the buggy whip. The truth is, you can measure marketing ROI. And, you should!

According to a recent IBM® survey of 1,734 Chief Marketing Officers from various industries, only 44% feel they are prepared to measure ROI. But yet, 63% think marketing ROI will become the most important measure of their success over the next few years.

Frankly, it’s a bit surprising that this idea has taken so long to be adopted. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. And today, the margin for error is razor thin.

In short, if you’re not measuring marketing ROI, you’d better start. As your competition may have already discovered which 50%.