Identifying the right approach for your organization can help to support system-wide goals through well-aligned physician and advanced practice provider affiliation relationships.
Hospitals, health systems, and physician organizations continue to evolve based on their unique goals and organizational strategies. Common to many of these organizations is an overarching emphasis on talent management to help optimize clinical care, enhance performance, and ensure access and alignment to advance their missions and sustainability. To help support these goals, organizations must identify the right type and number of physicians and APPs to engage. This includes evaluating various levels of commitment, empowerment, accountability and rewards.
Most health systems rely on a mixture of physician-hospital affiliation relationships that cover both employed and non-employed physicians. It is essential that these models include supportive compensation arrangements and performance requirements in order to align with both fee-for-service and value-based reimbursements.
SullivanCotter has extensive experience in assessing and developing a wide range of physician-hospital affiliation relationships. Recognizing there is no “one size fits all” solution, we work closely with organizations to identify a customized approach to developing and strengthening physician relationships based on your unique organizational circumstances and affiliation needs.
Our comprehensive physician affiliation and needs assessment services allow our clients to better:
- Assess current models and develop new physician affiliation strategies that are better aligned with mission, vision and values
- Optimize physician and advanced practice provider care delivery to support value-based care initiatives, population health management and payer strategies
- Evaluate and enhance the full range of physician and APP relationships
- Identify the type and number of physicians required to support key service lines and address community needs
- Create compensation and benefits programs to align with organizational imperatives
- Develop leadership structures and performance management processes to enhance physician engagement
- Assess and optimize service lines and medical group operations and financial performance
SullivanCotter’s Physician Affiliation and Needs Assessment offerings are a part of our broader Physician Workforce Advisory Services
Physician Affiliation Planning Framework
SullivanCotter partners with organizations to enhance physician alignment through our insight, experience and understanding of innovative and successful affiliation models. We primarily focus on the following key areas to help our clients design the most appropriate approach.
Our physician affiliation planning framework includes a comprehensive assessment to identify the right number and type of:
- Affiliation Models to provide alternative options for employed and non-employed physicians
- Physicians and APPs to provide clinical, teaching, research and medical administrative services
- Compensation Arrangements to reward and ensure accountable professional services that optimize quality and payer reimbursements
- Leadership Structures and Performance Programs to foster shared decision-making, engagement and oversight
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Physician Needs Assessment
Introducing SullivanCotter’s interactive
cloud-based application
As hospitals and health systems look to support growth and reassess cost and efficiency concerns in a rapidly evolving marketplace, access to current and projected market-specific physician supply and demand data is critical.
SullivanCotter helps organizations assess and develop a wide range of physician affiliation models - including those along the sample continuum below - from highly integrated to more modestly affiliated:
- Telemedicine and Area Referring Physicians
- Traditional Hospital Independent Medical Staff
- On-Call Coverage Relationships
- Physician Recruitment and Retention Support
- Medical Directorship and Other Professional Services Agreements
- Management Services Organization (MSO)/Practice Management
- Joint Managed Care (with lower levels of risk)
- Specialty Institute /Service Line and Program Co-Management
- Joint Venture and Shared Equity Relationships
- Clinical Integration and Payer Contracting (with higher levels of risk)
- Exclusive Foundation/Professional Services Agreement
- Full Practice Integration/Employment
Related Information
Learn more about enhancing physician-hospital affiliation relationships within your organization
Related Resources