When it comes to acquisitions, no two are just alike. Every newly acquired practice has its nuances, and even the most streamlined platform practices have to be prepared to deal with contingencies and situations as they arise.
One area of an acquisition that can be effectively fine-tuned and optimized for long term success is the integration cycle. Whether your organization uses NextGen®® , EMA®, or some variation of both for your clinical and practice management, firms like ours specialize in significantly reducing integration times, eliminating the risk of integration errors, and helping clients scale more quickly and more confidently.
Integrations aren’t just about speed and efficiency, however. When it comes time to sell, we’re confident that a streamlined, compact system of integrated software and workflows can increase your valuation by at least 10% (if not a whole lot more.) Here’s why an effective integration process is the hero you never knew existed when it comes to maximizing your practice’s value.
Better data means better predictions
One of the biggest hurdles for practices is predictability. Even in more cash heavy specialties like dermatology and ophthalmology, patient flow can be sporadic, and fluctuate based on season, need, and even changes in insurance coverage and governmental policies.
Disjointed data can make the outlook uncertain. If you own and operate multiple practices that you’ve consolidated under one platform, that’s a lot of risk and unpredictability. Some locations may do well, and others may struggle from the moment you take them over. By streamlining data under one reporting system, however, you are able to comparatively manage the metrics and potential investors are able to assess a more holistic view of your organization’s numbers, and make predictions based on the whole. It’s basic business logic– but it’s spearheaded by a clean, clear, repeatable system that starts with an effective integration process!
The value of better data doesn’t just impact your actual numbers, though. Accessible, well defined data can also highlight trends and make it easier for investors to analyze their expected ROI decades down the line– instead of just relying on current revenue numbers, as is often the case with independent practices. Integrated data means more clarity, and more clarity can lead to a bigger payday.
You’ll reduce redundancy and save money by capitalizing on comparative insights
With every business comes redundancy– and practices are no different. However, with a clear and streamlined data flow from efficient integration, you’ll see your metrics more clearly, allowing you to make more cost and risk-conscious decisions.
Platform practices that outsource things like billing or data collection may rely solely on the reports they receive from vendors and contractors. While that’s fine in theory, fragmented and hard to translate reports can cover up serious issues that could impact your bottom line. When it’s time to sell, those issues can come to light and hurt you in more ways than one. Do you have medications listed under more than one name, and are they being billed at the same rate? Do you have two people doing the job of one, and are you bleeding money because of it? Is one physician seeing significantly more or less patients than others, and are you aware of it? It’s easy to look at the big picture and assess top level numbers. But those numbers can be skewed or fragmented, and you wouldn’t know it unless you had one integrated system you could rely on.
Redundancies and discrepancies happen. Being able to compare what’s working across all of your practices and processes is a surefire way to reduce or eliminate their risks, and bolster your bottom line.
An outsourced integration process is cost-effective
When it comes to increasing the value of a practice or practice group, there are some cut and paste options that are pretty standard for every business. But for specialty groups, increasing patient count, raising the price of services, or reducing extraneous headcount often isn’t very neat and trim. Introducing a simpler, easily measured integration process as a standard for every acquisition is a great way to increase your margins and your bottom line without needing to reinvent the wheel and change the way your organization runs. New practices already have to be integrated. Why not outsource and integrate faster and more affordably?
When you contract with a team like FiveSix, a number of things change rather quickly.
First, your time and opportunities increase dramatically. If you have an in-house integration team, you’re able to sic them on additional projects, while our experts take care of most of the heavy lifting on your current ones. This allows you to integrate quicker and reduces the risk of costly mistakes when a team is fatigued.
Your time also becomes more valuable. Instead of dealing with vendors one on one, the Director of Integration we assign to you deals with everything, and acts as your liaison throughout the integration process. All you have to do is make the big ticket decisions that are necessary to keep projects moving forward.
Finally, you save money, which makes purchasing your platform an even better investment for a potential buyer. A repeatable, scalable, low cost integration process makes acquisitions cheaper, and means they can be completed at a higher volume. Leveraging a clean, concise integration process can position your organization as a more valuable option than an alternative.
More streamlined data means more productivity
If you’re a Director of Integration, we’re willing to bet that there’s nothing more frustrating than integrating a new practice with an archaic practice management system.
When your data is clean and functional across your integrated practices, your team can be more productive, you’ll see less down time, and you’ll have a seamless package to present to an entity that’s serious about buying. A functional, scalable integration plan moves the needle for a buyer that wants to see ROI quickly, which means your value can be a little richer and still motivate the interested party.
If you’re looking for ways to increase valuation, a better integration process may be the right step for you. Get in touch with our team to explore a few of our recent use cases, and find out if we may be the best option for your needs!