financial viability study for a new RT department

[Kroll2013]

Dear colleagues,

i would be grateful if you can recommend any useful resource, articles, tutorial etc ... that might help me to prepare a financial viability study. some references where i can find an average estimate of ROI in radiation therapy, average operational cost per session ....

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[Chartreuse Wombat]

Recommend bumping to private forum

 

[Neuronix]

Recommend bumping to private forum

I agree, though it's not our practice to push these posts there... @Kroll2013 Please PM me if you'd like to verify for the private forum.

 

[evilbooyaa]

I hadn't made the move yet because I wanted to ensure OP was not going to lose access to his own thread given no information has actually been posted yet. So, thanks to Neuronix for taking lead on that. But, I do agree that this is a topic better suited for private forum.

 

[MidwestRadOnc]

I'm not sure why the topic of starting a private practice can't be discussed in public? Would be a good discussion.

 

[Neuronix]

I'm not sure why the topic of starting a private practice can't be discussed in public? Would be a good discussion.

There are many watching this forum. Some have good intentions for rad oncs, others do not. There are some who want to make more money off our hard work or cut our reimbursements, and are looking for more evidence or strategies in support of those objectives.

While I can't guarantee that the private forum is free of bad actors, I can guarantee they are all verified as residents or attending rad oncs.

 

[elementaryschooleconomics]

I'm not sure why the topic of starting a private practice can't be discussed in public? Would be a good discussion.

It's the same mistake ASTRO makes: asymmetric information.

When ASTRO published their hypofrac "guidelines" in 2018, IMMEDIATELY that became a source for payors to deny above a certain number of fractions.

Obviously, no one will write guidelines citing an SDN thread. However, if we start openly discussing hard numbers, that will become at least a mental benchmark for negotiations.

The private forum is a great place to discuss this stuff, even though we can't guarantee our pals at eviCore won't catch wind given RadOnc MDs work for them. But there's no way to totally keep the info on the "good" side while still talking about it, no matter what.

 

[Gfunk6]

Our practice had opened a total of 6 free-standing outpatient centers with a linac since ~ 2007. I would be willing to discuss this in more detail if the OP or someone else with interest starts a thread in the private forum and pings me.

 

[RickyScott]

is the practice in the usa vs another country. I believe the op is in another country?

 

[theradiator]

There are many watching this forum. Some have good intentions for rad oncs, others do not. There are some who want to make more money off our hard work or cut our reimbursements, and are looking for more evidence or strategies in support of those objectives.

While I can't guarantee that the private forum is free of bad actors, I can guarantee they are all verified as residents or attending rad oncs.

Great point. I randomly did a search on the new AI enabled search engine Perplexity today and was shocked that the result cited SDN via webcrawler so yes everything on here is absolutely discoverable by potential evildoers.

 

[MidwestRadOnc]

There are many watching this forum. Some have good intentions for rad oncs, others do not. There are some who want to make more money off our hard work or cut our reimbursements, and are looking for more evidence or strategies in support of those objectives.

While I can't guarantee that the private forum is free of bad actors, I can guarantee they are all verified as residents or attending rad oncs.

The logistics of starting a solo practice in our field are so complicated due to the machine. For other specialties it's simply leasing some commercial office space, advertising, and hiring out admin duties (talking to a colleague in a different specialty the other day who just did this on his own).

I have an idea for a niche solo practice and a market I think it would work well, but also unsure where to get started. There is a case to be made that rates will remain fixed until the fed is forced to cut (possibly very soon) due to minimize resulting economic recession, during which time doing something like this could be an attractive proposition. A perk of being in a recession-proof industry.

It is a shame that we have to fear openly discussing this vs. a field like dentistry where discussions of owning and operating a successful business are completely normal and supported by their national organizations.

 

[medgator]

The logistics of starting a solo practice in our field are so complicated due to the machine. For other specialties it's simply leasing some commercial office space, advertising, and hiring out admin duties (talking to a colleague in a different specialty the other day who just did this on his own).

I have an idea for a niche solo practice and a market I think it would work well, but also unsure where to get started. There is a case to be made that rates will remain fixed until the fed is forced to cut (possibly very soon) due to minimize resulting economic recession, during which time doing something like this could be an attractive proposition. A perk of being in a recession-proof industry.

It is a shame that we have to fear openly discussing this vs. a field like dentistry where discussions of owning and operating a successful business are completely normal and supported by their national organizations.

Starting a practice now is just daunting. Medicare treats hospitals better, vault expense isn't reflected in the payment anymore etc (vault is a high 6-figure cost usually)

 

[MidwestRadOnc]

Yeah, back of the napkin 4-5M to open the doors at a barebones new small practice? Ideally want to recoup initial investment <5 years. Would be hard enough even with covid-era interest rates.

Agree cards are stacked against us, but there's something about the thrill of figuring just out how quickly it can take to declare bankruptcy to excite some of us (or that's just how much you really can't stand having non-physicians above you making practice decisions).