NP owned practice

[nico vazquez]

Does anyone know how difficult it would be for a FNP to start their own practice? What are the obstacles and limitations regarding this? I was accepted into a direct entry MN program and would consider this in the future if possible?

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[TheEarDoc]

Does anyone know how difficult it would be for a FNP to start their own practice? What are the obstacles and limitations regarding this? I was accepted into a direct entry MN program and would consider this in the future if possible?

A few things.
1. You would need to check and see what your state laws are. Many states do not give sole independent practice to FNP's without physician oversight. Almost all require a physician to review things periodically so you might want to see what your state laws are.

2. No way in hades you would be clinically competent enough to be on your own seeing patients and running a business right out of school. I know many practitioners who wouldn't try this step even after 10 years of FNP'S experience.

3. Do you have any business background? Most medical professionals are horrible business people. Now audiologists are groomed from day 1 in many programs to open their own business, but most of us don't. I have several years experience and I know a lot about coding, denial management, reimbursement, how to set up a business, etc. and I still wouldn't run my own business.

If this is something you are dead set on then here's what I'd do:
1. Find either a physician or nurse practitioner with lots of experience and some business smarts to partner with and have a corporation LLC group with a small business loan.
2. Research the hell out of the area to even see if you could get the right mix of private pay vs government insurance or I'd you are not taking Medicare or Medicaid assignment then make sure you have enough private pay patients to drive your volumes and make it.
3. Take business courses and get your MBA at the same time. Many schools do this and if you are doing it full time you can do both in 3 years at the masters level.

I'd still caution you on this idea though because you don't know enough of the ropes after school to be a safe practitioner without some hand holding and also you don't know enough about the business side of medicine to do this either. A great experience would be go work in a private practice after you finish school and make good friends with the biller and you will learn tons.

Good luck.

 

[ghost dog]

A few things.
1. You would need to check and see what your state laws are. Many states do not give sole independent practice to FNP's without physician oversight. Almost all require a physician to review things periodically so you might want to see what your state laws are.

2. No way in hades you would be clinically competent enough to be on your own seeing patients and running a business right out of school. I know many practitioners who wouldn't try this step even after 10 years of FNP'S experience.

3. Do you have any business background? Most medical professionals are horrible business people. Now audiologists are groomed from day 1 in many programs to open their own business, but most of us don't. I have several years experience and I know a lot about coding, denial management, reimbursement, how to set up a business, etc. and I still wouldn't run my own business.

If this is something you are dead set on then here's what I'd do:
1. Find either a physician or nurse practitioner with lots of experience and some business smarts to partner with and have a corporation LLC group with a small business loan.
2. Research the hell out of the area to even see if you could get the right mix of private pay vs government insurance or I'd you are not taking Medicare or Medicaid assignment then make sure you have enough private pay patients to drive your volumes and make it.
3. Take business courses and get your MBA at the same time. Many schools do this and if you are doing it full time you can do both in 3 years at the masters level.

I'd still caution you on this idea though because you don't know enough of the ropes after school to be a safe practitioner without some hand holding and also you don't know enough about the business side of medicine to do this either. A great experience would be go work in a private practice after you finish school and make good friends with the biller and you will learn tons.

Good luck.

Could you provide a rationale as to why someone would need an MBA if they were planning on opening their own small business? This seems like overkill to me.

I completely agree that most professional programs do not provide business training (I know my med school and residency certainly didn't). However, getting an MBA seems like not only a waste of time, but also a signficant waste of money. Usually an MBA is intended for a formal business setting, such as working in a large corporation.

Why not simply take a few business courses at your local technical school, or something along these lines ? Or perhaps ask a mentor to give you some pointers in how they manage their business ? People are often unaware of untapped resources around them, some of which are free. I am always happy to speak to my medical students and residents about the business side of managing a practice.

An MBA ain't cheap.

 

[TheEarDoc]

Could you provide a rationale as to why someone would need an MBA if they were planning on opening their own small business? This seems like overkill to me.

I completely agree that most professional programs do not provide business training (I know my med school and residency certainly didn't). However, getting an MBA seems like not only a waste of time, but also a signficant waste of money. Usually an MBA is intended for a formal business setting, such as working in a large corporation.

Why not simply take a few business courses at your local technical school, or something along these lines ? Or perhaps ask a mentor to give you some pointers in how they manage their business ? People are often unaware of untapped resources around them, some of which are free. I am always happy to speak to my medical students and residents about the business side of managing a practice.

An MBA ain't cheap.

Yeah you don't need an MBA to own your own business wasn't saying that but having one would definitely put you in a good place. As I was saying swveral schools offer an MBA with a few more classes. Kaplan does it for just 6 more credit hours over your nursing masters. Other universities do the same. If you are a full time student why not take business electives when you need electives and leave with two masters in about the same amount of time? Work smarter not harder.

 

[nico vazquez]

Are there NP/PA's doing concierge service? can this be run in primary care scope by a NP ( after some experience) ?