Practice Start-up

Starting your own practice can be both exciting and daunting. Your practice start-up involves making a multitude of clinical, business, and administrative decisions. You will be making the majority of these decisions for the first time in your life; and at times, you will wish you had an MBA or law degree. However, help is on the way.

The first step is to assemble your team of professional advisors - your CPA, your Healthcare Attorney, and your Clinical Consultant to ensure your practice start-up runs smoothly and follows a pre-planned schedule.

Some phases of the start-up are contingent upon completion of other steps. For example, in order to apply for your Medicare provider number, you must first have your Federal Tax ID number and have an established business address. Business decisions made in the proper order can minimize stress and confusion and save you money.

Generally speaking, start-up is a 6 to 9 month process from the time you begin to plan and assemble your team and resources to the time that you open your doors to the patients.

We can assist you in every aspect of your practice start-up. Call us for your initial consultation to discuss your plans and your time-line. We have assisted many start-up physicians and dentists in successfully setting up their own practices.
When necessary, we'll refer you to other professionals such as a healthcare attorney, a clinical consultant, or a billing company.

The following is a simplified checklist of items, tasks and assignments to start your own practice:

- Choosing your advisors-CPA, Attorney and Practice Consultant
- Choosing the legal form of your practice (PA, PC, LLC, PLLC, S Corp)
- Determining startup financial needs, obtaining loans, line of credits, etc.
- Identifying the insurance needs - malpractice, general liability, disability, workers' comp., health, life, etc.
- Developing a pro-forma financial statement/budget
- Determining office location, type of building, demographics, nearby hospitals, traffic patterns, etc.
- Identifying needs for any leasehold improvements/build out
- Planning for phone lines, fax, DSL
- Determining what is needed for credentialing
- Identifying how billing will be done and what is needed
- Determining furniture, fixture and equipment needs and how to acquire them
- Developing a marketing plan and material
- Developing a web site, stationery, and business cards
- Setting up your fee-schedule
- Developing various office forms and schedules
- Determining what compliance policies and procedures are required
- Coping with HIPAA requirements
- Determining what is required by OSHA, training, manual, etc.
- Development of job description and employee policy handbook
- Determining clinical and clerical supply requirement
- Developing a plan to hire and train staff

The above list is intended to provide a general guideline to start a practice. Variations exist based on location, specialty, demographics, competition, and financial consideration.