Rolling into the new year ahead energized by the successes of 2017, MedHQ Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Tom Jacobs shared his outlook on the challenges and opportunities for ASCs in 2018 and looked back on a few of MedHQ’s key accomplishments over the past year.
“As we continue to build on our relationships with ASC management companies, and as independent ASC physician-hospital partnerships increasingly look to us to add efficiency to their operations, our outlook for 2018 is really good,” Jacobs said. “ASC and hospital CEOs agree that as a strategic outside resource, we can be a much more focused and efficient way to deliver HR services. And they need to bring every efficiency they can to succeed in today’s dynamic healthcare market place.”
MedHQ’s 2017 growth underscores this observation. While the company enjoyed significant growth across all three of its service lines – Human Resources Services, Accounting Services, and Physician Credentialing – MedHQ grew 50% over the past two years in the realm of HR Services. Jacobs attributes a significant portion this growth to MedHQ’s deepening partnerships with ASC management companies as clients.
“There is a growing recognition that just as in healthcare there are specialties and subspecialties, so too in management,” he said. “There are some great management companies in the ASC space, but HR is so broad and deep they recognize a real need for a subspecialist. They’re looking to us as a partner, not a competitor.”
Supporting its rapid growth in HR Services, MedHQ invested in a strategic new hire late in 2017, adding HR executive Rita Hernandez-Figi as Vice President, Human Resource Services. Hernandez-Figi spent 16 years directing HR at Insurance Auto Auction – which operated in 49 of the 50 states, plus Canada – and was previously an HR leader with ServiceMaster, Inc.
The firm also upgraded to a new HR technology platform – PrismHR – to help clients to automate electronic onboarding, benefits enrollment, integration with back office systems, and eventually to tie HR data to the key business intelligence statistics that guide Board decision-making.
“Our growth – and the highly adaptive solutions we offer – closely fit healthcare trends as more care moves to an outpatient setting,” Jacobs observed. “Smart hospital operators are understanding that ASCs are partners and not threats, and a similar realization is happening in HR. As the hospital C-suite becomes part owner in the ASC, they care more about expertly managing HR risks.”
Jacobs explained that outpatient care requires a more dynamic, highly efficient, fast-paced environment, so the need for an adaptive back office comes part-and-parcel with the transition from in-patient care.
“As a subspecialist, we can use our platform to implement HR solutions relatively easily on a facility-by-facility basis. MedHQ’s new HR software platform is a web-based, cloud-based service, so it’s simple to replicate, and offers universal access and instant data sharing even if your management team, accounting and HR services, and hospital partners are all in separate locations.”
MedHQ’s Accounting Services offering also enjoyed growth in 2017, and Jacobs expects that success to continue in the new year as well. Leveraging a team of experienced healthcare accountants, MedHQ provides ASC clients with an accurate, up-to-date picture of the current financial state of their businesses, tailoring services to each client’s specific needs, and acting as trusted advisors.
“We understand the healthcare revenue cycle and apply that knowledge to offer financials that become critical decision-making tools for ASC managers and administrators,” Jacobs said. “The bottom line is, our clients have confidence in us because we help them maximize business performance.”
To learn more about MedHQ’s services, click here.