Medical graduate students are at a disadvantage when they don’t get trained on the business elements of medical practice, writes Arlen Meyers, M.D., M.B.A., in Physician’s Money Digest.
Per previous reporting by FiercePracticeManagement, medical students are increasingly taking the time to learn about business before they go into practice, even though many employed physicians would still prefer to practice medicine without worrying about the mechanics of running a practice. Meyers argues that it’s time for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to add business competencies to the original six “Core Competencies” it identified in its 2002 Outcome Project initiative. The lack of a requirement that students learn the business of medical practice, including administrative, innovation, and quality improvement training, not only puts students at a competitive disadvantage but also contributes to “poor patient outcomes, persistent systemic dysfunction and patient experience problems,” he says.
Among the factors making business knowledge vital for new doctors, Meyers cites the following:
- The industry shift to value-based care models, driven in part by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) puts a premium on understanding how to collect and assess data in order to generate better overall outcomes. Meyers points out that value creation and measurement are classic business skills.
- An inability to deal with the complexities of running a practice has turned new doctors away from private or independent practice, which Meyers says puts the future of that healthcare delivery model in jeopardy.
- Effective physician leaders will be the key to fixing the problems in the US health system, he argues, but for their voices to be heard they will need to understand the entrepreneurial side of medicine starting in residency.
- Understanding the business side of the equation will help doctors understand and respond to pressures of satisfying clinical objectives alongside business and marketing ones, says Meyers.
- see the article