I met this young man at a family wedding recently, I call him Chad.  He worked for a venture capital firm who buys up distressed medical practices for their covered Medicare Advantage lives. They employ the doctors and use population health tools to massage the value of their patient panels.  Once they reach a critical mass they intend to sell them in bulk for the greatest return. When payment is based on data, a patient’s...

Your single most important tactic to Medicare Advantage success? Try something. Medicare Advantage can be so complex that it can be paralyzing. And that complexity can paralyze your ability to innovate. But know this: The beauty of the system is that it’s actually anti-fragile. Change and stress make it stronger. Trying something new won’t weaken it.  At worse, you’ll generate information you can use to make it stronger. At best, you’ll generate immense value for yourself and your patients....

There is one word that can really trip you up when you’re negotiating that new contract. “Non-negotiable.” When you get an offer and are told the salary is non-negotiable, know that many organizations have policies that, if you make a counter-offer to a non-negotiable salary, they must retract the offer. Management may see a counter-offer as a red flag proxy for being a trouble maker. So, you have to decide. Is the offer so low,...