Do These Things Before Selling Your Medical Practice

If you're planning to sell your medical practice, don't start showing potential buyers until you've done a few things to put yourself on more stable footing. While there are plenty of doctors and hospitals who want to buy medical practices, you can't just throw your information out there. You have to make the practice attractive to buyers both in terms of patient business and in terms of administrative function.

Convert Your Paper Records

If you still use paper patient records and haven't switched to electronic health records, you're not alone. Some doctors simply prefer to use paper. But many practices and hospitals use electronic records now, and converting all of your paper records could be a real negative selling point. The buyers want to practice medicine, not do administrative catch-up work. Start converting the records now to a system that is the same as or that is compatible with the systems used by local hospitals. Seamless record transfers between facilities can be a positive selling point.

Decide How Long You'd Like to Stay

Not everyone sells because they're getting out of medicine; some just don't want the responsibilities of ownership anymore. If you're selling to lighten your workload, decide how long you'd like to stay on as an employee of the practice before you start negotiating.

If you are selling because you're either leaving medicine or because you're moving to another city or state, decide how long it might take to help with a transition, including successfully introducing patients to the new doctors. You can include the time limit (such as staying for three months, six months, or another amount) in your negotiations.

Calculate Your RVUs

Relative Value Units, or RVUs, are a real concept. They're used by Medicare as part of the reimbursement process. If you're selling your practice to a hospital or group that will keep you on as an employee, knowing your RVUs will help you negotiate your pay. Instead of hoping the new owners are good about getting reimbursed by insurance companies, you can negotiate a per-RVU price as the basis for your salary. That can result in a more stable salary, as opposed to waiting for low reimbursement that might not come in at all.

Selling a practice takes a lot of attention, but if you take care of these three things now, your negotiations will go a lot more smoothly because you'll have a better idea of what you want and what you are willing to offer. Talk with a company like Paragon Health Capital for more information.