?As the cost of health care increases,? says Mario. ?Providers must pay greater attention to their business processes, particularly fee schedules, Third-Party contract negotiations and Payer mix. All three are critical to a practices success.?

?With the introduction of High-Deductible Plans and tightening of Third-Party Payer reimbursements, health care practices are feeling the financial pinch. Already, practice owners have become business savvy and incredibly efficient in both handling patients and office processes; there?s not much wiggle room anymore.”

The purpose of the Health Care Practice Management Center of Excellence  program is to look specifically at health care practices and offer in-depth, targeted business assistance, including consulting and training. A good example of the one-on-one health care business assistance the SBDC offers, is its ability to do ?Ring Analysis?. Providers that are looking to locate or expand their health care firm can no longer just pick a location and hang out a shingle, they must thoroughly understand a community?s market profile, demographic, mixture of employers and employer benefits, and how a community will evolve over the next ten years.

?The USF SBDC has an expertise in this area,? says Mario. ?Assisting health care providers with understanding the payer mix and demographic make-up of the community for locating practices is something we do rather well. We are blessed to have MBA students to assist us. They are very enthusiastic and incredibly talented.?

The presentations by Mario are another example of how our program has evolved. Mario has worked as a CPA in the health care industry for nearly 18 years.