Scott Blumenthal, MD, is a spine surgeon with Texas Back Institute in Plano.
Dr. Blumenthal is a featured speaker at the Becker's 17th Annual Future of Spine + The Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, June 13-15 in Chicago. Click here to learn more and register. For more information about exhibitor and sponsor opportunities, contact Maura Jodoin at mjodoin@beckershealthcare.com.
He was the first spine surgeon to perform a total disc replacement in the U.S. with the Charite disc and has grown Texas Back Institute's Center for Disc Replacement. Here he discusses three big trends that will affect spine practices in the coming year.
Question: What are the three biggest business or healthcare trends you expect to affect your practice in 2019?
Dr. Scott Blumenthal: The three biggest trends are:
• Continued consolidation of hospitals, insurers, physician groups, pharmacy chains a la CVS, and IT (Google, Amazon). This is all aimed at the next generation of healthcare consumers, the Millennials.
• Private practice will only survive by becoming 'user friendly' to the patients (Millennials) and to payers by embracing risk sharing arrangements like bundled payments.
• For a super-specialty practice like ours all of the above but do everything better including customer service/satisfaction and cost effectiveness to any payer. And data, data, data!
Q: Where do you see the best opportunities to grow?
SB: Embracing social media.
To participate in future Becker's Q&As, contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com.
For a deeper dive into the future of spine, attend the Becker's 17th Annual Future of Spine + Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC in Chicago, June 13-5, 2019. Click here to learn more and register.