Reclaiming the Business of Medicine: Why Physicians Must Step Into the Marketplace as Micro-Corporations

The medical profession is at a critical juncture. Dominated by large corporations and healthcare conglomerates, the industry has shifted its focus to profit over patient care. This has created an imbalance in the core continuum at the heart of the business of medicine—a continuum expressed in word dyads like Profit and Purpose, Money and Meaning, Data Entry and Face-to-Face Time, Big Business and Micro-Business, Employee and Autonomy, Burnout and Thriving. These elements, though they may seem like opposites, are inextricably linked like the interwoven strands of DNA, with neither able to exist without the other. When one side is neglected, the entire system suffers.

Understanding the Continuum at the Core of Medicine

The business of medicine operates on several critical continuums that must be balanced for success:

• Profit and Purpose: Financial sustainability is essential for any work involving your professional services. Without a profit, a professional services arrangement cannot survive. However, medicine is not just a business; it’s a calling to heal and care for patients. If this purpose is lost, the work you do loses its soul, and the business, no matter how profitable, is destined to fail.

• Money and Meaning: Financial considerations are necessary for managing your medical career. But, the meaning found in patient relationships and making a difference in their lives is equally important. When money overshadows meaning, you can more easily become disillusioned, and patient care suffers.

• Data Entry and Face-to-Face Time: Modern medicine has become increasingly reliant on data entry, with each of you spending more time inputting information into electronic health records than interacting with patients. While data is crucial for informed decision-making, it should not come at the cost of meaningful patient care. The challenge is to balance data entry with face-to-face time with patients. You should not operate as glorified cash registers for big corporations at the expense of providing time with patients.

• Big Business and Micro-Business: Patients are increasingly viewed as consumers in the healthcare marketplace, with a focus on customer satisfaction and service efficiency. Essentially they are assets gathered by large corporations that impersonally herd them through their corporate turnstiles. While this consumer mindset can drive improvements in service delivery, the business model should not overshadow the patient’s unique needs as an individual requiring care, compassion, and expertise. This provides a competitive advantage to those of you willing to delivery professional services through small private practices, DPC, Conceriege, and all types of practcies without walls. Pt’s want personalize care, rather than feeling like impersonal commodities.

• Employee and Professional Autonomy: The traditional employee model can often stifle your autonomy, leading to a sense of disempowerment. By contrast, professional autonomy allows you to practice medicine in a way that aligns with your values and expertise, fostering a more fulfilling and effective healthcare environment.

• Burnout and Thriving: The pressures of modern healthcare can lead to burnout, a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. Thriving, on the other hand, involves maintaining a healthy work-life balance, professional satisfaction, and personal well-being. Both are part of a continuum that must be managed carefully.

The Imbalance: Financial Prioritization Over Well-Being

In recent years, the financial side of the business of medicine has taken precedence, often at the expense of the very elements that make our profession meaningful and fulfilling. Many decisions are made based solely on financial considerations, with little regard for their impact on your health and well-being. This imbalance has led to widespread burnout, dissatisfaction, and a sense of disconnection among our tribe, where we find ourselves caught in a system that values profit over purpose, money over meaning, and data entry over patient interaction.

The Case for Physicians as Micro-Business Owners

The solution lies in reclaiming our role in the business of medicine by stepping into the marketplace as micro-businesses. This shift is not just about financial independence; it’s about restoring balance to the profession and ensuring that both sides of the continuum are valued and integrated as both big business and small business take care of patient needs. Here’s why this approach is vital:

1. Restoring Autonomy and Purpose: By forming micro-businesses, you can regain control over your professional life. This autonomy allows you to make decisions that prioritize patient care and professional satisfaction over purely financial metrics. You can realign your work with a sense of purpose, ensuring that your professional work is both profitable and meaningful.

2. Balancing Profit and Quality: Micro-businesses enable you to balance profit with quality care. When you control how you provide your professional services, you can ensure that financial success does not come at the expense of patient outcomes. You can create business models that are both economically viable and centered on high-quality, patient-focused care.

3. Direct Contracting and Patient-Centered Care: Operating as a micro-business allows you to contract directly with consumers, big businesses, and small businesses. This direct relationship fosters trust and transparency, leading to better patient outcomes. It also eliminates unnecessary layers of bureaucracy, allowing you to spend more time with patients and less time on data entry and administrative tasks.

4. Enhanced Professional Fulfillment: Micro-business ownership empowers you to design your practices and professional life in ways that align with their personal and professional values. This alignment leads to greater job satisfaction, reduced burnout, and a deeper sense of fulfillment in your work.

Join the Movement: Be a Part of SimpliMD

The time has come for physicians to take back the business of medicine, and this begins by preserving your agency in the healthcare marketplace by creating a micro-corporation around yourself.

At SimpliMD, we are committed to supporting you in your journey to become a successful micro-business owner. By joining the SimpliMD community as a member, you become part of a movement that is reshaping the future of medicine—one where you are empowered to balance profit and purpose, money and meaning, data entry and face-to-face time, big business and micro-business, employee and professional autonomy, burnout and thriving.

I invite you to become a member of SimpliMD and take control of your professional future. Our resources, courses, and support network are designed to help you navigate the complexities of starting and running a micro-business. And with our flash sale today, your annual membership will be less than $50 by using coupon code “50NOW” at check out. Don’t miss out on this bargain that will open up $2500 in small business resources for you.

Take the Next Step: Enroll in "Creating a Practice Without Walls"

One of the first steps towards reclaiming the business of medicine is understanding how to create a practice that breaks free from the traditional constraints of the healthcare system. My course, "Creating a Practice Without Walls," provides comprehensive guidance on building a modern, patient-centered practice. You’ll learn about direct contracting, innovative practice models, and strategies for maintaining the delicate balance between profit and purpose, money and meaning, data entry and face-to-face time, big business and micro-business, employee and professional autonomy, burnout prevention and thriving.

By enrolling in this course, for less than $200 you'll gain the knowledge and tools needed to establish a thriving practice that serves both your patients and your professional goals. Whether you're just starting out or looking to transform your existing practice, "Creating a Practice Without Walls" will provide you with the insights and support you need.

Conclusion

The current imbalance in the business of medicine, where profit often overshadows purpose, money trumps meaning, and data entry takes precedence over patient interaction, is unsustainable. We must reclaim our role as healthcare professionals by entering the marketplace as micro-businesses, allowing you to balance these essential continuums and deliver your professional services in a way that is both financially successful and deeply fulfilling.

Join the movement of doctors as business leaders. Become a SimpliMD member and enroll in "Creating a Practice Without Walls." Together, we can restore balance to the business of medicine, ensuring that both the financial and purpose-driven aspects of the profession thrive in harmony.