Physicians are selling their practices to hospitals at a feverish pace, but physicians face a real challenge. On the one hand, the trend to sell is taking on tsunami proportions. The trouble is, few physicians have the business, legal, and accounting background needed to assess their situation. If selling is the right choice, how do they find the right hospital partner and structure a realistic deal that rewards them with the income, freedom and peace of mind they're seeking? That's why so many physicians who sell end up dissatisfied.

What physician hasn't considered "getting out of the business"? Veteran practice consultant Randy Bauman helps physicians and practice executives examine their own selling scenario, from how much the practice is worth, to the operational, deal-making, and legal issues that would shape the sale. This new edition of the best-selling book for Physicians: Time to Sell? Guide to Selling a Physician Practice: Value, Options, Alternatives, Second Edition examines these issues and more.

Totally updated and expanded to reflect changes in the marketplace for physicians, Time to Sell? Guide to Selling a Physician Practice: Value, Options, Alternatives, Second Edition includes more than 30% new content. Should the time not be right for a sale, Bauman also explores options for not selling, including ways to make the existing practice more profitable, efficient, and satisfying. Bauman's new guide bridges this gap for physicians, giving them practical tools for finding the right fit both personally and financially.

If selling to a hospital is the right decision, Time to Sell? Guide to Selling a Physician Practice: Value, Options, Alternatives, Second Edition walks physicians through each step. A particular strength of the book is Bauman's ability to simplify not only the process, but the legal and financial considerations along the way.

New chapters in this totally updated and expanded edition include:

• Making It Work: Guidance on how to have a good partnership between the practice and the new owner post-sale,
  
• Compensation: Covering the most up-to-date trends in the marketplace,
  
• Options Other Than Selling: A greatly expanded chapter on changes caused by the maturing of integrated hospital/physician networks. These intermediate models have emerged as additional alternatives to outright sale.

New Features for the 2nd edition

• Competition in some geographic markets is heating up. Understand how this will impact your sale.
• Issues surrounding physician compensation resulting from federal investigations and well-publicized settlements may have an impact on your deal.
• Hospitals are reevaluating policies on “no goodwill” and intangible assets and what they are willing to pay for practices.
• Models of integrated hospital/physician networks continue to evolve.  These “intermediate” models may be viable alternatives to an outright sale.
• No-nonsense commentary on how practices are being valued, including the resulting controversy in the marketplace.
• Action tools at the end of each updated chapter include takeaway points, worksheets and checklists to save time and eliminate guesswork.
• An extremely physician friendly book in the way it distills each chapter into takeaway points and ready-to-use worksheets.  While the book is short and easy to read, this one guide sees the physician through every consideration, strategy, and option for selling a practice to a hospital.

Praise for the 1st Edition

This book recognizes the legal formalities but, more importantly, serves as a practical guide to help you reach the best possible results for you. By reading it carefully, you should feel well-prepared to deal with the issue of selling your practice -- an issue that is rising more quickly than you may realize.

Leif Beck,
JD, CHBC

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Why Sell? -- What selling will and won’t solve; evaluating what you gain and lose (both good and bad).
• Chapter 2: Preparing for Sale -- Optimizing your “curb appeal” and eliminating weaknesses in physician income and financial performance.
• Chapter 3: Choosing the Right Hospital Partner -- How to drive out the truth about financial stability, freedom, culture and other factors – before you sell.
• Chapter 4: Valuation — What is Your Practice Worth? -- Calculating and maximizing both tangible and intangible value from the hospital’s perspective.
• Chapter 5:  Compensation --  The current trends in the marketplace and the impact of those trends on your own sales scenario.
• Chapter 6:  Deal Structure -- How to draw up a contract that covers all the bases on assets, employees, and your own income.
• Chapter 7: Negotiating -- How to marshal the right advisors and get from initial offer to deal close with the best possible terms.
• Chapter 8: Operational and Post-Sale Issues -- How to ease the transition of payor credentialing, billing, payroll, accounting and other functions.
• Chapter 9:  Making it Work – After the honeymoon period, how to have a good partnership between the practice and the new owner.
• Chapter 10: Options Other Than Selling -- Leasing, MSOs, PEMs and other options that can help you maintain some independence while enjoying higher income and satisfaction.
• Epilogue

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Randy Bauman is president of Delta Health Care, a Nashville-based consulting firm specializing in the business of physician practice. Bauman draws on more than 25 years of experience working with both physician and hospital clients on strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, group formations, compensation planning, operations, and practice valuations. He is a noted writer and speaker in the health care community.