In his great work “Kitchen Confidential,” Anthony Bourdain tells of how, when he was an itinerant cook in New York City, he always knew when the restaurant he was currently working in was getting ready to close.
The liquor distributor started asking for cash on delivery.
Time to find a new job.
One of my best telemedicine services recently stopped paying for missed encounters.
I would take an encounter, no one would connect and after a couple of tries, the encounter would be canceled.
But I would still get paid for my time.
Suddenly, at the beginning of the year, the company announced it would no longer be paying for encounters that are missed.
Time to go.
It’s too bad. It was otherwise a great service, Good volume, Great support staff.
But just like Anthony Bourdain understood that he would soon find his employer shut down and his paycheck bounced, I know I’ll soon find my monthly comp didn’t get deposited, my calls to physician support will go unanswered—and the value of my labor will be forever lost.
There are far too many telemedicine services out there to stick with one that’s financially failing.
Find three or four and stick with them, but watch for the warning signs.
And design your practice so you can pivot as fast as you can.