The Medical Entrepreneur: Pearls, Pitfalls and Practical Business Advice for Doctors [Paperback]

Steven M. Hacker MD (Author), MS, Daniel Mark Siegel MD (Introduction), Joseph C. Kvedar M.D. (Commentary), Franklin P. Flowers M.D. (Commentary), John G. Igoe J.D. (Contributor), Jeffrey L. Cohen J.D. (Contributor), Howard M. Gitten J.D. (Contributor), Kenneth Edelman J.D. (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2010

Tip for Doctors & Medical students: You should read this book before signing any contract, joining a medical practice or starting a medical practice. This book is written to help doctors, medical residents, medical students, and physicians in private practice and academia avoid costly business mistakes in their post medical school career. It is uniquely written from the perspective of a successful physician entrepreneur. The book provides tips, steps, pearls, and pitfalls written in a concise manner. Busy doctors with little time can quickly access critical cost saving information when joining or starting a private practice. Topics include everything from how to set up a practice, sign a contract with another group, hire another doctor, contract with insurance companies, understand health regulations including the HITECH stimulus act, how to qualify to receive stimulus funds, billing in the office, hiring and firing personnel, picking a location, obtaining hospital privileges, applying for the required licenses, electronic health records, practice management software, health technology in the office, how to protect your estate, liability issues,marketing and public relations, design of the medical office and more. Also written for the physician entrepreneur, the book explains how to raise capital, term sheets, understanding venture capital, board of directors, incorporation election issues, how to understand financials, balance sheets, negotiations, hiring the management team, how to take an idea and turn it into an operating business, how to protect your intellectual property, copyrights, trademarks, patents, customer acquisition and how to deal with a business when things go wrong. The book covers much more and includes expert "stat consults" or opinions from corporate attorneys, intellectual property attorneys, board certified health care attorneys and estate attorneys.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven M Hacker, MD was one of twelve students selected from a national pool to enter medical school early through the prestigious Junior Honors Medical Program. He graduated from University of Florida medical school in 1989. He spent two years training in internal medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr. Hacker completed his dermatology residency at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1994. By the time he had completed all his training, he had published over twenty peer-reviewed medical articles in medical journals. Dr. Hacker also co-authored several textbook chapters in clinical medicine textbooks. As of the writing of this book, he has incorporated ten different businesses. Dr. Hacker is a board certified dermatologist in private practice in Boca Raton, Florida since 1994. Within ten years of starting his practice, he had a patient database of over twenty-five thousand patients. At the end of 1996, Dr. Hacker founded a company called Skinstore.com. Skinstore was one of the first Internet sites to sell physician-recommended skin care products (cosmeceuticals) online. Skinstore organically grew to one of the biggest online skincare sites. The company, under new management, went on to achieve cumulative lifetime revenue of over $200 million since inception. In 2004, five years before President Obama started talking about electronic personal health records, Dr. Hacker created a personal health record company called PassportMD. PassportMD was selected by Medicare for its personal health record pilot program. It was recognized as one of the top personal health record companies in 2008 by the leading electronic medical record industry trade show. Dr. Hacker negotiated marketing and partnership deals with Microsoft Healthvault and many other Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Hacker sold the company in 2009. Many people still use the award-winning health record software he created. In this book Dr. Hacker shares the lessons learned from both the mistakes and successes he has experienced in creating a medical practice and entrepreneurial ventures.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Nano 2.0 Business Press (December 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615407137
• ISBN-13: 978-0615407135
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Medical Student's Perspective, February 13, 2012

By 

Richie Castle - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Medical Entrepreneur: Pearls, Pitfalls and Practical Business Advice for Doctors (Paperback)

The book certainly gives solid practical advice on the details of being both a physician businessman. The author cites specific consideration of opening a private practice, cites pro's and con's of using billing software versus outsourcing. The information is also recent, as he has a chapter about marketing using social media. The book was well put together.

As a first year medical student, this frames decisions I have to make down the road. I work with a private practice physician in Florida, and he says that medical students need to be taught some business courses, so I decided to look into it with my spare time.

The limitation of this book is it focuses exclusively on private practice. The author puts it out in the first chapter that he chose private practice because it is more financially rewarding. As a medical student, I am still considering working for a hospital, possibly as a surgeon, hospitalist, or ER doc. The information presented would not be nearly as relevant. The other limitation (and asset) is how much information comes from his personal experiences. For instance, he cites that group practices tried to work him over by--in addition to paying normal overhead to the practice for rent, employees, etc.--making him pay overhead to the group physicians. What are the advantages of group practices? If all of them worked that way then no one would form them. Or is there something to forming the group rather than joining one?

If you are considering private practice as a 3rd or 4th year resident, this is a must read. But for all others, it may not be as useful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, engaging, concise, June 8, 2011

By 

drmac05 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Medical Entrepreneur Pearls, Pitfalls and Practical Business Advice for Doctors (Kindle Edition)

Great book. Part I gives a great overview of how to start your own medical practice based on Hacker's experience as an entrepreneur. Should be noted, though, that Hacker does not discuss anything about creating a cash practice.

Part II of the book discusses how to start and run your own business outside of medical practice. I purchased the book because of Part I, but Part II was a great read as well.

To summarize, I think this book should be required reading in medical school to educate American physicians on how to be successful in running a practice. I'm content working where I'm at now, but should I ever decide to change locations, I'll refer to this book to guide my future practice.

Thank you Dr. Hacker for taking the time to write this book!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Health Care Business Person, January 16, 2011

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Very Interesting - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Medical Entrepreneur Pearls, Pitfalls and Practical Business Advice for Doctors (Kindle Edition)

This book is 246 pages packed full of critically important information for doctors, medical students, helathcare administrators and healthcare entrepreneurs. The author has made it easy to read, with lists of step by step guides on what should be done when opening a practice or starting a new entrepreneurial venture. The value of this book at it's current price point is such that my "Return on invesment" is several thousand percent. I highly recommend reading this book or gifting it to doctor relative.