MSO Affiliations Can Give Private Practitioners More Choices

Choosing the Right Partner is Crucial for Success

Private practitioners often take on the “jack-of-all-trades” role. They have to be highly skilled, trained and experienced in their medical specialty, and they have to run their business well – managing everything from hiring support staff to scheduling, billing and much more. In addition, they have to stay up to date on all medical compliance and regulation changes, make time for continuing education – particularly on new technologies or procedures – and consistently find ways to outshine their competition, which is ever increasing.

All of that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on private practitioners. If you’re a medical practitioner, you want to provide your patients with exceptional patient care and you want your business to succeed financially, but there are only so many hours in the day. Sometimes, it feels impossible to do it all well and still find time for life outside of your practice.

Private practitioners who value clinical excellence and are looking for higher financial potential, and better work-life balance without having to give up clinical autonomy may want to consider partnering with a management services organization (MSO). Under the MSO model, surgeons can focus on what they do best – caring for patients – while the MSO handles many of the details of running the business.

Affiliating with an MSO can give private practitioners more choices. With the right MSO partner, private practitioners can have the ability to choose the complexity of the cases they take on, the option and funding necessary to utilize the medical technology and equipment they select, more opportunities for expansion, and a greater work-life balance. The MSO manages business details, freeing up the surgeon to focus on patient care.

However, it is important to note that not all MSOs are the same. U.S. Oral Surgery Management (USOSM) offers its surgeon partners complete clinical autonomy, plus the ability to learn from and collaborate with one of the nation’s largest networks of premier oral and maxillofacial surgeons. USOSM has made second-to-none investments in people, processes and systems to support our practices across areas like marketing, HR, revenue cycle management (RCM), payor contracting and others. Not all MSOs offer those benefits, nor invest that deeply in them.

Some MSOs treat the private practitioner more like an employee than a partner – they come in, purchase the practice and tell the surgeon what they can or can’t do. USOSM believes in true partnership – one that comes with complete clinical autonomy for the practitioner.

Different MSOs offer different models and have different cultures and values. If you’re considering partnering with an MSO, but aren’t sure which MSO is right for you, research potential MSOs thoroughly before deciding. Consider whether you want to partner with an MSO that works with multiple specialties or one that focuses exclusively on your specialty and knows it inside and out. For example, USOSM only partners with oral and maxillofacial surgeons.

Ask about the average Net Promoter Score™ (NPS) of affiliated practices. Are they considered average, higher than average or below average? In 2024, the average NPS in the healthcare industry was just 46. NPS system founder Bain & Company designates any score above zero as “good,” with above 50 as “excellent” and above 80 as “world-class.” USOSM partner practices consistently achieve world-class status, ranking with an NPS above 80, year after year.

In addition to NPS, talk with a few MSO-affiliated surgeon partners to find out what’s being promised and what’s actually being delivered. Do they trust their MSO partner? Would they make the same decision if they had to do it all again? Ask what advice they have for someone who’s considering partnering with an MSO for the first time.

Most importantly look for a like-minded MSO partner – one who shares your values. At USOSM, clinical excellence is one of our top values. We only partner with exceptional oral and maxillofacial surgeons, who are dedicated to continually elevating the standard of care.

To us, true clinical excellence is about so much more than good patient outcomes. Among other things, true clinical excellence is about patient-centered care, patient safety, performance improvement, interdisciplinary education, excellence in communication and maintaining the highest standards in ethics and professionalism.

If clinical excellence is important to you, ask the MSO if it’s important to them. Are they doing anything to improve clinical excellence within their partner practices?

As part of our commitment to clinical excellence, we’ve established several quality improvement initiatives, such as the USOSM Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Centers of Excellence program. USOSM was the first company of its kind to establish a program of this caliber. The program aims to recognize USOSM partner practices that consistently deliver superior patient care and clinical excellence, encourage those characteristics in other practices, and spur additional practice growth.

The final step in the program is accreditation by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), a third-party accrediting partner that provides additional oversight for the program and helps ensure the highest levels of quality control. To receive accreditation, organizations must meet the AAAHC’s nationally recognized standards of quality. The AAAHC has accredited more than 6,700 organizations since it was founded in 1979, and during that time, only a fraction of those have been OMS practices. The AAAHC has accredited four USOSM partner practices in the past two years, which speaks volumes.

When selecting the MSO partner who is right for you, look for one that checks all of your boxes and provides you with the financial, operational, administrative and marketing support you need to reach all of your goals.

About the Author:
USOSM CEO Doug Drew is a seasoned healthcare executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience.