FAQ
Questions hospital leaders ask us
About working with us
- Whose side are you on?
- The hospital’s. Our only clients are hospital and health-system leaders.
- Do you take fees from anesthesia groups, staffing firms or vendors?
- No. We are paid only by the hospitals and health systems we advise, and we do not help anesthesia groups respond to hospital RFPs.
- Who is on your team?
- Physicians, CRNAs, experienced consultants and people with hospital administrative experience. Between them they know how an anesthesia department runs and how its costs look from the C-suite.
- Our contract renews soon. Is it too late to get help?
- No. More time is better, but the core numbers can be rebuilt from your own data. The earlier we start, the more options you keep.
- Will bringing you in damage our relationship with our anesthesia group?
- It shouldn’t. The work is built on shared numbers, and a counterpart who understands the economics makes negotiations shorter. We respect the clinicians who cover your rooms; we just don’t work for them.
- Do you replace our legal counsel?
- No. We handle the economics and the operating terms. Your counsel reviews the agreement’s legal provisions.
- Our anesthesia group says it will leave unless we raise the subsidy. What should we do first?
- Don’t answer in the room. Ask for the request in writing with the numbers behind it, set a date to respond and read your contract with counsel. A threat to leave is a negotiating position, not a number. Leaving is costly for a group too, so test the request before you pay it.
- A new group has offered to cut our subsidy sharply. Should we take it?
- Test it first. Some bids are built to win the contract, not to run it, and the low number is followed by requests for more once the incumbent is gone. Compare bids over the whole term, and watch for requests to fund locum coverage while the new group recruits.
- What subsidy structure do you recommend?
- Usually an open-book, rolling subsidy: an agreed budget, the group’s books open to the hospital and regular reconciliation against actual collections and coverage. The hospital pays for the real gap, and the group keeps an incentive to bill well.
- Do you work with anesthesiologist groups, CRNA groups and care teams with CAAs?
- Yes. We advise hospitals on every arrangement: physician anesthesiologist groups, CRNA groups, care teams with CRNAs or certified anesthesiologist assistants, national management companies and hospital-employed departments. We favor no profession.
- Can you help us employ our own anesthesia team?
- Yes. We model employed, contracted and hybrid options side by side and plan the transition if the numbers support it. We do not recruit or staff, so our advice is never tied to filling positions ourselves.
- Do you work with smaller and rural hospitals?
- Yes. The volumes are thinner and the coverage often looks different, but the questions are the same: what coverage you need, what it should cost and what the contract should say.
- Is our information kept confidential?
- Yes. We work under your confidentiality terms and share nothing with the anesthesia group unless you ask us to. Whether the group knows we are involved is your choice.
- What does an engagement cost, and how long does it take?
- It depends on the decision and the data. After the first call you get a written scope and fee before any work starts. Tell us your deadline on that call and we will tell you what is realistic.
- Can you guarantee savings?
- No honest advisor can before seeing your numbers. Sometimes the right answer is that the subsidy is fair, and we will say so. What we can promise is a decision made on your numbers rather than the group’s.
- How do we start?
- With a 30-minute call with your leadership team. After that we usually ask for the current agreement, the group’s latest request and your OR case data.