Executive Summary of March 2019 Board of Directors Meeting

Partnership at Starling is a privilege that comes with the responsibility of citizenship.  Some Board discussion topics are important for all partners to be aware of.  For the March 2019 meeting, these topics included developing a pathology service at Starling, placing a cap on central overhead for part time providers, and some recent progress with primary care recruitment.

Pathology service at Starling

The executive team described a development joint venture with Eastern Connecticut Pathology Consultants (ECPC) to build and develop pathology services at Starling with physical labs at Starling and reading done by ECPC.  The concept and preliminary pro formas appear promising, but proper legal structure needs to be ensured.   Most importantly, the clinical quality of the pathologists must be vetted.

Part time partner central overhead

The new central overhead formula went into effect January 2019, which allocates roughly ⅔ fixed and ⅓ variable portions.  For part time providers (either part time or retirement track) this may represent a significant hurdle to overcome, as the fixed portion becomes a high percentage of total revenue at lower revenue levels.   Previously, for 2019 only, the board placed a cap on central overhead of +4% of average group overhead (or 1.3 X partner average), which was helpful during the transition of the formula.  A more formal overhead structure for part time providers, both primary care and specialist, is in progress.  The executive team proposed that to provide some clarity for partners moving forward, this cap be carried forward indefinitely until further arrangements can be made for part time providers.

Primary care recruitment

Primary care recruitment has been more successful recently, with three new primary care providers coming on board in the next few months.  This is felt to be due to improved recruiting operations, especially the help of Dr. Maryanna Polukhin as VP-Primary care, and a 5% increase in initial salary offers.  This increased salary is being tied to more strict performance goals and quality metrics.  This is encouraging giving the difficulty in recruiting primary care by almost all healthcare organizations.  

If you would like to discuss or make your opinion known on any of these topics please email me directly.

Sarit Patel, MD, MBA
Chair, Starling Board
spatel@starlingphysicians.com