Timesharing and telehealth can work hand-in-hand to help doctors stay flexible and reduce overhead in an era of change.
Kirat Kharode is the founder & CEO of Healtor — a technology company building a marketplace for medical and wellness office timesharing, compliance, and management.
As the CEO and founder of Healtor, a medical office timesharing platform, it’s safe to say I’m thinking about the future of healthcare real estate every day.
And the world of traditional medical care is rapidly changing. We’re in an era of nationwide physician shortages and shrinking reimbursement for doctors. As administrative costs to deliver healthcare continue to increase, medical and wellness providers need more flexibility in the ways they work and the spaces they use. Otherwise, the number of areas throughout the country without adequate primary and specialty care will continue to increase.
Medical and wellness providers need more flexibility in the ways they work and the spaces they utilize.
But finding that flexibility has been hard for providers. Non-compliant medical office timesharing arrangements by hospitals across the country, for example, have resulted in almost $500M in settlements with the federal government in the recent past.
As the industry changes and providers look for creative solutions, two elements are scaling rapidly in use:
- Timesharing medical office spaces with other providers, rather than full-time brick-and-mortar practices.
- Providing telehealth services when in-person visits aren’t possible or strictly necessary.
Both solutions help providers offer a more flexible practice and reduce overhead. They’re also increasingly impacting the upward growth of the other.
Providers are looking to reimagine how they lease and use medical office spaces. Timesharing and telehealth help them do so.
The World of Brick-and-Mortar Doctor’s Offices is Changing
In today’s world, full-time brick-and-mortar spaces are unrealistic for high-value providers. The best providers are looking at the industry changes, at rising overhead, and at increasing technology. They’re regularly thinking creatively about:
- Starting a private practice location
- Entering a new market
- Building their referral base and network
- Transforming their lives by thinking creatively about the use of their medical space
To achieve these objectives, providers are looking to reimagine how they lease and use medical office spaces. Timesharing helps them do so. It facilitates the above four objectives by providing brick-and-mortar spaces — when those spaces are needed.
As a result, providers can offer in-person care at the right time, in the right place, and for the right cost.
The solution that Healtor offers lies in timesharing medical and wellness spaces. We’re recruiting the best high-value providers to lease office spaces and share that time with others, based on their practice’s needs. High-value providers have the potential to impact almost $300 Billion in avoidable healthcare costs for Medicare over the next decade, according to recent research by United Healthcare.
As a result, we’re helping providers drive down the cost of healthcare by optimizing the use of their spaces and, in the process, bringing these high-value providers into communities where they are needed the most. Our momentum thus far has proven that providers are looking for a timesharing solution like Healtor.
We’re regularly sharing insights on healthcare real estate over on LinkedIn. Follow Healtor here.
As Overhead Increases, Telemedicine is Also On The Rise
Telemedicine is another flexible, cost-effective way to provide care. It’s one that physicians and providers are increasingly turning to. Telehealth is on track to reach 3.5 billion in revenue by 2022, in fact. And its use grew from 350,000 in 2013 to an estimated 7 million in 2019.
The increased interest makes sense: telemedicine drives down the cost and overhead of providing care.
Medical practitioners can treat some patients without the overhead, team, and resources that a full-time space requires. So many in-patient visits can be easily handled from afar — Telehealth provides the same personalized care with a licenced practitioner, without the need for an in-person visit in a brick-and-mortar space.
Timesharing Medical Offices and Practicing Telemedicine Go Hand in Hand
So, yes, traditional brick and mortar doctors offices and telemedicine can seem at odds. And they are within traditional hospital groups that are building megatowers with rigid and expensive leases. But brick-and-mortar medical offices aren’t going away. They’re being reimagined.
I like to think of timesharing and telehealth as 2 trains traveling side by side and at lightspeed ahead. They complement each other’s growth and — most importantly — they help providers offer quality care in the manner that works best for their practice.
With flexible timesharing, medical and wellness providers can use — and afford to pay for — their brick and mortar spaces when in-person visits are necessary for their patients. Imagine a future where a dedicated room in every primary care medical office is geared towards telemedicine visits, so that a Medicare patient can “see” a specialist before leaving the office rather than having to schedule a follow up visit — even locally. Imagine a future where efficiently operated spaces transform from being sick clinics to doubling as medical and wellness community centers. Imagine spaces with the resources to truly address Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) for major Medicare cost drivers like loneliness amongst seniors and food security for our elderly. That future is here.
Kirat Kharode is the founder & CEO of Healtor — a technology company building a marketplace for medical and wellness office timesharing, compliance, and management.
