ALOFT: Advances. Legal updates. Organisation. Frameworks. Tips.
Happy New Year! We wish all our readers – regular and new – a happy, healthy and successful 2021.
Now let’s get on with the show, with some practical tips you can use to improve and how your provider business:
Advances
Are you kicking off 2021 thinking about building a scalable health business in the digital health space? The big brains at McKinsey & Company have identified six, interconnected building blocks required to build a scalable digital health business, including talent, a clear value proposition, robust/compliant products, a “delightful customer experience”, proven value, and a scalable model.
The authors summarise five business models, giving examples of startups using each model – prescription digital therapeutics, employer-as-customer solutions, payer-as-customer, healthcare providers as the customer, and direct-to-consumer – and include examples of providers who have switched strategies. Read it in full here.
Legal updates
When participants are unhappy with NDIA decisions about their supports, they can appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). But not everyone is in a position to go through the appeal process. Some people with disabilities don’t have the money, time, energy, communication access, or other resources to go to the AAT, even though there are some law firms that offer free representation to clients seeking to challenge the support plans in the scheme.
The AAT’s 2019-20 Annual Report disclosed that almost two-thirds of agreements for NDIS matters that were reached before an AAT finding, saw a change to, or a complete overturning of the NDIA decision (compared to 16% for Centrelink decisions). This contributes to the perception that the NDIA will give way if challenged – albeit at the last minute.
Fortunately, this lamentable state of affairs has received some mainstream press coverage, including this piece from Rick Morton in The Saturday Paper from mid-December last year.
Organisation success
Success as a provider is based on a bunch of skills that are learnable. Yuri Elkaim, of HealthPreneur, has distilled 10 core tenets of a health business. Many are relevant for all providers. Paraphrasing for providers, here they are:
- You are responsible for your business (not others).
- The letters behind your name and how smart you are don’t entitle you to a successful provider business. (Conversely, a lack of letters after your name does not mean you can’t thrive.)
- The better you market, the less you have to sell.
- Your success is determined by your systems.
- The more you earn, the more you can contribute. The more you contribute, the more you will earn. Money is a by-product of the value you create in the world.
- Your provider business is more than a business – it can change your community for the better.
- “If it’s all in your head, your business is dead.” Learn to extract your knowledge into training, frameworks and systems that others can replicate.
- You can get ahead by just being a little bit better than your competition.
- Business growth follows personal growth.
- Isolation hurts. Don’t stay solo.
For more detail on each of these ideas, check out Elkaim’s article here.
Frames of mind
This year, I’m making several resources about my areas of expertise (NDIS and health providers). But I’m outsourcing everything I have no expertise in, from hedge trimming to blog artwork. Why?
The “Circle of Competence”.
It’s a term coined by investor Warren Buffet, and a useful model to reduce your team’s risk, and to develop training plans. As you look to grow your provider business, monitor your team’s circle of competence. You can’t be an expert on everything. You need to know what you know, and what you are an expert in, and know where the boundaries of your competence lie. You can expand your circle with experience, reading, training and effort; or shrink it by failing to keep learning in areas of expertise. The model suggests you are better off focusing on deepening your expertise and expanding your circle by building on existing strengths, and outsourcing the rest.
As Shane Parrish, of Farnam Street puts it in this excellent overview of the model:
“So, the simple takeaway here is clear. If you want to improve your odds of success in life and business, then define the perimeter of your circle of competence, and operate inside. Over time, work to expand that circle but never fool yourself about where it stands today, and never be afraid to say “I don’t know”.
Tips for practice
Two quick tips for this month:
It can be challenging to avoid wasting energy and time arguing with people on social media, and I don’t know many people who have ever changed their mind based on a Tweet or post. You only have so much energy – don’t waste it. I recently came across this Marcus Aurelius quote, which I’m now using as a mantra as I scroll through my various feeds:
“You always have the option of having no opinion.”
Did you know that NDIS Providers need waste management policies and procedures to comply with the National Disability Insurance Scheme Practice Standards and Quality Indicators? Don’t have one yet? We’ve got you covered.
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