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Lifestyle Medical Network Inc. |
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March 28, 2016 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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Resource, Consulting, Products, Protocols for Procedures and Ancillary Services for Physicians and Medical Facilities that Drive Traffic and Increase Quality Patient Care |
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CEO & President
Lifestyle Medical Network Inc. (OTC: LMNK) www.lifestylemedicalnetwork.com
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – March 28, 2016
CEOCFO: Mr. Smith, what is the idea behind Lifestyle Medical Network? Mr. Smith: The idea behind Lifestyle Medical Network is to enhance the operations of existing medical facilities by adding ancillary services and protocols for procedures to benefit not only the existing patients of a practice, but also to drive more traffic to physicians and at the same time increase the quality of care that patients are receiving.
CEOCFO: Are we talking medical practices? Are we talking hospitals or ambulatory surgery? What is the level or levels that you are working with in the medical community? Mr. Smith: Physician practices from all aspects, whether it is primary care or orthopedic or cardiology. We have got services that we can provide to any physician and practice.
CEOCFO: Is it fairly standard today for physicians to be looking and actively pursuing lifestyle opportunities or are they still not quite there yet? Mr. Smith: Absolutely. Most physicians and I think most people realize that with insurance and Obama Care and the every changing marketplace, physicians have to find other ancillary items to enhance their revenue, which has diminished to a degree from traditional insurance reimbursements. Therefore, they need to continue expanding their services, products and so forth, and we are adding in those revenue streams to not only increase the traffic to their practices with new patients, but also for them to capture more business from their existing patients.
CEOCFO: How are you reaching potential customers? Mr. Smith: A significant portion of it is word of mouth. They find out that we can help them with certain services that they have an interest in. We have started outwardly contacting practices about their services and their interests in having additional lines of products and services. Ultimately, I think to truly expand it will be an outbound process, but right now it seems to be more inbound.
CEOCFO: How do you work with a particular doctor or a particular practice to figure out what might be the best products for them? Mr. Smith: You have got to find out exactly what they are doing in a practice and what things they are referring out to their other specialists or to other facilities and see how you can help them either capture that in house by adding those services in and having a separate company provide those services for them. Therefore, their patients stay with them and do not have the tendency to go somewhere else.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us a little bit about the products and service that you have available and how you have captured them under one roof? Mr. Smith: We have started in the last several months with various companies looking at other ancillary items, whether it is diagnostic and imaging services, testing, toxicology, pharmacology or compounded medications. There are numerous revenue streams. As far as getting them under one roof it would be nice if we could do that, but to be able to add a complete line or at least as complete as we would like, you have to have the correct contracts and service providers in place to facilitate all of it. You must align yourself with competent contractors and service providers that are great at what they do.
CEOCFO: Would you be somewhat of a middle man between, let us say, someone who has developed hormone therapy and then the doctor who could offer it to his patients? Mr. Smith: That is true. That is because with volume on our side, in every case that we have seen so far, we can do better than an individual physician can do, when it comes to pricing. They have only got so much economy of scale and obviously we have a larger degree of it.
CEOCFO: Where are you finding the most traction? What are physicians typically interested in or that they understand the most? Mr. Smith: It depends on the type or practice. I think that family practitioners are looking at multiple streams; testing and imaging for sure, drug screens, toxicology, compounding; those are all avenues. Personal Injury, work is another one that we have started to venture in to. We have begun to capture a network of attorneys, at this point in Texas, that we are working with that we have faith in that can provide not only practices for patients to see, but also will be attorneys that are looking for quality medical care for their clients. That is typically a market that takes a high degree of effort to establish. It may take years and years for a physician to become comfortable with waiting twelve months to get paid on a PI case.
CEOCFO: What kind of research behind a product might doctors typically look for? Do they take your word for it? Do they take the companies word for it? What is their due diligence and what has been your due diligence on whom you represent? Mr. Smith: Most physicians know what their patients need; the issue is historically and even more so recently, they are not able to capture that type of business because of insurance regulations and regulatory environments. We help them not only keep their patients coming to their practices for those types of services, but we can also benefit them and their patients by providing those services for them, at reduced cost to their patients making everyone happy and healthier along the way. As far as their diligence goes, to a degree it is a relationship between us and the physicians. However, most physicians, if not all, know exactly what their patients need and what they demand. It is our job to present to the physicians whatever that outside ancillary service company or product is; and whether it is a laboratory or a compound company or a certain protocol, they will know that we have vetted everything and each will meet the highest regulatory compliance in the industry. The physician and patient always have the final word.
CEOCFO: You offer nutrition products. How does a doctor know that they live up to their claims in an area that is so crowded with claims? Mr. Smith: When it comes to nutritional products, whether it is vitamin or supplements, we would, again, make sure that the quality control and the manufacturers of the product meet the highest standards in the industry. It is up to them to document to us that they meet all the qualifications and that they have all of the standards in place. Again, the physicians know what their patients need. When you go with higher quality supplements sometimes you pay more, but it is up to them to make sure that their patients realize that they are getting exactly what they need and not something off the shelf of the grocery store.
CEOCFO: Have patients traditionally been comfortable with their doctors selling products? Do they see it as helpful or maybe less than professional? Mr. Smith: We do not have anyone that does anything like that when it comes to a medical office. Now, when you talk about the skin care offices and med spas, they will have what they feel works best for their patients. Obviously, that takes more diligence and feedback from the patients as to how they like the products. You may use an eye cream that you think is great that someone else does not like. Therefore, I think it is more feedback from patients when it comes to products of that nature. I would agree that a doctor hawking vitamins and things like that in their office is not the best look and some patients would be questioning the rationale.
CEOCFO: Once you are working with a physician’s office and they are providing products or services are they going through you or are you doing the connections and then you are not as involved? Mr. Smith: No, we are not as involved. All of the work that happens in a medical practice is through the practitioner and their employees. We are not involved in that at all. We are more on the operational side when it comes to practices doing HR and payroll and accounts payable and accounts receivable and things like that. When it comes to the negotiating with vendors or product manufacturers and things like that; that is when we step in to help. Again, it becomes an economy of scale. If we are representing multiple practices buying one product, it is a lot different than one physician’s office representing themselves.
CEOCFO: What have you learned along the way as you have started to put this together and reach out to physicians and reach out to different providers of products? What has maybe changed in your approach? Mr. Smith: The opportunities are limitless, but they do change quite rapidly. What was good yesterday may not be good three months from now. Therefore, it is ever revolving. That is probably the biggest thing that I have seen.
CEOCFO: How do you stay ahead of that? Mr. Smith: Communication with physicians, vendors, manufacturers and insurance companies. That dictates much of what happens on a practice level. It is just constant communication with every aspect of the medical industry.
CEOCFO: How is business? Mr. Smith: Good! Very good! Things are growing every single day. There are always bumps in the road, but we expect that and we just have to keep fighting through till we get to where we want to be.
CEOCFO: What is the competitive landscape? Are there many companies that are as all encompassing as Lifestyle? Mr. Smith: I am sure that there are. I know that there are companies out there that provide certain ancillary services. I do not know that there is a tremendous number that are doing exactly what we are trying to do.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us a little bit about the management side of your business, as far as managing medical practices and why you have gone into that arena as well? Mr. Smith: Again, on the management side we are on the back office side. For example, a physician might outsource their billing and coding work to an outside company and pay them some percentage of their revenue for that. Every time that we go into a situation that needs billing and code work we have enough people on staff now that could handle probably three times what we currently have in volume. Therefore, we can go in at a much lower rate and provide the same types of services, therefore saving a physician significant cost. The economies of scale that our model creates gives practices purchasing power; whether it is buying table paper, syringes or medical equipment. When you combine multiple practices obviously you expect discounts, which saves them money.
CEOCFO: It seems as if there are limitless opportunities for you. How do you keep from being scattered in too many directions? Mr. Smith: I do not know if it is an internal clock, but at some point you realize that there is enough balls out there and you need to start catching them and putting them on the shelf before you pick up another one that is bouncing. Therefore, we try to focus in on the larger areas, which in turn end up feeding out into smaller areas that are directly connected. It is true with everything, that if you can focus in on four or five items at a time, it tends to be easier than chasing twenty great ideas.
CEOCFO: Why is Lifestyle Medical Network a company to watch? Mr. Smith: We are growing at a very rapid pace. We are in an industry that is ever changing. With all the opportunities out there and the fact that there are tens of thousands of practices across the country that we can help, it is just a wonderful business to be involved in. |
“The idea behind Lifestyle Medical Network is to enhance the operations of existing medical facilities by adding ancillary services and protocols for procedures to benefit not only the existing patients of a practice, but also to drive more traffic to physicians and at the same time increase the quality of care that patients are receiving.” - Christopher Patrick Smith
Lifestyle Medical Network Inc. (OTC: LMNK) www.lifestylemedicalnetwork.com
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Physicians Resources, Lifestyle Medical Network Inc. (OTC: LMNK), Protocols for Medical Procedures and Therapies, CEO Interviews 2016, Christopher Patrick Smith, Resource, Consulting, Products, Protocols for Procedures and Ancillary Services for Physicians and Medical Facilities that Drive Traffic and Increase Quality Patient Care, Healthcare Companies, Find a Doctor, Physicians Register, Hormones, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Adult Stem Cells, Hematopoietic stem cells, Mesenchymal stem cells, Bone Marrow, Collection and Storage of Adult Stem Cells, Recent CEO Interviews, Lifestyle Medical Network Inc. Press Releases, News, Healthcare Stock, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, healthcare companies seeking investors, physicians resource companies needing investment capital |
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Christopher
Patrick Smith