Absolutely as its cheaper to deal with in a declining ASP market. Employees will be held to a minimum moving forward unless they can control their revenue streams which is unlikely with medicare changes moving forward. You would think the opposite as they can hold more money with directs but I see it as the future of healthcare sales period. The catch will be lowering their percentages on the 1099's eventually. It wont be as easy to do.
Reading NUVA's financial disclosures they have a large chunk of their money sitting on the side that will be used to pay off their lost lawsuit with Medtronic after their appeals are exhausted. January they had to drop down large cash for the new "Medical Device Tax" mandated under ObamaCare. That tax cuts down their available cash so they can't have many employees.
NuVa just replaced and paid off a weak distributor in the south. Rumor on the street is that he already is up and running against NuVa. I hope they got a money back quarantee.
What happened to the Georgia distributor? Was he fired or did he cash out? Does anyone know. Does he live now in Savannah with a new spine business?
Florida guy is gone too. Good for NuVasive! Those guys were two peas in a pod. I wonder how the direct model will work? After six months you might see a lot of new smaller company distributorships pop up.