Advice on how to become an independent rep

Discussion in 'Independent Medical Contractors' started by anonymous, Dec 15, 2016 at 8:38 PM.

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  1. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Hello,

    I am currently in the information gathering stage about becoming an independent rep and all the ins and outs of it.

    I am a regional manager for a medical device company after being a top rep for over 10 years. I travel quite a bit and am looking for something where I am more independent. Not having to travel all the time and especially sick of all the corporate meetings all the time. Basically I would like to find something where I am left alone, run my own ship, and can be home with my family. That's why I like the idea of an independent 1099 position bc I feel like I wouldn't have all that stuff but I really don't know.

    I am looking for any advice about doing this, how I would go about it, pick up product lines, and how quickly I would be up and earning money. Also what type of income can I expect if I am successful? I am currently paid very well, and obviously all the extras of working for someone with a car, expenses, etc. I don't want to just go and work for someone again if I make a change.

    Any insight or feedback would be much appreciated!
     

  2. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    best thing to do would be to look for 1099 positions and determine what specialty you want your call points to be. Currently we have 1099 positions open with us @ MedLaser USA. you can go to our website and fill out the contact form if you are interested in learning more about the gig.
     
  3. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Becoming an independent rep today really isn't possible if not already well established. The legit opportunities are very few and far between with most being a total waste of time and a lot of nonsense. And then if you're lucky enough to cross paths with a good opportunity figure at least a year to ramp up because customers will want nothing to do with you until you prove yourself worthy (mostly from many bad reps and companies ruining it for you).
     
  4. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I agree with the above post about the current environment and how different things are now versus 5-10 years ago. I'm currently a 1099 ortho distributor and it's been a great run, however moving forward to compete with the big 5's who are continuously merging and buying out smaller companies is making it very tough. Another component is that most of the new sx's have less pull and are becoming employed and/or guaranteed via hospital thus their "independent product preference" has minimal value. This doesn't mean that you can't be successful, it just means you have to be VERY crafty about your approach. Here are a few questions that'll help you out:

    - As a regional manager, do YOU still have MD rships? If not, develop those ASAP in order to support your initial run.
    - Is your state or nearby metro 1099 Friendly (i.e. How many docs that fit your target profile are independent vs. employed? Independent docs are typically great for hospital products and Employed docs are better for non hospital products. Why so? Indy guys may be limited in ownership within hospital products, so that's game on for you in that arena, but likely no dice with Indy docs in clinic since they may own their dme, etc. The opposite is usually true for Employed docs as they have numerous rules against MD ownership with clinic items and are PUSHED by hospital management to stay the course with OR implants and devices.

    - Look into DME and how it reimburses in your state. Also, check out work comp dme opportunities.

    - Go to AAOS if you're an ortho guy and visit each booth with your MD roster in mind. Nowadays companies rarely use protected territories and will ask you to carve out specific docs and that's your protection. If you find a group open enough to give you a territory, proceed with caution and only commit after you've done your due diligence.

    - Talk to other distributors and see how/if you can piggyback. If so, you can bring them a few doc contacts and there's your diving board. However, you need to have transparency, loyalty from your docs and an exit plan with this model.

    - Ever consider working for a bit longer and stashing away some $$$ to invest into a buy/bill set up (NON Hospital model)? This can be for dme, in office diagnostics, p. therapy modalities, lasers, etc. It'll require some hard work and upfront capital, but your break even point is determined by your rships, hustle and reimbursement outlook. However, I've seen more than a few build significant wealth this way. Because of the hospital environment I'd look at this route because you deal directly with insurance companies and negate the middle man.

    - You can also do a rental "buy/bill" model, which is great for those docs who don't want to spend large amounts on capital equipment for their offices. Thus you can rent the latest technology to the insurance company that the leading edge doc wants for their patients and it's golden once you break even!

    Good Luck and be crafty!!
     
  5. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Thanks so much for the replies. Very helpful. I am interested to learn more about what you said is buy/bill non hospital model? I know you listed dme, etc. but what would be some examples of you wouldn't mind of those types of things. I am certainly open to something like that or at least investigating. My plan is to work in the corporate world for a few more years then transition to something different. Not sure and don't care what it is just want to be working for myself. Thanks again!
     
  6. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I would only target products or services where you earn residual income.

    You do NOT want to be promoting products where if you are not there then you will not be earning income. Sadly, it is so easy to get screwed over in this arena as way too many of us have been and it does not seem to stop.

    Of course, you have so much greater opportunity to earn loads more money here than working in the corporate world. For example, I earned enough working as a 1099 to buy equal ownership in a diagnostic lab and not just be a broker or distributor hoping that the lab would be honest with us. Unlike some medical devices where if you are not there all the time your product will not be used we decided to find a great lab which was NOT easy. In fact, I have NEVER EVER seen more crooks, liars, cheats and incompetent idiots in any one arena like we did trying to find a top-notch lab.
    With Lab services you know your physicians are going to keep ordering lab tests day after day month after month.

    Of course, it helps if you can find products and services where you can maximize your relationships as that is the most important factor for success other than a service or product that allows the physicians to LEGALLY earn money and I stress the word LEGALLY!!! Way too many reps AND physicians have strayed off past the gray area into total blackness.

    I did want to mention that we do have one service that we promote that helps physicians earn great income, where they do NOT have to risk any of their own money nor increase their own staff, and is 100% legal.

    Best of all is that it helps lower the healthcare costs, is usually covered at no expense to the patient as it is covered under preventive care and often increases their quality of life. With this preventive care program, we put equipment in the physician’s office that remains ours (not the physicians), where we provide the staffing and run a series of diagnostic testing along with 9-14 blood tests. This program is limited to at least medium sized offices where there are at least 3 providers and the office is seeing at the very least 80 patients per day. The typical targets are FP/IM, OBGYN and Endo. We would typically test about 8 patients per day as our testing is comprehensive and requires about 50 minutes to complete. All it takes to qualify is for either the patient or family member to have hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, history of heart attacks, or stroke which means about 90% of the population. LOL

    Depending on the type of insurance the average patient has in this office, the practice can usually expect to earn upwards of $25K to $30K per month in revenue!!! Coverage is great by all the major insurance carriers including Medicare.

    With our proprietary software this program generates an amazing report to the physician showing what the patients wellness score is, what is their risk of diabetes, risk of heart failure, risk of stroke and provides the info in an easy to read report the physician can review with the patient and develop a plan to lower their risks and increase their wellness.

    Naturally, the only reason the insurance carriers are covering this so happily is that they know it will save them tons of money. Even the Hospitals are loving this program for their off-campus locations because it generates great income for them just on this testing, generates great positive PR AND it identifies all these patients that will need surgical procedures to save their life. And because it is their physicians the patients will go to their hospital and not another thus generating even more money but saving many lives that normally would have been lost. Sadly about 1/3 of the patients that have so called normal cholesterol are at risk for heart failure and their 1st warning sign is the heart attack that kills them so clearly standard testing is doing a very poor job of identifying patients at risk. Those are exactly the types of patients we want to help.

    As our rep you can expect to earn upwards of $70K per year on an office doing about 8 tests per day. Many offices do much more but it requires the office seeing more patients per day and our company putting in additional staff to run the testing but naturally that also increases your income. What we suggest is that our reps use this unique program as leverage to get ALL Of THE TESTING or at least part of it which would increase your monthly income many times over.

    We do NOT pay the physician ANYTHING.

    The physicians are paid directly from the insurance carrier and the physician pays us as in accordance with a management services agreement. This type of arrangement is not really any different that the one United Allergy has been doing for years and years and years without there being ANY accusations of impropriety so don't EVEN try to say this program is the least bit shady. It has been reviewed by more lawyers than you can imagine and not one has ever said there was anything at all to be concerned about. The insurance carriers including Medicare have zero problems with this program.

    If you are interested in this Preventive Care program or working with our lab please feel free to contact us at Supreme Medical Solutions.
     
  7. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    SCAM DO NOT DO THIS !!!!
     
  8. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    From Google FRAUD !
     
  9. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    ANYTHING that is attached to Supreme Medical Solutions is a scam.