Business and practice development issues affect SIR members of all practice types and in all locations. Although these concepts are among the most important for successful practitioners to understand, there is a paucity of reputable training opportunities.
Unveiled in late 2022, the new SIR Business Center was created to fill this void. The Business Center is a single log-on website that brings together all the pre-existing SIR business-oriented online resources. By providing a centralized place for guides and resources specifically tailored to interventional radiology, the Business Center equips each successive wave of physicians with the knowledge they need to succeed in the IR business world.
The Business Center met a significant need identified by the skilled administrative staff of SIR and was developed through their efforts. Previously, these resources, which were spread across the SIR website, could be difficult to find. Now, the Business Center provides a one-stop shop for all things business- and practice-building-related as a high-value feature for SIR members. As new resources are developed, they will have a centralized location to make them easier to promote and access. Through the involvement of Affinity Partners (industry supporters with products relevant to the Business Center), the program can be self-sustaining while providing members with valuable resources at minimal cost.
In addition to co-locating pre-existing business resources, the Business Center represents the debut of educational and marketing materials that are fully customizable to your practice’s brand. The products and resources are organized into six sections:
Patient education and engagement contains standardized, procedure-specific consent forms and after care instructions. These materials are fully customizable.
Branding and marketing contains a publication on marketing your practice, as well as service line–specific patient information brochures that can be customized to your practice and printed on-demand. Brochures can be purchased for single service lines or in bundles, covering topics such as varicoceles, peripheral arterial disease and varicose veins.
Coding, billing and reimbursement contains the annual coding book update, charge sheets and a print-on-demand resource for commonly missed coding revenue opportunities in IR. Additionally, there are downloadable carrier advocacy letters for procedures such as prostate artery embolization and ovarian vein embolization that are available to members free of charge.
Operations and management contains publications on operations and management of your current practice, as well as staffing requirements of an IR practice.
Setting up an IR Private Practice contains financial modeling samples that are available to members free of charge.
EHR, AI and other IT needs contains standardized reports available to SIR members free of charge.
All of these sections will grow over time, and we are still working to incorporate existing SIR resources, such as E&M education, which have yet to be folded into the platform.
With the wide diversity of IR physician interests, subspecialization and practice types, numerous societies are competing for the interests and dollars of IR practitioners. Reimbursement cuts occur annually, and political action committees are increasingly clamoring for physician dollars as well to combat the trend. For any society to thrive, it must be able to demonstrate value that justifies the annual investment its members make. The SIR Business Center is a product that provides real value for SIR members and is concrete and immediate. The materials don’t just reiterate or expand upon information that most members will have encountered previously—they address a key unmet need of our society and specialty to provide a single clearinghouse of business and practice building information. As the home for all SIR resources that involve the dollars and cents of interventional radiology, the SIR Business Center will make it easier for members to access the resources they need to build and expand their practices.
Access the SIR Business Center at https://irbc.sirweb.org/.
