Newswise — Chicago-based Integrated Rehab Consultants (IRC) has grown its gross revenue from $63,000 since its inception in 2010 to more than $21 million in just six years by providing physicians for rehab oversight to improve patient care and significantly reduce cost for patients and insurers. IRC achieved profitability in its first year and each subsequent year while self-funding its own growth at an exponential pace:
Year Revenue %growth
2010 $ 63,000
2011 1,197,000 1,800%
2012 2,791,000 133%
2013 5,145,000 84%
2014 8,464,000 64%
2015 15,898,000 88%
2016 . 21,394,000 34%
IRC is on track for gross revenue of $25 million for the year ending December 31, 2017.
Starting with just one physiatrist (rehabilitation physician) in Chicago in 2010, IRC now supplies 100+ physicians to 300+ high quality Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) in 22 states coast-to-coast and CEO Amish Patel, DO, has his sights set even higher.
“Integrated Rehab Consultants’ growth has been totally self-funded to date,” Dr. Patel noted. “However, we see a tremendous opportunity for additional growth and expansion into psychiatry using a similar business model.”
IRC is successfully filling a critical need in nursing care today. Increasingly, especially among older adults, insurance providers (including Medicare) are discharging patients who need short-term rehabilitation after a stroke or orthopedic surgery, such as a knee replacement, to SNFs, rather than more costly in-patient rehab facilities, to get them in shape before returning home.
According to MedPAC, the average stroke patient stay in a SNF costs $8,905, as opposed to $34,196 in an inpatient rehab facility.
However, many lower-cost SNFs do not have the highly qualified staff to direct the most efficient rehab for these patients. IRC fills the gap by providing physiatrists to oversee patient rehab. The physicians’ fees are covered by Medicare or other patient insurance.
Physiatrist Oversight Shortens Rehab Stay
When a physiatrist is involved to provide more frequent patient visits, focus exclusively on rehab and oversee a physical therapy plan, patients’ length of stay is decreased. According to a recent Coker Group study (2015), SNFs with an IRC physiatrist on staff lowered their average patient length of stay by 11 percent.
Discharging patients from SNFs more quickly pleases everyone: patients, facilities, hospitals and insurance providers. Families are happy to see loved ones come home, facilities are able to free up beds for more acute (and more profitable) patients, hospitals are seeing fewer re-admissions and insurers prefer the lower-cost option.
IRC, the largest provider of physiatrists to SNFs nationwide, was founded by Dr. Amish Patel, a board-certified, Chicago-based physiatrist. As a young physiatrist, he noticed more rehab patients going to SNFs as opposed to other care settings and found that the SNFs weren’t equipped to care for this type of patient. He contracted with other physiatrists across the country and matched them with SNFs to provide rehab oversight. He continues to treat patients in the Chicago area while serving as the company’s CEO.
About IRC
Integrated Rehab Consultants (IRC) is a physician-led group providing physiatrists to work in tandem with skilled nursing facilities’ (SNFs) primary care physicians, nurses and therapists to optimize a patient’s treatment plan and overall care. Based in Chicago, IRC provides more than 100 physiatrists to SNFs in more than 22 states (AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, MO, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TX, VA, WA, WI). For more information, visit www.irehabconsultants.com or call 312-635-0973.
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