Use the consultant. Big mistake to go without one.
You know the medicine, so you don't need someone telling you how to do that. But you (nor did I) know the business of medicine. Would anyone let their secretary treat patients? Not hardly.
So the doctor should not be handling all of the business and legal issues by him/herself.
However that's NOT to say you do not have ownership of decisions.
My advice is this, surround yourself with very capable people and give them license to figure out stuff. You give them direction, you tell them where the operation is going to go. Afterall you are the boss. however, allow them the freedom to make it happen.
I tell my consultant, "I want to participate w/ Anthem." But I don't fill out the application forms, she did it. Now we are on CAQH, a national database for insurance credentialling, and I attest to updates every 3 months.
I tell my consultant, "I need to hire a new M.A." and she deals w/ the ads, application screening, initial interviews, etc. Bert will be quick to add that she (we share the same consultant) has yet to actually find us staff that we've held onto for a long time. That just makes the point that good people are hard to find.
