"but what can I tell him about the finances."

Jennifer, I know NOTHING about the costs of getting certified, nor about
the revenue you can generate for the practice (I'll leave that to those who
are practicing).  As a former banker who spent most of her career lending
to physicians, I DO know a thing or two about the finances.

1. Would being an LC provide you with a competitive advantage in your
community over the other physician offices?  i.e. will new parents beat a
path to your door because you are offering something that no one else does?
 YOU might just bring HIM some lucrative(?) pediatric patients.

2. Conversely, is your office practicing below the community standard
because you are the only ones NOT offering LC services (wouldn't it be nice
to have this problem??)  Would you be in competition with a hospital-based LC?

3. Our fellow Lactnetters can give you the accurate figures, but you need
to be able to forecast, based on your practice and patient population, how
many consults you could see (say, in an average month), how much per
consult, and compare that with your current billing hours and fees.

If you are NOT fully billing now, then I could see adding LC services as a
way to build your array of services and, therefore, your revenue
generation.  Not to be crass, but if you are salaried, you are a fixed cost
to the practice.  Anything that generates more revenue will make your
employer (and his banker ;-)  ) happy.  If you ARE fully billing all your
time, at rates equal to or more than you would generate as an LC, then
adding LC services would not make any more money for the practice.

I hope that wasn't too banker-ish.  Just trying to help you talk about the
finances in a way that helps.

Kathleen Bellis, MD2B
Penn State College of Medicine

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