Mr. St. Louis says Laser Spine Institute has spent time building a model that delivers spine care directly to patients through direct-to-consumer sales and marketing strategies. After building the company’s credibility with insurance companies, physician practices and customers — and after many requests from many healthcare providers, investors, and practices — Mr. St. Louis says the team decided they wanted to expand to other areas of healthcare that could benefit from their expertise.
Advanced Healthcare Partners was born from that desire to add value to emerging areas in healthcare. “We were thinking about what our tagline and vision would be, and as we started to bounce around different ideas, we landed on, ‘Changing the Business of Healthcare,'” Mr. St. Louis says. “We built LSI to be a corporate functioning business as opposed to a physician-managed business, and that approach was what we built the foundation of AHP on. This allows the physician to do what they are best at, while we deliver our cutting edge, highly beneficial business strategies to their practice and business.”
He says AHP will concentrate on areas of “definite need” in the market — companies that differentiate themselves from their competitors by doing something new and original or by performing a traditional service in a different way. Mr. St. Louis says in its first year, AHP plans to identify 5-8 businesses that could benefit from financial backing as well as management services.
To identify the businesses that AHP will invest in, the company has developed a team of strategic advisory committee members from various sectors of the healthcare industry. “We have Sidd Morgan, former CEO from Humana, Steven Klasko, USF Health CEO, Bill McBride, a Florida governor candidate and local attorney, Linda McKlintock, founder of Ageless Medicine, Sidd Pagidpati, founder of Freedom Health and Charles Herman, the chair of the Poconos Health system. All these names are well-recognized in the industry,” Mr. St. Louis says. “That group is responsible for helping us underwrite these new operations and helping us build that strategic management portfolio.” He says these committee members will help AHP make deliberate decisions about smart investments, offsetting the team’s desire to “grow and grow fast.”
In its first year, Mr. St. Louis expects AHP to manage from 5-8 operations, “all of which could be in completely different fields,” he says. He says AHP may also look at companies that concentrate on the same topic in different ways — for example, three separate enterprises that harvest stem cells, bank stem cells and treat stem cells. “In that case, none of them would compete against each other because every one needs the next person,” he says. “You can create this collaborative opportunity where the companies leverage off each other.”
Not every company targeted by AHP will be a start-up, Mr. St. Louis says. Some companies are what he calls “second-stage” companies, which have done well on their own but now need capital infusion or sound management to continue their success. “Maybe they have a great product, but they grew their product fast and now have no idea how to run their business,” he says.
Most importantly, an AHP company will have something that differentiates itself from its competitors, he says. “It doesn’t have to be unique or one-of-a-kind, but we certainly want them to have some sort of differentiated product,” he says. “Maybe it’s a different way of treating cancer — something that’s unique to the market with a stronger value proposition.” He says the ideal company will also bring some funds to the table; while AHP certainly has financial backing to contribute, the company hopes not to fund the entire operation, as they believe it is important to keep all parties goals for success aligned
As Mr. St. Louis completes his own transition from COO of Laser Spine Institute to CEO of AHP, he hopes to embody the new company’s core values: “be fun to be around, always add value, be selective, push the status quo,and give back to the community” He says management groups and healthcare companies can sometimes feel stuffy, and his number one priority is to open up to his partners and make the process enjoyable. He also expects his team members to actively involve themselves in the community and generate incredible results for its partners, through their unique, but effective strategies
“That means we’re introducing a new way of doing business in healthcare,” he says. “We’re looking for disruptive technologies.”
Learn more about Advanced Healthcare Partners.
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