Physical Therapy Practice Management | Outside The Box Strategies
Get What You Want for Your Clinic – Here’s How…
By Steve Messineo, DPT, Owner, YourBizSuccessCoach.com
In the last two weeks I have had two Physical Therapy clinic owners who are new clients tell me that they want a different type of patient population than the type they are getting.
In both cases, they get a lot of Medicaid patient referrals. This is bad for 2 reasons: 1) Medicaid reimbursement is terrible, and 2) Medicaid patients are terrible about keeping their appointments.
Both clinic owners want more private insurance patients to come in. So when I asked them if they are marketing to doctors or companies who can refer more private insurance patients, they both said “No”.
In fact, both clinic owners weren’t doing any marketing whatsoever! Ummm – f you really want something, then you need to let people know what you are looking for AND how it will benefit them when you get it.
That is the whole idea of marketing. Yet many clinic owners, like my two clients, will tell me the marketing they have done doesn’t work so well OR they don’t have enough time to do marketing.
Yeah – So what they are really saying is they have never tested and tweaked their marketing enough to make it successful. Or they are saying “I don’t have enough time to let people know what I want and put more money in my pocket”.
Now, I am kidding here a bit. The fact is, physical therapists are not taught marketing strategies when they are in school getting their degrees. Most clinic owners have to figure it out for themselves once they open a practice.
Like treating a patient, there is a science and strategy behind a good marketing campaign. It is not something you learn overnight. Like your treatment skills, it takes practice to become good at it.
Unfortunately, most clinic owners don’t take the time to do so because it is easier to find other things to do that they are more comfortable with. Let me ask you, were you always comfortable when you were in PT school?
Probably not. If you don’t have a good marketing plan for your clinic and have not acquired the skills needed to be a good at marketing your practice, then it is time for you to get out of your comfort zone again and learn marketing.
It will make a huge difference in the type of patients you get into your clinic(s) and will most definitely increase your bottom line if you make the effort to do so.
What are some out of the box strategies you use for attracting more referrals from physicians?
As with any business — a pizza place, a hardware store, even a stand-up comic — a physical therapy clinic needs to market itself. This is not a case of “If you build it, they will come.” Sure, you’ll get a couple of people who are referred by their insurance companies, but that’s it. If no one knows you exist, or what services you provide, how can you possibly expect them to send business your way?
Marketing, marketing, marketing. If you want the RIGHT sort of customer for your practice then you must have a plan to reach and attract them. Sitting back and accepting the status quo won’t do you any good.
I have found working with many different types of clinicians, marketing his or her practices has been the most challenging aspect of running their practice. Working at
Vericle, allows me to share what other practice have done to improve their
practices, we like to call this “Networking.â€
The importance of effective marketing can not be over stated. Relying exclusively on your existing referral sources makes your practice extremely vulnerable, and it’s simply not a long-term strategy. Everyone should attend this webinar.
When I speak to my providers we discuss what they are doing in terms of marketing and I am able to share this with other offices. Effective marketing needs to be practiced. This webinar will be very helpful.