direct primary care practice

Continuing Care

One of the best areas to focus your marketing and patient education on is continuing care, especially if you are running or hoping to transition to a concierge practice.

Marketing Strategies for Massage Therapists Part 1

Cheaper to Keep ‘Em

Just as it’s less expensive to keep good employees than to continually hire new ones, it’s also cheaper to keep existing patients coming back than to always be marketing to find new ones. Happy patients also do a lot of the marketing work for you. They refer their family and friends to you. That kind of marketing costs you nothing and is the best endorsement you can receive.

Keep ‘Em Coming Back

If you’re practicing in a concierge model, you obviously need to sell continuing care. People aren’t going to join a membership practice if they only need to see you once a year or can stop coming in after the initial complaint is (or feels) resolved.

You have to show them the value of continued care, that it’s good value for the money they spend and for their health too.

Continuing Care Requires Continuing Education

If you want patients to keep coming back to your practice, you have to educate them on how they can benefit from continuing care. You aren’t just selling your specialty; you’re selling overall health and wellness. It’s common sense to us as practitioners that what we do impacts more than the initial issues that brought a patient into our office.

But not all people have been educated on matters of holistic wellness. When we do A, B through Z can be impacted, negatively or positively. I once worked with a chiropractor who told all his patients, “Always run it by your chiropractor.” What he meant was, no matter what health problem you’re having, even if you think it’s unrelated to what he does, let him know about it. Chiropractic does a lot more than heal a sore back or neck. pain

Even if their complaint is something you can’t help with, you can help guide them to the proper resources. That helps build trust between you and your patient, and helps to keep you involved in their overall health.

Structured Education

You shouldn’t take a haphazard approach to patient education. You want to have a structured program in place and apply it to everyone who comes into your practice. The first step is to educate potential patients on the structure of your practice. As soon as some people see “concierge practice,” they think it’ll be too expensive.

We know that isn’t true, especially for patients with high-deductible plans. But we have to show them it’s an affordable model.

Once you get past the money hurdle, you have to educate them on the value of continuing care. You can frame it like a subscription service. Rather than getting a package of makeup or snacks every month for a monthly fee, they get robust health!

You should devote part of your education plan to the benefits of continuing visits after the initial problem they sought help for has been resolved. This is the most important part of educating your patients. You want to build a relationship with your patients that lasts for many years, not just see them when they’re suffering and in pain.

Always Teaching

You want to have steady contact with your patients, but you want there to be value in every e-mail, newsletter, or mailing. If there isn’t that value, people start to think of stuff from your office as spam or junk mail, and they’ll treat it accordingly. spam

Everything you send to patients should have a component of education in it; when you alert them to your holiday hours, you can include information on how regular chiropractic visits can help to improve immune function. If you’re sending out information on chiropractic and kids, let them know you’re holding a clinic on the proper use of backpacks (this is a great one to get people back in the office if they’ve been putting it off during the summer).

It’s the education they’re receiving that creates value in their minds.

Make Your Job Easier

Educating your patients on the importance of continuing care makes your job easier. Patients are more compliant, they’ll trust you more, and they’ll keep coming back!

For more information on building community connections, I encourage you to read my new book Community Connections! Relationship Marketing for Healthcare Professionals. If you want more valuable information about how to Connect with YOUR Community, you can find FREE healthcare practice marketing content, PowerPoint Presentation Jumpstart Kits, workbooks, blog articles, and my FREE “Practice Marketing Planner” Now!

Choosing Membership Services

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Once you decide to become a membership practice, the next step is choosing membership services for your patients. We know the benefits for providers: A smaller patient load, reduced overhead, and less record-keeping. But what services will you offer your patients?

Ask Your Patients What Membership Services They Want

When some people think of a membership practice, they think of fluffy robes and private waiting rooms. Those things are nice extras, but they don’t do much to make a patient’s experience better. Ask your patients what would improve their experience. The most common things patients are looking for all relate to time: Faster access to appointments, longer appointments, and a practitioner who listens (which takes time!).

How Available Do You Want to Be?

From a patients’ perspective, one of the most attractive things about a membership practice is the increased access they have to their provider. What used to be handled with an in-office visit can now be handled on the phone or over email. Simple follow up questions that used to take days to get answered can now be answered in hours or even minutes.

But this kind of access means that the provider no longer leaves work when he or she leaves the office. You’ll be tethered to your practice in a way that traditional providers are not. And while most patients won’t take advantage of this 24/7 access, there are bound to be a few who do pick up the phone for every little thing. So consider if you can handle providing that level of availability. Open

For patients used to the old model, simply being able to schedule same or next day appointments, and not having to wait once they arrive for that appointment, will be an incredible improvement. So if you’re unsure about 24/7 access, you can still provide much greater access than what your patients have been used to.

Consider Your Demographics

If your practice is in a very affluent area, then luxuries like fluffy robes and private waiting rooms may indeed be something you want to offer your patients. If your patients are seniors, they may want help navigating the healthcare maze, things like coordinating specialist referrals and appointments and medical records. For patients with limited mobility, house calls would be an attractive feature and something well worth paying a membership fee for.

If your patients are focused on wellness and preventative care, they desire services that cater to their healthy lifestyle. You might consider hiring alternative therapists like an acupuncturist, naturopath, or nutritionist and adding an on-site lab to provide simple blood tests for things like vitamin deficiencies and lipid levels. Phone

Tech-savvy patients will appreciate patient portals, so they can do things like make appointments, access medical records and get lab results on-line. Even better if you have a patient portal app so they can do all of that right on their phone!

A Perfect Match

Choosing membership services to include in your practice is a matter of finding the right balance between what is best for your patients and for you. This shouldn’t be too difficult because providers and patients often share many of the same frustrations with traditional practice models. Therefore, what makes your patients happy can make you happy too.

For more information on building community connections, I encourage you to read my new book Community Connections! Relationship Marketing for Healthcare Professionals. If you want more valuable information about how to Connect with YOUR Community, you can find FREE healthcare practice marketing content, PowerPoint Presentation Jumpstart Kits, workbooks, blog articles, and my FREE “Practice Marketing Planner” Now!

Membership Practices, Concierge Practices, and Direct Primary Care: Similarities and Differences

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

The terms “membership practice”,”concierge medicine,” and “direct primary care” are sometimes used interchangeably. While they have similarities, they have distinct differences too. It’s important to be familiar with the differences so you can help your patients understand them and be more comfortable with your new practice model.

If you’re among the many doctors seeking a better way to serve your patients, you may be considering a membership, concierge, or direct primary care practice model. To help you make the best decision for you and your patients, this post will outline what these practice models have in common and how they differ.

Membership Practice Model

A “membership practice” refers to any practice model that charges an annual or monthly fee or retainer to its’ patients. This umbrella term can be used to refer to several different practice models, including direct primary care, concierge, or boutique practices. The membership fee frequently covers a variety of services, procedures, or treatments, delineated by each office. Thus, a membership model is highly flexible and can be structured to suit the needs of the doctor, patients, and community.

Concierge Care Model

concierge medicine dr kelley pendleton The mid-1990’s saw a rise of wealthy patients who wanted VIP care without the interference of insurance companies, and “Concierge Medicine” was born. The defining feature of concierge medicine is that it gives the patient nearly limitless access to the doctor, often including same day appointments, round the clock telephone access, and even house calls in some practices. While many concierge practices do accept insurance to pay for services or procedures not covered by the retainer fee, they’ve often negotiated better pricing, further reducing patient expense.

Direct Primary Care Model

In the mid-2000’s, the frustrations of patients and providers converged to create a “new” model of practice. Direct Primary Care, or DPC, seems to be a throwback to the bygone era of small town doctors who developed direct relationships with their patients without the involvement of a third party. DPC practices offer primary, preventative, urgent, and wellness care in addition to disease management. The defining feature of the DPC model is that the provider does not accept nor bill insurance. Payment is arranged solely between the doctor and his or her patient. Eliminating insurance allows doctors to spend more time caring for patients, and less time dealing with the hassles of insurance.

The Similarities

Both concierge and direct primary care practices charge a membership or retainer fee.

Each practice model has much smaller patient loads than a traditional practice, thus allowing for longer patient visits and a higher level of care. These types of practices typically limit their patient panel to several hundred while a traditional practice can have as many as 2,500 patients.

Both models provide greater access to doctors, including telephone and e-mail consultations.

Concierge and DPC practices provide much faster access to the doctor including same or next day appointments, and little to no wait time upon arriving for an appointment.

In a traditional model, doctors are only paid for office visits. Because membership practices don’t rely entirely (or at all) on insurance payments, follow up care can often be handled via telephone or e-mail. (How convenient is that?)

Another thing both models have in common is how little they are understood by patients. That’s why patient education is so vital to making either model a success.

The Differences

The major difference is that while direct primary care practices don’t bill insurance at all, many concierge practices do.

Direct primary care practices tend to attract younger patients, those in their 20’s-40’s who are middle class. Concierge practices attract an older and wealthier clientele, those in their 50’s-80’s who are considered upper middle class.

Overhead between the two models is another key difference. Because DPC cuts out insurance companies, there’s less need for billing staff, software, EMR, and the other expenses typically incurred when a practice accepts insurance. Concierge practices often have higher overhead because they still bill insurance and because the patients may expect fancy extras for their annual fee like plush offices and private waiting rooms.

DPC’s charge a lower fee, on average, $50-150 per month. While the average concierge practice’s monthly fee is higher, it’s surprisingly not that much higher, at $200 per month.

While DPC offers faster access to doctors than traditional practices, many concierge practices offer 24/7 access every day of the year via the doctor’s personal cell phone number.

Which Model Is Best?

The answer will heavily rely on your patient demographic. Younger, middle-class, Gen X and millennials will favor the DPC model. Even with the advent of the Affordable Care Act, many people’s medical coverage is still tied to their employer, and it’s comforting for patients to know they can remain under your care with or without insurance.

If your patients are older and more affluent, they may be willing and able to pay for concierge medicine. For those in this demographic, health has become a matter of prime importance and they want to build a close relationship with a doctor they can trust.

Whichever model you choose, you can look forward to better serving your patients, improving their quality of life and your own, while reducing your own insurance-related frustrations.

Marketing a Membership, Direct Primary Care (DPC), or Concierge Practice

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

More and more physicians are transitioning from a traditional practice to a membership, DPC, or concierge practice. The three terms are often (mistakenly) used interchangeably. (The various ways to structure this type of practice will be discussed in future blogs, so stay tuned!)

If you’re thinking about making the leap, you’ve probably done enough research to know that one of the biggest issues for these practices is marketing.

Perhaps “marketing” is the wrong thing to focus on. Focus, instead, on patient education to help your current patients become comfortable and excited about the new practice model. This can smooth the transition and alleviate some of your patient-retention fears. (Plus it can also save you time and money since you won’t have to focus so much effort on constantly attracting new patients.)

Advantage #1: Affordability

When your patients hear the terms “membership, DPC, or concierge practice,” often the first thing they think is that it’ll be expensive.

For example, concierge medicine didn’t start in small towns populated by middle-class people; it started in large urban areas populated by high earners who were willing and able to pay top dollar for private medical care. That’s the way many people still view it.

Help your patients to understand they won’t be paying hundreds of dollars more for visits with you than they pay now. A membership, DPC, or concierge practice can be an especially great deal for patients who have HSA and FSA programs through their insurance providers.

Patient education and clarity are the best ways to overcome this misconception. Communicate to your patients that your transition has nothing to do with money, but a desire to deliver a higher quality of care. (Research has shown that traditional providers make about the same as concierge providers1.) For clarity, show them your new fee structure, as well as their potential financial obligations under a few common scenarios.

Advantage #2: Time

Patients are tired of waiting hours for an appointment or being told to schedule different appointments for every health concern. And they don’t appreciate being rushed through an office visit any more than you like being rushed.

1 Pearson, D. 2015. ‘Direct primary care’ shown to please patients and reduce costs, including for imaging. Available at: http://www.imagingbiz.com/topics/healthcare-economics/‘direct- primary-care’-shown-please-patients-and-reduce-costs-including-imaging.

The average medical appointment lasts just over 15 minutes. Describe how an office visit under the new model is different than what they’re used to. The reality is that by transitioning to a membership, DPC, or concierge practice, you’ll be able to devote much more time and attention to their care.

Advantage #3: Service

Membership, DPC, and concierge practices can provide better service than the traditional model. It’s frustrating for patients when they have to wait days or weeks for an appointment or when they arrive on time for an appointment only to be kept waiting because you’re running behind.

Outline the new customer service patients can expect from your office. Will they have access to the doctor via E-mail or cell phone? Will they be guaranteed same-day appointments? What tests, procedures, or services are included in their monthly or annual fee?

Don’t Forget:

You and your patients often share the same frustrations. Things like long wait times, short or rushed appointment times, and insurance companies refusing to pay for needed care top the list. Those aggravations may be due to the “middle-man” (insurance companies) standing between the doctor and patient. By removing this obstacle, you’ll be removing these frustrations. For more information on how to explain the membership, DPC, or concierge model to patients, watch this brief video of me in a recent panel discussion! (See my entire DPC Panel discussion here.)

One Last Tip:

Take the time to ask patients what they want (and don’t want) from a membership, DPC, or concierge practice before making the change. For example, do they expect unlimited phone access, same day appointments, house calls, or a fancy waiting area that serves tea? This way, when you make the transition, you’ll know where to spend time and money so you can provide the services people want and are willing to pay for.

Educating patients about what your membership, DPC, or concierge practice will and won’t be can help you retain patients so your primary focus remains providing high-quality care. This is a key reason you want to become a membership, DPC, or concierge provider!