Top 7 Principles of
Effective Marketing & Advertising
Spending
1. Consider a
Marketing & Advertising Budget
You need
to spend money to attract patients to what your
practice has to offer and build your practice's
brand. The average practice finds that
$4,000 to $10,000 per month is a practical and
effective budget - Precision can help you decide the
amount that is right for your practice - either
too much or too little spent on promoting your
practice can result in wasted
dollars.
2.
Know Your
Patients
A demographic study of your
market can assist in targeting the patients you
want to reach with your message. Your
advertising and other marketing efforts must be
directed to maximum advantage - you want to
reach the prospective patients that want to know
about your practice. Misdirected money is
wasted money.
3.
Know Your
Competition
There are significant
differences between doctors and practices.
You and your vein center are unique in ways that
patients will respond to. You need to know
those differences and design your marketing and
advertising to highlight what is special about
you and your practice. Catch the attention
of patients that will connect best with you and
your practice.
4. Create a Marketing
& Advertising Plan
Your plan
should address the mix of media that is right
for your market and will optimize the spending
of your budgeted dollars, so that your message
is clear, consistent and reaches the most
prospective patients possible.
5.
Implement Your
Plan
Media contracts need
to be negotiated, with all available discounts,
with creative content that is right for you and
your market. Quality and image are very
important, as is the reach of your marketing
efforts. A great marketing plan is ruined
if the implementation of the plan is
ineffective.
6.
Track
Results
You have to know how
each aspect of your marketing and advertising
effort is working. To do that, you need to
track how your patients find you. Then
compare results over time, month by month and
year by year - accurate feedback on what is
working well, or not, is critically important to
maximizing your efforts over the longer
term.
7. Make Changes
There are media
"special opportunities" to consider, and the
results you see from your past efforts will
encourage you to try new efforts, adjust your
media mix and tweak the directed expenditure of
your budgeted dollars for best long term
results.
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Top 10 Reasons NOT to
Embrace Electronic Health Records
Software
Even though many
other doctors and practices are now implementing
EMR/EHR software systems, there are plenty of
reasons NOT to jump in.
10.
Declining Reimbursements
Don't Worry Me!
Counter: Really? The
only way to counter declining reimbursements is
with productivity advancements, and an effective
EHR implementation offers a great opportunity
for a vein practice to reduce its overall cost
structure per dollar of current revenue.
9.
Change is Too
Hard
Counter: Hard? Yes, but
too
hard? No. The difference is all
about how the change is managed. Many
Precision-supported practices have already made the
transition.
8.
Other Practices Have Tried
It and Failed
Counter: You have to make
sure you pick the right software system and the
right business partner to manage the
implementation process. Failure is not an
option.
7.
Going Electronic is Too
Expensive
Counter: 'Expensive' and an
'investment' are two different things -
investing in automation and technology that
reduces existing costs in your practice can be
positive and have long lasting benefits if done
timely and done well.
6.
My Practice is Too Busy for
an EHR System
Implementation
Counter: Plan your EHR
implementation well and schedule it in phases,
one step at a time. Change done this way
is much more manageable.
5.
There Are Bigger Problems
to Solve in My Practice
Counter: Then let's get to
those problems and fix them - if your practice
management software is outdated, if your medical
billing is out of control, or if your office
computers and network are obsolete or
functioning poorly, let's get those things fixed
before moving on to your EHR
implementation.
4.
I Don't Know Where to
Begin
Counter: Set up a meeting
with Precision to assess where your practice stands
today, and determine the steps necessary to
advance your practice one step at a time.
It's all about planning!
3. I Really Enjoy Working Long Hours
Counter: Every successful
business, including the practice of medicine, is
about hard work. A vein practice's hard
work is aimed at benefiting patients with great
medical care. But it makes sense to work
hard AND work smart. A good EHR software
system helps get more work done each day with
the hours spent by doctors and staff devoted to
patient care.
2.
My Staff Will Never Agree
on an EHR System
Counter: If the selected
EHR system is flexible and customizable to a
vein practice, then your staff will see the
benefits to you and to them - everyone's needs
CAN be met within a single EHR system.
1.
I Don't Need $44,000 in
Federal Stimulus Program
Money
Counter: Really? A
good EHR system should pay for itself twice,
once in the return it provides irrespective of
any federal program and then again with whatever
the government is willing to provide as an
incentive for doing what is good for your
practice anyway.
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Stimulus Program
Update
Kansas Governor Kathleen
Sebelius' appointment as head of Health and
Human Services (HHS) is pending approval by the
U.S. Senate, which is expected in the near
future. This is important, since the rules
governing the stimulus program benefits will be
determined in great part by HHS. Governor
Sebelius' position with respect to healthcare
reform is becoming clearer as she is moving
through the confirmation process - she is
expressing great concern over the rapidly rising
cost of healthcare and the effect that is having
on the overall economy. It is expected
that we will see a very active administration
with respect to healthcare reform. More as
it becomes available...
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As indicated above, the
stimulus program rules may change somewhat in
detail, but it appears right now that practices
that will have implemented an approved EHR
software system at least by the end of 2011 (and
making "meaningful use" of that system) will
receive $44,000 per provider to offset the costs
of that implementation, reduced to $42,000 for
practices starting a year later, with further
reductions to $39,000 the following year, then
to $24,000 a year after that. Then, the
stimulus reimbursements will abruptly end, to be
replaced by a penalty for practices that have
not implemented a qualified EHR system (by
2015). Will the stimulus program payments
come with other restrictions? Will all
practice specialties have equal access to the
payments? What about part time providers,
nurse practitioners and medical assistants that
bill out for their services? How long must
a practice have a system in use before the
stimulus payments are payable? These
answers should be forthcoming later this
year.
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Economic Recovery in
Sight?
The Congressional Budget
Office recently released an update to its
original projections on the impending budget
deficit for 2009 and 2010, increasing the
deficit projection by more than $400 billion in
each year, deficits that constitute the largest
percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) since
the end of World War II. President Obama's
current budget proposals would add $4,800
billion ($4.8 trillion) to previous estimates of
budget deficits projected over the next decade,
starting in 2010. The current recession is
expected through the fall of this year, with GDP
growth of 4.1 expected in 2010 and 2011.
The unemployment rate is expected to peak at
9.4% this year and remain above 7.0% through the
end of 2011. These greatly increased
budget deficits can be expected to, in some
manner, prolong the already protracted
recessionary recovery - a return of
stagflation? We will have to wait and see,
but Precision's position is to create strength for
itself and its client practices through a
continued focus on productivity and automation -
hard work and a conservative approach to
financial management is the best way to weather
whatever is coming in tomorrow's
economy.
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CMS has relented in
its strict requirement that only physicians can
access and make updates to the PECOS
system. If a physician chooses to give
user name and password information to a staff
member or billing company providing support
services to the physician, CMS will not oppose
this practical delegation of
responsibility. Precision supports its clients
in utilizing the PECOS electronic enrollment
system, in lieu of filing paper applications to
CMS and is available to assist practices in
understanding and properly using the PECOS
system, now that this expanded use of the system
is allowed by CMS.
>>Back to
top
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Precision Vein & Vascular offers the most
comprehensive and experienced vein center
support in the country. We provide a
complete, customized range of services and
products to new and existing vein practices,
including:
Upcoming Shows &
Exhibits
- 7th Annual International
Vein Congress May 6-9 at the Fountainbleu Hotel
in Miami Beach, Florida
- American College of
Phlebology 23rd Annual
Congress November 5-8 at the Desert
Springs JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Palm
Desert, California
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Precision Vein & Vascular
689 Craig Road
St.
Louis, MO 63141
(314)
993-8346
Questions?
Contact Shelly Paule,
Chief Operating
Officer
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