Marketing Quality Care to Patients

In light of a recent trip to Ft. Lauderdale for the RBMA’s Building Better Radiology Marketing Programs event, we have been thinking a lot about the best ways to market to patients.  In the healthcare industry, consumerism is on the rise, but coming up with creative and innovative ways to market your product is much harder with intangibles like care.  Of course positioning a shiny new toy or new techie product is going to be easier to sell since your can turn even an unwilling buyer into a customer in a 30 second commercial, however with the right campaign for care, you can gain adopters for a lifetime.

 

The challenges that healthcare marketing professionals face are difficult, but easily combated if approached appropriately. Healthcare tends to make patients think negatively, as considering health services and procedures forces them to ponder flaws, pain, life and death. All of which are simply emotions that are not evoked when someone is trying to decide between the red iPhone case and the blue iPhone case. 

The ticket is balancing the emotional with the rational and adding a twist of creativity that engages the patient and makes them remember you.  Think about State Farm for instance. They are selling insurance. Nothing brings about negative thoughts more than losing everything when you have an accident, but their marketing campaigns have a special recipe for entertaining you while still having confidence in their services.

Both videos are selling the same product but by playing on two very different facets of human emotion, they both succeed and are memorable. This balance is just as easily attainable in the healthcare field.  The key is to think like a patient. This might seem like a simple solution, but by considering the care process your practice can easily determine strengths and examine what truly matters to patients. Ask the questions the patients are asking of your own practice.

-       Do they take my insurance?

-       How much is this going to cost me out-of-pocket?

-       Is this really the best price?

-       Are they going to take care of me and answer my questions?

-       What if something goes wrong?

-       Is this going to be scary or hurt?

-       Is their technology up to date?

-       Am I getting the care I deserve?

The healthcare industry is not what it used to be thanks to the Internet and patients are turning towards self-education and empowerment. It is important to assure their concerns, provide resources to them and treat them like the power-holders that they are.  Making sure that your patients are taking advantage of educational materials while knowing about price shopping and quality measurement tools is an intangible value-added service.  Make sure that your patients are comparing apples to apples and are aware of price transparency and they will feel assured that you want the best for them. After all, the goal of healthcare marketing is to put their minds at ease by combating fears with comfort and quality.

Tags: pricing transparency, patient experience, save on medical, personalized service, price-shopping in health care, marketing, improved patient volume, RBMA, quality service, healthcare marketing, price shopping, price transparency

Why Your Practice Needs a Self-Pay Strategy

Trends towards price transparency in the healthcare industry have led practices to require new and innovative methods towards revenue management and marketing. The increasing rates of uninsured Americans and high-deductible health plans have pushed patients to start price shopping for affordable healthcare in the same way they shop for deals in other consumer industries.  The price shopping has built patient awareness of things like fee schedules and pricing variances, which makes the demand for pricing transparency more and more influential.

This of course benefits patients by arming them with the appropriate information needed to understand their healthcare.  Before, Patients didn’t know that the MRI procedure they received for $3,000 could have been found for $500 if they looked around for a better deal. More importantly however, the patient didn’t realize that the quality of the service at both facilities was not worth the difference in price.  Pricing transparency has revealed to many patients that often times, taking the self-pay route, is the most affordable way to get the care they need.

Practices are apprehensive of this mission for price transparency and self-pay patient empowerment due to fears of decreased revenue and poor return on investment after committing themselves to the new strategy. With high insurance costs and diminished reimbursements, imaging centers in particular, are looking for any way to stay afloat.  Sticking to the ways of always doing things is not the answer; a new strategy is the answer. A self-pay and pricing transparency strategy is the key.

Without a legitimate strategy geared towards the price sensitive patient market, practices are seeing:
- A missed market segment
- Lost revenue due to poor collections
- Lower patient volume because of commoditization
- Decreased authority in the industry
- Lost leverage

The last thing that the industry needs is for patients consider quality care to be a commodity, simply because they do not know where to find care they can actually afford.  These disparities have also led to a warped understanding of price versus value.  Patients are programmed to think that if something is more expensive, then it is better, but as we mentioned before, quality is not always reflective of pricing. 

By developing a truly manageable self-pay strategy, practices are able to be up to date in the industry, captivating new patients they would have never reached prior.  Virtual care is the next step on the horizon in healthcare, and the patient experience starts with picking a facility and scheduling an appointment, which is why Save On Medical aims to help each practice on their site put their best foot forward from the very beginning.  With the assistance of Save On Medical, practices are able to follow an effective strategy, measuring success and growth over time, learning from lost patients and growing with their new ones.

EBook: Improved Practice Revenue with ICD-10 Changes

You are probably wondering how the right medical billing and coding strategy improve your practice’s revenue.  Today’s medical economic environment has not been kind to radiology. Both hospital-based and the independent radiologists are at risk. Hospitals and Universities do not want to contribute to radiologist’s salary support in the same fashion that they have done in the past. Reimbursement, and in many locales, volume has decreased via radiology benefit managers and controlled utilization. In many areas of the country radiologist’s compensation is decreasing, even when practice volumes may not have changed.

There are a number of steps your practice can take in order to ensure that you’re in the best place possible to improve efficiency and find improved practice revenue. In light of recent ICD-10 changes and the ever-morphing medical coding standards, it is important to manage your processes and stay on top of the newest codes, so as to save time and money.

Matthew Rifkin, MD, FACR, is one of Atlantic Health Solutions' most valuable team members due to his expertise in the field. Dr. Rifkin became a Board-Certified in Radiology in 1978 and has since been a member of the faculty for the Johns Hopkins Medical School, the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. In 1991, he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Radiology at the Albany Medical College where he reorganized the department and also was responsible for running the Medical School’s entire faculty practice (a $110,000,000.00) enterprise.

He then assumed the position of Vice-Chair of the Department of Radiology and Chief of Clinical Operations at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 2002, he became Chairman of Radiology at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Long Island and in 2004 incorporated the radiology services of St. Catherine Hospital, 2005 St. Charles Hospital, 2007 Mather Hospital and in 2008 four independent Imaging Centers (all in Long Island), expanding the group of Board- Certified radiologists from 10 to 48. In 2011, he joined Atlantic Health Solutions as Executive Vice-President of Physician Integration.

Dr. Emily Sonnenblick Honored at American Cancer Society Luncheon

Emily Sonnenblick, M.D., of the prestigious Rosetta Radiology Group, was honored last week by The American Cancer Society at The Mothers of the Year 2012 Awards Luncheon for her cutting edge work in women’s imaging and her dedication to family values and community outreach.

               

Dr. Sonnenblick and the two other women that were honored at the annual luncheon, Grace Hightower De Niro and Diane Reidy-Lagunes, M.D., represent the epitome of career women, wives and mothers in the community for their compassion and dedication to advancements in cancer treatment. The Mother of the Year Award aims to recognize exemplary work in philanthropy and medicine and the dynamic women who make the work of the American Cancer Society possible. Sonnenblick is honored to join the ranks of other beneficial women who have supported important research, detection and prevention programs like Tory Burch, Dr. Deborah Axelrod, Muffie Potter Aston and Dr. Freya Schnabel.

In her acceptance speech, Dr. Sonnenblick commented saying, “The American Cancer Society is a powerful advocate for sound screening guidelines for cancers. It plays a role as a beacon and has not given in to revisionist and misinformed attitudes towards screening.” Most notably recognized for her work in Women’s Imaging at Rosetta Radiology, Sonnenblick is grateful to the American Cancer Society for the opportunity to be recognized for her dedication to early detection and treatment. She is also grateful for her supportive staff and colleagues at Rosetta Radiology and her family for sharing her mission of ridding the world of cancer.

Offering state of the art imaging, Dr. Sonnenblick and her radiologist partners at Rosetta Radiology will continue striving towards advancements in cancer prevention and control, supporting the groundbreaking efforts of the American Cancer Society.

Emily Sonnenblick, M.D. is a co-founder of Rosetta Radiology, a diagnostic radiology and radiation oncology practice on the Upper East Side in New York City. She received her M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College, served her medicine internship at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and completed her residency in radiology at Hospital University in Pennsylvania and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. Sonnenblick completed a fellowship in ultrasound and imaging at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center and continue to maintain a teaching appointment on the staff. An American Board of Radiology certified radiologist, Sonnenblick’s expertise is in women’s imaging and is a member of RSNA, the New York Metropolitan Breast Society, the Ultrasound Society, the ACR and the New York County Medical Society. She is married to Ken Offit, M.D., M.P.H., who heads clinical genetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and has three daughters.

Imaging Price Transparency Reaches New Levels in Florida

"I’ll have a turkey and cheese on rye, MRI on the side, please?” 

It might seem like a stretch, but it looks like the way you order your sandwich at the local deli is the same way the state of Florida is hoping for patients to acquire healthcare services. With upwards of 50 million uninsured Americans, the healthcare community has seen a significant spike in price-shopping trends. The state of Florida’s proposed legislation that would require physicians to post signs in their waiting rooms, showing their cash-pay pricing, seems to be a flawed attempt at empowerment in this price-sensitive patient market. 

The response to this proposed rule is decidedly negative from most physicians, as it seems that the legislation is attempting to compare hoagies and paninis to medicine. Our facility, Advanced Imaging Centers, has taken a different approach. We recognized a need in the patient population as well as our referring physician supporters for a simplified cash-pay pricing structure before this legislation was announced, which led us to implement our new initiative and post and publicize cash-pay prices. Radiology is the most price-shopped medical procedure, and we want our patients to take advantage of pricing transparency and be empowered to make decisions balancing price, service and quality.

           
        

Patients are becoming more aware of the need to serve as their own healthcare advocates, leading them to search for options. We have invested in this process by advertising the true cash-pay prices at our facility and by subscribing to Save On Medical (SaveOnMedical.com), which allows patients to search for services in their region and compare local facilities based on price and quality scoring. 

The new process compiles all types of exams and allots one flat fee for each modality, which encompasses both the technical and professional portions of the exam. An MRI, for example, would have one flat cash-pay price regardless of whether it was ordered for a patient’s neck or back, with contrast or without.

Our staff understands that to survive as an independent facility, we must use service and patient care as differentiators. If patients are looking for pricing transparency, we are going to provide it. By showing patients what we are actually charging them, the payment process will be more seamless, leading to improved collections.

Unfortunately, if passed, the law will require offices to post their fee schedule, which is the highest amount a patient could pay. A radiology facility’s fee schedule is comparable to a suggested retail price in business. The cash-pay price is typically less than the fee schedule. However, in healthcare, insurance companies and government agencies develop their own contracted rates as a percentage of the practice’s fee schedule. 

A patient considering the price for an MRI would have a difficult time understanding how he or she would be charged without having the knowledge of a medical billing professional. The patient hears, “We’re charging $500 for this exam, because we have to send a fraction of it here and a fraction of it there and then split it in half again.” Transparency requires a patient to understand the fee schedule, which means that the rule could end up being more of an inconvenience for practices without benefitting the patient population, and we are aiming to please our customer—the patient.

We want our patients to understand that they have choices when it comes to their care, so that when they choose us, they have confidence in our quality of service and in the amount they will pay, in the same way they have confidence in their go-to favorite sandwich.

Jayson A. Lord, MD, is one of the three on-site board-certified radiologists who own Advanced Imaging Centers in central Florida.


As seen in the March 2012 Edition of Health Imaging Magazine and online.