Category: Grow Your Practice Podcast

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) offers physical therapists a new revenue stream and new ways to provide an improved patient experience.

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring for Physical Therapy

The healthcare system is evolving to offer more services virtually, and that extends to physical therapy. The 2023 updated Medicare rules from the  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) include changes that expand Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) treatment options. 

Recently on the Grow Your Practice Podcast, Chad Madden interviewed Practice Manager Brad Saunders about his experience rolling out Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) in his practice. Watch the episode to learn the details of Brad’s experience with RTM:

Most of the recent changes in CMS guidelines (including a 4.4% reimbursement cut) are largely viewed as detrimental to physical therapists. However, the addition of Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) codes offers positive opportunities for physical therapists to add new revenue streams and improve the patient experience. Yet it is still relatively new, and practice owners are looking to understand how to adapt their practice to offer RTM services. 

Continue reading to learn:

  • What is Remote Therapeutic Monitoring?
  • What RTM codes can physical therapists use?
  • The benefits of offering RTM services 
  • One practice manager’s experience rolling out RTM across 10 practice locations
  • 7 steps for rolling out Remote Therapeutic Monitoring in your clinic 

What is Remote Therapeutic Monitoring?

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring is a way to contact, communicate, and monitor patients remotely outside of the clinic setting. It typically leverages the use of medical devices, apps, or online tools to monitor a patient’s progress using on-physiological data. RTM supplements in-person visits with follow-up conducted remotely via phone call or two-way audio-visual communication. 

It has become popular since updates to CMS guidelines have made it an affordable offering to patients that reimburses therapists well. There are a variety of vendors and startups that offer apps, online tracking and other ways to communicate with and monitor patients remotely.

Imagine one of your patients has a home exercise program to treat back pain— they document and track their progress through your RTM app. One day they report increased pain. You can provide feedback remotely on adjusting the exercises to meet that particular need.

Everything is transparent between you and the patient. You log the days and times you interact with the patient. At the end of the month, you can bill out the care they received.

Not only does this provide more revenue and growth to your clinic, but it also provides increased flexibility and treatment options for your patients. 

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) Codes for Physical Therapists

According to a recent webinar where the CEO of Billing & Clinical Management Services shared 2023 Medicare changes, these RTM codes are payable for 2023:

  • 98980 Qualified Healthcare Provider (QHP) interactive session 1st 20’; billed at
    the end of the calendar month
  • 98981 QHP interactive session each additional 20’; billed at the end of the
    calendar month
  • 98975 Initial set-up and patient education
  • 98976 Device/supply-monitoring &/or alerts every 30 days Respiratory System
  • 98977 Device/supply-monitoring &/or alerts every 30 days Musculoskeletal
    System

Important things to know about each code include:

  • Codes 98980-98981 cannot be billed for services < 20 minutes
  • Codes 98975, 98976 and 98977 can only be billed if the device used is
    defined by the FDA as medical device; it does not require specific FDA
    approval
  • Codes 98975, 98976, and 98977 will not be paid unless monitoring is ≥ 16
    days
  • PTA/OTA Payment Differential applies only to 98975, 98980, & 98981
    All therapy licensees may provide RTM services, but CMS did not stipulate the
    supervision level for assistants

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) Benefits 

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring offers all parties new opportunities and options. The key incentive for therapists is the ability to create a new revenue stream to augment your existing services. Other benefits include:

1. Create new revenue streams

RTM codes give you more services you can get paid to treat through Medicare and other payers. As Medicare cuts continue, RTM offers an important measure you can take to retain and grow revenue.

Additionally, therapists can see more patients when they meet with some remotely. 

2. Create flexible options

Remote therapeutic monitoring was initially created largely in response to the pandemic. When patients can meet virtually, the risk of spreading disease goes down. But there are other benefits to meeting remotely besides disease prevention.

Patients are busy. They work, travel, or don’t like driving to the clinic more than they have to. Remote Therapeutic Monitoring gives them more control over how they receive care.

Perhaps a patient decides to vacation for a few weeks. Or, a patient works so many hours and wants to spend their little free time at home. Now they can receive care remotely.

Flexible options open up more opportunities for patients and for therapists. This flexibility becomes a value add for your clinic that makes you more attractive to prospective patients.

3. Offer enhanced care

With RTM, patients feel a sense of security, and closeness with your care, improving the therapeutic experience. That’s because you can offer real-time responses to any questions or issues that arise. So even though you’re communicating remotely, you can provide more consistent care. 

Physical therapists can use the data collected to give them your best care and direction. For example, as they adjust exercises after communicating with a therapist on an app, they can experience progress faster.

4. Strengthen accountability

If patients aren’t motivated to heal, it will be impossible to see improvement. That’s why a therapist needs to encourage their patients and uplift them as they work to reach their goals.

RTM offers accountability. Physical therapists and patients have clear data that tracks exercises and follow-through.

5. Increase billable hours

Since a good RTM app or software can track and log hours, clinics can bill for more time spent on care outside of the clinic. With remote care, therapists are not limited to time and location compared to a physical location.

Physical therapists can provide documentation and transparent information on the care they provide.

6. Offer more affordable options

Not everyone can afford the amount of care they prefer. However, patients can now overcome many of these barriers, whether it’s an insurance limitation, financial, or an issue of time. 

RTM offers affordable and convenient options for patients. Therapists can increase accessibility, offering more care to more patients. As a result, they open their clinic to more billable hours and impact the community.

One Practice Manager’s Experience with Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM)

When Brad decided to implement Remote Therapeutic Monitoring this year, at first he didn’t where how to start. It was fairly new, but he knew he wanted to do it after CMS guideline changes.

He said, “…we started in the springtime to investigate some different options… [for] an interactive communication with the patient after they leave the clinic.”

He led the charge to beta test 3 companies for RTM. Two were through an app and one was an online tool. An important factor he was looking for was ease of access for the therapist, to avoid overburdening staff.

With 90 team members across ten sites, he knew this would be a significant shift for everyone. He wanted to be able to offer RTM without making it taxing on the the therapists. He knew the benefits would outweigh the initial transition if he could find the right tools.

One option he found compelling had a special wearable device for patients that can track exercises and movements. But with associated costs, time, and logistics that come with a unique device, he shifted to something that fits his practice better.

Brad hired a licensed clinician remotely to support RTM service calls and two-way visual audio communication through the app. She ensures patients are compliant and she reports back to the clinic.

Since then, he has rolled it out to all 10 of his practice locations. A majority of patients, about seven out of ten, now utilize RTM care. It brings more clinic revenue, an improved patient experience, and helps grow the practice.

Through small steps, Brad and his team have used RTM to provide the physical therapy of tomorrow.

7 Steps for Rolling Out Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) in Your Clinic

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring is in an early stage within our field. However, if you adopt it now, you’ll gain a first-mover advantage and be able to increase revenue while providing more care and options to your patients.

That being said, rolling out RTM requires some creativity and research. Here are 6 steps to take to roll out Remote Therapeutic Monitoring in your practice.

1. Collect info from your staff and patients

As you’re researching RTM technology options, work with your staff to identify the criteria that will work best for your team. Ask questions, such as: Should you communicate on one app? What should you track? How often should you communicate, and with what boundaries? Write down a list of these questions and answers to identify the right app when it’s time to look.

Research what your patients need. What are their most common concerns? What is the popular positive and negative feedback you receive for the clinic? Develop an RTM program that can address these gaps. 

2. Is the program user-friendly?

Ensure you pick something your patients can navigate easily and get started without a steep learning curve.

The app should also be enjoyable to use. If there’s a lot of friction involved, users won’t spend too much time on it and will avoid using it again.

3. What languages do your patients speak?

RTM is a valuable care to add to your clinic because it provides therapy to more people. Whether it’s because of cost or time restraints, patients can choose your practice because it fits their needs.

If your RTM only serves those who speak English, you can’t help others who speak another popular language in your region.

If there are two contenders and one app offers other languages, you can care for more of your patients.

4. Do you need special devices?

Can the patients download it on their phones? If they can, is it available on most phones? Research and pick the app that provides service to most patients.

Phone apps offer many advantages, like using already-existing wearables. Imagine if your patients could use their smartwatches or phones to track the needed data.

If you choose a particular wearable, consider the additional costs and management. If your clinic decides to purchase devices, it also involves patients returning them on time if they’ve ended their care.

5. How will you make it transparent?

Since RTM is part of your care and, therefore, part of billing, everything should be documented and trackable. 

Great RTM software gives you the tools to document your care. When patients see the record, they can reference interactions. You can provide a more positive experience when patients visit a tangible logbook of what you’ve provided.

6. How does it fit with your billing?

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring is another revenue source that can grow your practice. Analyze your current organizational model, like how you bill and your primary sources of revenue.

Then, find the best pricing structure for your RTM. Ensure you review insurance requirements and consult your billing company for the best strategy.

Afterward, pick a few apps that fit your model. Ask for demos and test each app out. Be very specific and ask any questions or scenarios that come to mind. It’s the best way to get a feel for the apps before you commit.

7. Market your new RTM services

Once you implement RTM, you’ll want to spread the word to drive patient visits.

Adding new services is a great way to increase patient visits. Run marketing campaigns that promote your new services to past, present, and prospective patients. 

The Growth Advantage

Those who adopt new technologies will always be at the forefront of innovation. When a clinic leads the charge, they reap the rewards. Patients spread the word about your care. And through word-of-mouth, you can grow in your region.

Not only can your practice thrive because of high satisfaction, but also from additional revenue streams. Remote Therapeutic Monitoring is an exciting method of care that benefits everyone.

Summary

RTM monitors non-physiological data as therapists communicate with and monitor patients outside of the clinic.

The care offers many benefits, like more billable hours, remote team possibilities, better data to provide the best care, and increased patient visits. Physical therapists have more information to provide real-time guidance to their patients. And their patients benefit from direct access to their clinic from the comfort of their homes.

As clinics pursue Remote Therapeutic Monitoring, they can research the best apps and find one that fits their needs.

Once you launch RTM, use a patient demand system to easily market your new services.

Want to start generating consistent patient visits today? Learn how Breakthrough’s Patient Demand System makes physical therapy marketing easy.

Schedule a demo

 

Dr. Dan Sullivan explains why uncovering your own personal story is the key to chiropractic marketing. Learn how to use storytelling to get better results from your chiropractic marketing efforts.

How to Use Storytelling to Attract Patients

If you’re like most chiropractors, you’re responsible for not only treating patients but also running your own practice. To successfully run a long-standing practice, it’s essential to master chiropractic marketing.

Whether you marketing your practice through Instagram, TikTok, Google Ads, email, or Facebook, you must develop a compelling story. Your story is foundational for chiropractic marketing success. A story that connects with your target patients and the problems they’re trying to solve.

In a recent podcast episode, Chad Madden spoke with a master of chiropractic marketing, Dr. Dan Sullivan, aka the Chiropractic Advocate.

In this article, you’ll learn how to craft your story to achieve better results from your chiropractic marketing efforts.

Why Storytelling is the Key to Chiropractic Marketing

“Story is everything,” Sullivan said. “[We] have MRI studies that show how impactful the story is. It connects you with me and me with you differently than facts or information.” That’s why storytelling is a core competency for chiropractic marketing.

“As a professional, as a licensed clinician, to be able to walk into a room and build a level of trust — it’s not only possible, it’s necessary,” he asserted.

Sullivan’s recommendations are based on two years he spent learning from pre-eminent neurologists.

“The thing that separated the good from the great is — across the board — because you feel understood by them,” Sullivan concluded. “And the greatest way to do that is with the power of the story.”

Pro Tip: You can do chiropractic marketing well even if you’re an introvert. “If you’re an introvert and you use extroverted sales strategies, you’re going to exhaust yourself,” he explains. “You’ve been taught that the only way you can ‘sell’ is by coercing somebody. But when you become yourself and you nail your story,” you communicate with data, facts, logic, and information that persuades.

7 Steps for Using Storytelling to Market Your Chiropractic Clinic

A good story fuels your practice’s chiropractic marketing.

“Everyone’s got a story,” Sullivan said. “We’re all unique as clinicians.” And that’s the secret sauce to growing your practice just like it was for him. “The needle-mover was being myself and telling my story.”

Here’s how to develop your story and leverage it in your chiropractic marketing.

1. Find the Elements of Your Story

“Here’s the crazy part about a story,” Sullivan said, “It’s not about the external event. “The story is about the internal event. The attractiveness of your story is not what happened in it, it’s who you became because of it. The very reason why you’re doing what you’re doing is because of your journey.”

The best journeys feature obstacles the storyteller has to overcome. “If there’s no conflict, there’s no story,” Sullivan said. He cited research from McMaster University that shows that we process stories in our brain’s “theory-of-the-mind” network, which is stimulated by the storyteller’s intentions and motivations, beliefs, feelings and actions.

Sullivan developed the Impact Story Formula to help you pinpoint the elements of your story. There are 4 parts to the Impact Story Formula:

  • Your upbringing: where you come from and how you are just like your prospect
  • Your test: A point in your life that you encountered conflict or challenges that help you to relate better to your prospect
  • Your search: How you addressed that conflict or challenge, including your feelings, doubts and the breakthrough that brought you to where you are now
  • Your triumph: When and how you accomplished and overcame your test

Learn more in his book, The Trust Formula.

2. Uncover Your Unique Selling Proposition

By constructing your story, you identify what sets your practice apart from others. This is your unique selling proposition (USP) — the aspects of you and your practice that are yours alone. No one else can sell to those.

A well-structured story contextualizes your USP. “It gets somebody to be like, ‘Wow, I see why you’re so passionate about this, and you’re different than anybody else I’ve been to’,” Sullivan said.

3. Relate to Your Audience

Knowing even a little bit about who you’re talking to — whether that’s educated guesses or information from your intake form or their medical history — helps you connect with them.

“Simon Sinek, in his book, Start with Why, says it’s not about doing business with people who need what you have,” Sullivan continued. “He says about doing business with the people that believe what you believe, and the only way that you would know that as they know your why. How would they know your whys? You tell your story! You can essentially make anybody sitting across from you feel heard and feel understood.” And when prospects feel that connection, they’re more likely to want to work with you.

4. Attract Your Ideal Patients and Repel the Rest

A strong story that reflects your journey and your values appeals to your ideal patient and won’t resonate with the others.

“You repel the people who just love their drugs and want to go do that,” Sullivan says, because they know that’s not how you practice. Meanwhile, the people who are ready to pay and commit to going long-term are compelled to work with you and are more likely to comply with your treatment recommendations.

5. Speak to the Negative

Getting attention in an information-saturated market can be tough. “If you’re going to create something that’s going to cold traffic, speak to the negative because the majority [or our mindset] is already negative,” he explained, citing research that the average human’s daily thoughts are 80% negative.

For example, you might share a short blog post or video on “The 3 Things You Absolutely Never Want to Even Think About Doing if You Have Sciatica.”

6. Create and Distribute Educational Content

Storytelling is effective fodder for engaging your audience with educational content. Here are some examples of effective chiropractic marketing strategies that leverage content:

  • Lead magnets: Engage prospects with a relevant and useful product, service or piece of content that can be consumed in 5 to 10 minutes that requires them to share contact information.
  • Videos: Show what you know with short videos sharing stretches/exercises or advice for current and prospective patients.
  • Workshops: Establish yourself as a trusted expert, connect with attendees and motivate patients to take the next step.
  • Paid advertising: Reach people where they are with targeted advertising on Google and YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, or TikTok
  • Organic social: Share your story on channels you control and use lead magnets and other content to establish a reputation and build a loyal following that shares your content.
  • Email and text marketing: Reach out to prospects and current and past patients with relevant educational information like case studies, trends you’re seeing in your practice, advice and tips to stay connected and keep your practice on their minds.

7. Manage Your Chiropractic Marketing in One Place

Patient Demand software is a unique tool that enables chiropractors to perform email, text, and advertising campaigns that attract leads, convert patients, and deliver measurable results. All in one, easy-to-use platform.

Learn how Patient Demand can streamline chiropractic marketing for your practice. Schedule a demo today. 

The Remarkable Practice with Dr. Stephen Franson: How to run a successful chiropractic business and lead a great life at the same time.

How to Run a Profitable Chiropractic Business (And Still Have a Life)

In a recent episode of the Grow Your Practice Podcast, Breakthrough co-founder Chad Madden sat down with Dr. Stephen Franson, a chiropractic business coach, author of “The Remarkable Practice: The Definitive Guide to Building a Thriving Chiropractic Business,” and host of The Remarkable CEO for Chiropractors podcast. 

They discussed how to run a successful practice and live a great life.

Most chiropractors who launch their own practice do so to have more control, autonomy, and flexibility. But between caring for patients and ensuring a consistent flow of patients in the door, it’s not uncommon, several years in, to find yourself overwhelmed.  There may be little time or energy left over to spend with your family, friends, or yourself. 

Franson says having a remarkable practice and a remarkable life is possible. But you must get clear on what you do and why you do it. He also explores marketing and staffing strategies to grow your practice. The final nuggets of wisdom he shares are 5 counterintuitive opportunities you can take advantage of during economic uncertainty. 

The Remarkable Practice Encourages You to Strive for Alignment Instead of Work-Life Balance

As a chiropractor practice owner, undoubtedly one of your most significant challenges is having enough time. Your days are devoted to caring for your patients, but you must also find the time to market and grow your business. And without much time left over, you end up sacrificing quality time with your family or your physical, mental, and emotional health. 

“You should be building the business that will support your remarkable life and not compete with it,” Franson said. 

Although most business owners are constantly looking to strike a work-life balance, there will be seasons when that’s simply not possible, so a better goal is to achieve alignment between your:

  • Core values: what’s most important to you
  • Vision story: what success looks like to you
  • Behaviors: how you choose to invest your limited resources which include time, energy, focus, and money. 

Take the time to consider your personal core values, vision story, and the behaviors you aim for. Once you’ve assessed these, you can  ask these two questions of yourself and/or your family: do you think it’s worth it? And are you with me?

“When you can do that as a human, as a couple, or as a family, that’s where success lives,” Franson said. 

These Alignment exercises will help you develop a Mindset that allows you to recommit yourself to what’s most important to you, and cut activities or behaviors that may be limiting you or taking up too much time. 


The Remarkable Practice: Build the Right Team

One of the key aspects Franson touches on in his book, The Remarkable Practice, is about how to reclaim your time by building the right team. Likely, there are activities you’re doing today that could be delegated to someone else. This would allow you to focus your time on treating patients and growing your practice. 

Instead of striving to know and do everything in your business, you should focus on building a team that can do it for you. 

The best team-building formula is about getting the right people. In the right seats. Doing the right work. In the right way:

Right people: Those who share your core values and buy into your vision story about what success looks like

Right seats: An understanding of the roles, as well as the experience, expertise, and talent each requires 

Right work: Using tools that measure your team’s success such as a scorecard method with key performance indicators (KPIs) 

Right way: An investment in staff training and development

“This formula will give you the highest ROI of your limited resources,” Franson said.

The Remarkable Practice: Get Clear on Your Messaging

There’s no shortage of people who are sick or injured and will need your services. “In fact, at any given time, approximately 20% of people in your community will be actively looking for a solution to their problem,” Franson said.

The question is, are you cutting through the noise and reaching your ideal client? 

Before starting any lead generation program, it’s important to understand that the purpose of your business is to solve problems for patients. Then, you must get clear on your brand messaging so that all of your marketing has the right message and the right offer at the right time.

It’s critical to understand:

  • The problems you solve
  • What problems you LOVE to solve 
  • The type of people you want to attract to your business
  • Those people who aren’t the right fit

“You can’t be everything to everyone,” Franson said. You actually want to repel those who aren’t your ideal patient, so that you can serve more of those who are.

The Remarkable Practice: Center Your Marketing Around Your Unique Success Proposition

Once you’re clear on your messaging and your market promise, part of the promise should be focused on a unique success proposition. A unique success proposition paints a picture for your target prospect of the life they could have should they choose to work with you. 

Additionally, you need to have a way to set SMART goals for what you’re trying to accomplish through marketing. SMART goals require you to be able to track, measure, and objectively quantify your outcomes. 

You can segment your marketing initiatives, budgets, and metrics into internal, external, and digital. Internal marketing is leveraging existing patients to get referrals. External marketing is made up of marketing activities that are outside of your practice that are not web-based, such as partner workshops, networking, signage, and direct mail. Digital marketing is made up of your web-based marketing activities, such as your website, email marketing, online advertising, and social media. 

As part of your hiring strategy, you can determine if you need a marketing manager, or a marketing partner, or can delegate marketing responsibilities to your front desk. 


Employ these 5 Counterintuitive Opportunities to Combat Economic Uncertainty

With a 40-year high in inflation rates and fears of a looming recession, comes increased staff and supply costs along with uncertainty around patient demand.

Yet fortunes can be made in an economic downturn and Dr. Franson presents  several counterintuitive opportunities:

  1. Audit your brand positioning in the marketplace: Does your community know you exist, who you are, what you do, and why you do it?
  2. Ramp up your marketing: Many practices will reduce their marketing spend during challenging economic times. This is the exact OPPOSITE of what you should be doing. When visits slow, you need to ramp marketing up, not down. The fact that competitors are making this mistake presents a great opportunity for your practice to stand out, particularly with digital marketing. With fewer competitors, you can spend less than normal and achieve greater results.
  3. Hire the right team: Rather than laying off staff in an attempt to control payroll, work “above” your business. Take a three-year view and let all decisions be driven by it, which includes building a great team. 
  4. Increase your prices: Instead of reducing the cost of services, focus on value. Identify what the market will pay, and increase your prices. Most practice owners undervalue their services and don’t realize how much patients are willing to pay. Don’t make this mistake — especially during inflationary times.
  5. Build an enterprise: For owners that are highly entrepreneurial and have a high risk tolerance, uncertain economic climates may be the perfect time to consider acquisition. 

Having a remarkable practice and life at the same time is possible, but it requires a mindset shift, planning, and some key strategies. 

A patient demand platform is the simple, repeatable way to consistently grow your practice by attracting leads, converting patients, and measuring success.

Request a free consultation today.

Marketing tips for physical therapists and chiropractors from the Evidence Based Chiropractor on the Grow Your Practice Podcast.

How to Grow Revenue and Help More People in Your Community

In a recent episode of the Grow Your Practice Podcast, chiropractic marketer Dr. Jeff Langmaid shares his top marketing tips for chiropractors. 

Known as the “Evidence Based Chiropractor,” Jeff is devoted to increasing chiropractic utilization. His great-grandfather was a chiropractor who studied under BJ Palmer nearly 100 years ago. His goal is to continue that legacy as a chiropractor himself and by highlighting the power of chiropractic adjustment through research and marketing. He believes it’s time for conservative care practitioners of all types to step up and create a healthier world by scaling their unique healthcare professions. 

Chad and Jeff discussed the top marketing tips for chiropractors. Some of Jeff’s key principles are to start with your patient database, lead with educational content, and create monthly recurring revenue. By implementing these practices, owners of chiropractic clinics and integrated wellness centers can improve profitability and generate consistent visits. 

Why should practice owners care about marketing? 

Dr. Jeff shared an unfortunate approach that he sees many clinicians make. He labels it the “journey of professional indifference.” 

Every day in your community, there are people undergoing unnecessary surgeries, taking unnecessary medications, and receiving unnecessary injections that affect them and their families for the rest of their lives. Opioid addictions are by far the worst they have ever been, largely due to doctors overprescribing opioid painkillers after surgery. 

The “journey of professional indifference” describes the approach where a practice owner passively waits for patients to come to them. These patients may have already undergone surgery or another intervention. They could have been referred by their physician or found you as a last hope. 

Whether you’re a PT, OT, or DC you are an integral part of a patient’s journey. You have the ability to get in earlier in a patient’s journey and help them take their health into their own hands. So they can avoid the fate that so many people in your community fall into. 

“If you care about the health of the people in your community, you need to get out there and tell your story,” Langmaid said. “You have to be proactively answering the questions people have about their health. The more you can build trust and rapport, the more you can help people in your community avoid the fate that so many have fallen into.” 

So you want to help more patients. Where to start? 

Dr. Jeff and Chad both recommend that you always start with your warmest audience. These are the people you have already seen. People who likely already know, like, and trust you. Reach out to your existing or past patient database. Email them consistently to let them know you’re around. 

Share educational content in your emails and invite them to something to learn more. A webinar, a workshop, or an appointment. Avoid using jargon or overly medical terms. For instance, if you’re writing an email to educate about radiculopathy, use terms like ‘how to tell if your arm pain is coming from your neck’ instead of the actual term ‘radiculopathy.’ Use patient-centric language and offer something of value. Then invite them to come in if they’re still not seeing relief. 

The key is to engage with your patient database consistently. Being consistent is what most practices struggle with most. Patient Demand software can help you automate this process, enabling you to choose from hundreds of pre-written and customizable campaigns. 

Top 3 Marketing Tips for Chiropractors 

When it comes to getting started with marketing, the lowest-hanging fruit is marketing to your past and existing patients. But that’s not where your marketing should end. To reach a broader audience and help more people in your community, you eventually need to create demand beyond your existing list. 

Here are the top 3 marketing tips for practice owners:

1. Lead with Patient Education: Teach and Invite

Jeff’s core philosophy is to teach and invite consistently. If you show up and teach, engage, entertain, and then invite – and you do that consistently – then you’re going to see success. Lead with educational content, then invite them to something: Say give us a call, hop on the schedule, join the webinar, or come to a workshop. 

This methodology applies to all audiences: past patients, existing patients, and cold traffic (people who haven’t interacted with you before). As practice owners, we often have this resistance to sales and marketing. We think we’re going to provide high quality-of-care and evidence-based practice, then just grow by word-of-mouth referral. But we need to be getting out there and educating, building marketing systems, teaching, and inviting. The reality is that marketing is just educating people in your community and showing them how you can help solve their health problems. 

Most people equate marketing with paid marketing and discount advertising. That’s just a small piece. The majority of your marketing should lead with education.

2. Avoid Discount Advertising

Tens of thousands of providers are offering deep discount advertising on a regular basis. This is not a cost-effective marketing strategy. Why? Most often, patients that come in because they saw an ad for a discounted service are not the people that are going to stay, pay, and refer. They are deal shoppers. And what do deal shoppers do? They shop for deals! So when they take advantage of that offer, you’re going to notice that there’s a small percentage of them that actually stick around. You’re going to get dramatically fewer visits from someone who comes in from discount advertising compared to someone who comes in through educational content. In most cases, Jeff recommends sticking to the teach-and-invite methodology over discount advertising.

When IS it okay to offer discount advertising? If you’re doing it to keep your doors open in the short term, that may be appropriate for you. Or, if you’re already doing everything else right, and you want to sprinkle on some discount advertising, that’s fine. But Jeff recommends first leveraging free or lower-cost options. This includes marketing to past and existing patients, teaching and inviting, and leveraging retargeted online advertising. 

3. Create Monthly Recurring Revenue

There are ways to create monthly recurring revenue and this is a great way to diversify your income stream. You can make your practice more durable and less vulnerable. The goal is here to create monthly recurring revenue that meets your minimum viable monthly expenses each month. If you can have recurring revenue that meets your expenses, working in your practice becomes a lot more fun and way less stressful. 

This does not mean changing your business model or giving up patient care. This is about diversifying income streams, reducing stress and increasing revenue in a patient-centric way. Dr. Jeff and his business partner Jason identified three primary ways that most clinicians can implement this in a way that makes sense:

  • Provide ongoing services

    This can look like a monthly movement assessment, a monthly check-in, or any type of maintenance care that makes sense for you. After your patients complete their plan of care, have them check in with you once a month. A majority of the time this is warranted and is not overtreating. Your patients come in because they have a problem and they come back for accountability. It’s better for the patient and better for you. Many of us have movement-based facilities that can be leveraged for a monthly check-in, but most of us don’t do it. A monthly check-in is a great way to increase patient visits and create monthly recurring revenue.

  • Open an e-commerce store

    Sell items that supplement your services. Supplements are a great example of what you can sell in an online store. We know that between 50 to 70% of people going to conservative care providers take supplements each and every day, whether it’s a multivitamin, Vitamin D, Omegas, etc. Other options could include exercise props, therapeutic heating/cooling devices, and ergonomic products for sleep or work as examples. The key here is to create auto-recurring revenue to have an online store that drop-ships direct to your patient. This way, you don’t need to have the inventory and utilize space in your clinic. Better for the patient, better for you.

  • Offer online coaching

    This could look like anything from telehealth all the way up to lifestyle coaching. For many providers, this may feel like very new territory, but there’s an avenue there to create monthly revenue by providing value on an ongoing basis. This can be leveraged at scale online. You can create courses that can be sold online without actually requiring significant amounts of your time on an ongoing basis.

Summarized Marketing Tips for Chiropractors

Practice owners wanting to grow revenue and help more people in their community can start by: 

  1. Consistently engaging your past and existing patient database. Lead with patient education. Teach and invite. 
  2. Avoid overusing discounts in your online advertising. 
  3. Come up with a strategy to create monthly recurring revenue. 

Would you like to be able to automatically create educational campaigns for your patients and community, without much effort? Patient Demand software can help. 

See How It Works. 

 

What to know about the No Surprises Act and Good Faith Estimates. How to prepare for medical audits.

No Surprises Act, Good Faith Estimates, And How to Prepare for Audits

In a recent podcast episode, Breakthrough Founder Chad Madden, MSPT speaks with Mary Daulong, PT, CHC, CHP, President at Business & Clinical Management Services, Inc. (BCMS). Chad and Mary discuss what you need to know about the “No Surprises Act” and Good Faith Estimates. Mary and her team have worked hard on providing resources to help PT practice owners comply and thrive in the new regulatory landscape. 

Who is Mary Daulong?

Chad: Mary is the Queen of Compliance. She has more than four decades of private physical therapy practice experience. And I want to compliment and thank you for keeping us legal, compliant, and ethical.

Today, we’re talking about the “No Surprises Act,” which became effective as of January 1st, 2022. It’s being discussed in all of the online group forums at essentially every physical therapy or healthcare provider website that I’m on. There’s a lot of confusion about this new legislation amongst owners. Can you give us a summary of what it is?

Part 1 of No Surprises Act: Disclose Out-of-Network Charges at In-Network Care Facilities

Mary: Well, the “No Surprises Act” was a surprise, right? When it was first contemplated, it really was to protect patients from having “surprise” bills. Say they went to an in-network hospital for surgery, but there was an assistant surgeon or maybe an anesthesiologist there who wasn’t in-network. And as a result —surprise — the patient gets billed at out-of-network rates. That’s what part one of the “No Surprises Act” addresses, and I’m in favor of that. But it has kind of ballooned from there.

Part 2 of No Surprises Act: Application to Private Physical Therapy Practices

Mary: The idea in itself is good, but the dispute resolution system really doesn’t lean towards the provider. So if the patient complains about the bill in this process then you have arbitration, where someone decides what the fair amount is that the patient should pay. And that doesn’t always turn out to be favorable for the provider, as you might guess. Also, we have a lot of PTs who are out-of-network because they accept cash, and we don’t have any clarification about whether this will implicate them, but it could.

On “Good Faith Estimates”

Mary: This is the part where we’re all pulling our hair out and saying, you gotta be kidding me. Recently, I got a text from one of my dear clients that said, “I’m just going to sell my practice. I provide the services, I do the billing, I do all the administrative tasks. I can’t add this to my things to do.” And we’re hearing this all over. People are very frustrated. 

So, what does it mean? Basically, therapists have to tell patients who are uninsured—as well as those who are insured but choose to self-pay—what our best estimate is for how much the service is going to cost. And because we have repeat services, that makes it very, very complicated.

How to Make this Information Public

Mary: One thing we do know absolutely for sure is that we have to post a notice with all the information about good-faith estimates, timelines, and dispute resolutions. And that’s the easiest thing we have to do. The notice needs to be posted in your clinic in a prominent area, where a patient would be likely to see it. It needs to be posted in areas where you collect for services rendered or do billing. And it needs to be posted on your website. (CMS provides a standard form for good-faith estimates here and details on what should be included in the notice here.)

Chad: What exactly does the notice need to say? 

Mary: The notice is for people who are uninsured or who were not using their insurance—with the exception of federal payers. It basically says that we’re required to tell them what the services for episodic care are expected to cost. I’d suggest basing it on a plan-of-care period, because you might change things at that point. And you can certainly charge them less than that. But you have to tell them that if the estimate is exceeded by $400, they have a right to dispute it. And you have to tell them how to dispute it, and who to contact. So it’s a simple notice; that’s the most clear thing. What becomes unclear is it doesn’t apply to patients who have benefits with federal payouts.

So as healthcare providers, we have to post this notice in all our clinics. It should be in the waiting rooms with licenses or certificates of occupancy or something like that, in prominent display. If you’re an owner and you don’t have it, you can contact BCMS for a template. Medicare also has a template on its website. So you can go to cms.gov and they have a “No Surprises Act” webpage and their own template as well. Number one on everybody’s checklist is we have to get that done.

How to Train Your Staff on the No Surprises Act

Chad: The next thing is that we really have to train our staff, especially reception. If somebody asks how much this is going to cost, we have to be able to tell them.  Regardless of whether they’re in-network or out-of-network. Is that true?

Mary: That’s right. First, we ask if they’d like to file insurance. If not, we’re required by federal law to give them a good faith estimate for the services that we would render for this condition.

Chad: At my practice, we’ve been doing cash pay. I’m guessing our rate is exactly $100. It might be $104. And we’ve always said, $100 per visit. Is that sufficient? Or do I need to say, you’re coming in for an ankle sprain, and that’s likely going to be six visits, so $600. Or: you’re coming in for a whiplash injury or something like that, and that’s going to be 16 visits, so that’s $1600.

Mary: Right. They created “required elements” for the good faith estimate form. So what you have to do is tell them how much it’s going to cost. If you’re flat-fee, or if you do fee-for-service, or whatever, you’re going to have to make sure your estimate gives you enough latitude to not go over by $400. On the form we have, it will give you some options. The thing is, you have to identify what you’re doing. This is the hidden consequence that we’re going to have to deal with. For years, we’ve tried to discourage third-party administrators and payers from saying they’re going to authorize X number of visits or X number of CPT codes. Are we supposed to always have a crystal ball to know exactly how we’re going to treat them? We don’t, so that’s problematic for sure.

Good Faith Estimates Should Mirror Your Plan of Care

Regardless of how you’ve set up your estimate, you’ll have to do some prognosticating about what you’re going to need from the patient. So the more inclusive you are, the better. But the important thing is that the good faith estimate really mirrors your plan of care. If they’re going different directions, that’s a problem. And if you decide the patient isn’t responding well, and you want to change things dramatically, then you have to go back. But if you’re under your estimate, that’s not a problem.

When you evaluate somebody, that’s when you determine how you’re going to treat them. So it necessitates two good faith estimates. There’s one for the evaluation, and then you have to create another one because you have to give it to them in advance of treatment. Now, is there a consequence for not giving it to them in advance? If the patient says, “I want to be treated right now,” then it shouldn’t be a problem. Also, we don’t know yet what the penalties are because they’re not anywhere to be found. We don’t know if it’s fines, penalties, or administrative sanctions. But it’s the law, so we have to comply.

Show Intention to Comply

Chad: In your SIPA summary, you mentioned the importance of the intention. As business owners, we need to show that we’re attempting to comply with the law. What do you mean by that?

Mary: Well, there are some providers who totally defy what’s logical. When HHS tells you what should be in the notice and you choose not to include it, that’s pretty purposeful. You have to tell the customers that there’s a dispute resolution if it goes over by $400, and that applying for this costs $25. Those things have to be in the notice, or else you’re not compliant.This is especially for all of those who have been audited or are thinking that they want to protect themselves.

Green Envelopes: What to Do When You Get an Audit

Chad: So let’s switch over to the Supplemental Medical Review Contractor (SMRC) audits. What is that?

Mary: The notice comes in a notorious neon green envelope. Typically, it comes in the middle of an episode of care. It’s not uncommon for auditors to request one day to service records, maybe 30 or 40 charts. We’ve been flooded with people asking what to do for their initial evaluation.

Chad: Got it. So I get one of these fluorescent green envelopes in the mail. What should I do?

Mary: First, pull up all the resources in the SMRC packet. It tells you exactly what to do. We have one that says how to respond to a payer’s request for records. It’s quite lengthy, but it has some graphics, so it’s not terrible reading. Do not throw the envelope away. Read the letter, then read the letter again. Look at who’s sending it to you. Go through the SMRC packet step-by-step. You want your submission to be organized, legible, and easy to follow.

At BCMS, we produced a template for a table of contents. We have a template cover letter and a form for identifying the billing personnel they asked for. We also have provided some clips from the Medicare benefit policy manual that says we don’t have to have long-term goals. If you need further support, you can email Alicia at [email protected]

Chad: Mary, Alicia, and the BCMS team have put together other training sessions for you that are highly recommended on billing and coding, and also on documentation. So if you’re looking for any of the resources that we’re talking about, you can email Alicia and she can set you up with that. And if you  contact Alicia, they’ll also get the FAQ for the SMRC audits, which is pretty extensive.

What’s Changes Can We Expect in the Future?

One final question for you here. And thank you for extensively reviewing the good faith estimate and also the SMRC audits, because I know a lot of owners are paying attention to those two things right now. Is there anything else in store for us as private practice owners in 2022 that you see coming down the pipe? Is there proposed legislation or anything like that on your radar right now?

Mary: Well, we all know the PTA payment differential is a killer, but I want to tell you, it’s not going away. Sorry if I’m the fun sponge on this, but our colleagues, the nurses, PAs, all of them have been dealing with this for years, if not decades. So it’s going to be very hard for us to say, “hey, this shouldn’t apply to us.” 

So let’s put our endeavors where we’re gonna get the least resistance. Let’s get rid of the plan of care certification. Let’s get general supervision across the board. Then we won’t have problems with somebody signing something that they’re not enrolled in. I’d encourage everyone to look at some of those important things. That’s my little soapbox.

Chad: I appreciate the look into the crystal ball, Mary, and into what’s coming down the pipe for us in the future as private practice owners. Another quick reminder: if you’re looking for any of the resources that Mary mentioned in this episode, you can email Alicia Mahoney, at [email protected]. You can also check out the BCMS website, BCMScomp.com. 

Well, Mary Daulong, Queen of Compliance, thank you very much for being here and helping us as private practice owners.

Looking for more resources to help you manage your practice? Visit Breakthrough’s Resources Hub for free content on marketing, hiring, financing, and more.

PT marketing strategies to fill your new hire's schedule

Conquer hiring fears with PT marketing strategies that create a steady stream of new patients.

As a Private Practice Owner, there are several tell-tale signs when it’s time to hire. 

  • You consistently have a full patient load
  • Or you spend all your time treating and not enough time working on your business
  • You may even have a waitlist (this could mean it is far past time to start!) 

Yet even when the signs are apparent, many practice owners still harbor doubts when it comes time to hire. 

You may wonder if you can attract enough clients to your clinic. Or think that your patients have grown attached to you and your current staff. That they wouldn’t want to be treated by someone new. You may fear the costs of hiring would exceed the increased revenue.  

Many practice owners experience these fears of expanding their business. But there are plenty of successful practice owners who are able to grow, hire, and expand each year. Their secret? Implementing effective systems and repeatable processes to consistently produce a steady stream of new patients. 

In this article, you’ll get a blueprint for how to never run out of patients. The strategies in this article will help you consistently attract patients, scale your business, hire more, and keep growing your practice. 

Once you build a system that works for consistently getting more patients to your clinic, you can hire without fear. You can even open new practices and use the same tactics to grow them.

The State of PT Hiring in 2022

Before diving into PT marketing strategies, let’s look at the hiring landscape for physical therapists now and in the future. 

At the macro level, an aging population and advancements in medicine are helping people live longer. This creates increased demand for physical therapy and other types of conservative care. Physical therapy is also becoming more accessible as more states open up for direct access. 

As a result, The APTQI estimates that the US will need 27.000 new physical therapists by 2025, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2030, there will be a 21% growth in PT job openings. Currently, there are around 13,000 people graduating with a physical therapy degree in the US annually. 

What does this mean for your practice? A couple of things:

  • The demand for physicians will keep growing for the foreseeable future. 
  • Because of increasing demand, the job market will become very competitive (it already is). Finding new hires that fit your needs will get harder.
  • With increased demand, salaries will go up. This means that each clinician you add to your staff is more valuable than they were a year ago.
  • A competitive job market means you’ll have to attract the best clinicians. You’ll face stiff competition by the hospital system.

How to Compete in Today’s Hiring Market

The key here is to make your practice an appealing place for people to work. More patients equals the ability to deliver higher salaries and better benefits. A demonstrable track record of consistent patient demand will show potential hires that they’ll have job security. You also want to be able to paint a clear picture of future growth. This motivates future and current staff members. 

Being able to quickly and consistently attract patients and fill a new hire’s schedule helps make your practice attractive to potential hires. In fact, you should start attracting new patients even before onboarding new staff.

When Should a New Hire Have a Full Schedule?

The timeline for having a full schedule for a new hire depends on various factors, like your practice’s location and popularity. Many successful practices follow a timeline such as this: 

90 days before hiring

If you’re not already at full capacity, this is a good time to implement a patient demand system to create a steady stream of patients for your new hire. A patient demand system includes solutions for marketing across platforms such as online advertising, email automation, and two-way texting.

First 90 days after hiring

Once you’ve hired someone, it usually takes about 90 days to fully onboard a clinician.  This includes getting the PT used to their operations, acquainted with the front office, and taught to deliver the standard of care expected from the clinic. It’s normal to have a new PT work at a lower capacity during this time.

After 90 days on the job

After this first probation period, the new hire should be working at full capacity (or close to it). They should be integrated with the system, and visit as many patients as possible. A great way to structure your staff’s schedules is to have experienced clinicians seeing existing patients and to fill your new hire’s schedule with new patients from cold traffic. 

PT Marketing Strategies for Attracting a Steady Flow of Patients

You have way more control over the client acquisition practice now than in the past. Back in the day, clinics relied on word-of-mouth and referrals to keep their practices working. These tactics are great to keep in the mix, but should not be relied on for all of your business.  

Nowadays, a complete recipe for growth goes beyond referrals and word of mouth. It includes a plethora of channels and tactics for reaching potential customers, including online and offline strategies. 

Typically, growing practices should budget around 10% of revenues for marketing. Marketing includes strategies to engage existing and past patients, such as automated email blasts, two-way texting, and direct mail. It also encompasses advertising (both online and offline) for cold traffic. You can advertise online on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube. A comprehensive direct-to-consumer marketing strategy should also include automated lead management and follow-up to ensure a strong ROI for your ad spend. 

Creating a Successful PT Marketing Campaign: A 5-Step Process

It may feel a little overwhelming at first, but with the right processes and system in place, you can generate a constant influx of patients. You can avoid the dreaded feeling that you are continually reinventing the wheel each month by implementing plug-and-play campaigns that repeat throughout the year. 

  • Step 1: Start by defining your audience. For example, if your clinic serves an older demographic, you’ll want to focus on means of communication favored by older folks. Things like snail mail and phone texts can yield amazing results for you. Conversely, younger audiences are easier to reach with digital marketing.
  • Step 2: Your messaging should be patient-focused. Most of your patients don’t know what latissimus dorsi is, or that they have tendonitis. They know they have pain, and only care about fixing it. And that’s how your marketing messaging should be. Make it patient-focused by using everyday language. 
  • Step 3: Identify the channels you’ll start testing for both cold traffic and past patients. Different media types can be appropriate for different stages of the patient journey. For instance, Facebook and YouTube ads are great for cold traffic. They help educate a large, unaware audience that you have a solution for them. Google is more appropriate for advertising to a more aware audience that is already looking for physical therapy clinics in their area. Email, direct mail, and two-way texting are great tools for engaging past patients. 
  • Step 4: Design a compelling offer. “Attend a workshop on solving back pain.” “Give the gift of a free screening to a friend or family member.” “Schedule an appointment easily online.” These are examples of call-to-actions, or compelling offers, that you can promote in your campaigns. Each campaign should highlight one clear call to action. For cold traffic, workshops are an incredibly powerful offer to promote online. This strategy lets you showcase your clinicians’ expertise on the workshop’s topic. Instead of telling people you can solve their health issues, you get to show them. And you enhance efficiency by driving multiple potential patients into your clinic at once. 
  • Step 5: Measure how your campaigns are doing. Set targets for each of your campaigns, and ways of tracking how they are doing. This is all data that you’ll use in the future to refine your marketing strategies and prove ROI. A patient demand software like Breakthrough will have easy-to-understand reporting and dashboards built-in. 

Patient Demand Systems for Consistent and Predictable Growth

You can’t rely exclusively on referral marketing anymore. If you want your practice to thrive and grow, you must build a system that takes people from being unaware of your services to paying customers. 

In marketing speak, this is called a funnel. Patients are either unaware of your service, aware of it but unsure if it’s the right one for them, or ready to buy. The perfect marketing system gets people from all of these places and gently accompanies them to the bottom of the funnel, which is purchasing a care plan. 

That’s why here at Breakthrough we built an all-in-one platform that does the heavy lifting for you. Its beauty lies in how it sustains itself. It starts by giving you the right tools, like our powerful online advertising tools and done-for-you campaigns to attract clients to your practice. Then, through email automation, two-way texting, and lead management tools, it converts them into paying customers. This process generates lots of data you can then use to optimize your messaging throughout the customer acquisition process and beyond.

Do you want to learn more PT marketing strategies for consistently increasing patient growth? Request a demo today. 

See how our platforms can help you create a self-sustaining marketing system that makes filling a new hire’s schedule easy.

Breakthrough Marketing Technology

Get More Patient Visits and Make Life Easier on Your Staff

Running your own physical therapy practice is extremely rewarding, but also challenging. Caring about patients is only  part of the business. You have to hire the right staff. Build a profitable business. And to do all of that, you have to consistently attract patients. Physical therapy marketing technology can help. 

The name of the game is no longer about physician referrals. Nowadays, people are searching for healthcare services online. It’s the perfect time to establish your online presence and use the power of physical therapy marketing to grow your practice.

Make marketing technology work for you. Leverage automation to improve your processes, so your team can spend less time on activities like following up with leads, and focus more time on delivering the best possible customer experience.

In this article, we are going to see how marketing technology can impact your business, and why you should embrace technology to increase your staff’s efficiency.

Identifying the Right Technology for You

Technology simplified our life, and keeps simplifying it with each passing day. What once took lots of people and inefficient processes can now be automated. Automatic systems aren’t prone to error—unlike humans—and free up people to work on higher value tasks.

You have likely had both good and bad experiences implementing new technologies in your practice. Learning a new system takes effort, and some are overly complex and time-consuming. One good rule-of-thumb for avoiding this problem is to identify technology that is designed specifically with the physical therapy practice in mind. These technologies have the best chance of integrating seamlessly with your existing processes and operations. 

So what can technology do for your practice? 

5 Benefits of Using Marketing Technology in Your Physical Therapy Practice 

There are 5  main benefits to using marketing technology to increase your business’ efficiency:

  1. You attract more patients

Technology simplifies the customer’s decision making process. If I have some sort of pain and I’m unsure if I should bother getting it checked out, the last thing I want to do is call 4 different practices to figure things out.

But if I regularly see educational advertisements from your practice about my condition, then I know to think of your practice when I’m in pain. I will think of you as the authority on the subject, and look up your practice when in need. 

Relying on a single channel—be it referrals or ads—is risky. You never know when it will stop working. But with technology, you’ll build up multiple acquisition channels. 

Make it easy for people to find you and get an appointment, and you’ll notice that your practice will grow on autopilot. 

2) You convert more leads into paying patients

Nobody likes calling a physical therapy practice and finding a busy landline. People are used to setting up appointments online, where they can see a range of available hours. That way, they don’t have to plan their day around the visit but can pick a time that works best for them.

Plus, calling comes with other inefficiencies. Your front-desk operators could make mistakes when writing down customer information, or the call could drop at any moment. These moments are extremely frustrating for all parts, but technology like two-way texting can help you avoid them. A study conducted by Avochato showed that across all generations over two-thirds (69 percent) of respondents would prefer an unfamiliar company to contact them via text rather than a phone call. Research shows that 3 out of 4 consumers actually get frustrated when they can’t text a business back. 

Imagine what could be possible with technology like an automatic messaging system. For example, a patient could call you, find a busy line, and get a text that suggests visiting your site to schedule an appointment. These types of process improvements can go a long way in helping get more patients in the door.  

3. You can centralize lead and customer data

What we’ve seen from businesses all over the country, is that most are quite disorganized. They have customer data scattered through emails, drawers, and Excel sheets. That’s fine when you’re just getting started, but it gets confusing real quick.

This is particularly important in physical therapy marketing because your messaging determines how well your ad campaigns will perform. And it’s impossible to get the messaging right without in-depth knowledge of your customers.

But with technology, you can centralize your data in a single hub. No more wasting time and energy combing through your records to find your customers’ information. With Patient Demand Software, you can see all your leads with actionable guidance on who to follow up with and when. Your front desk will be grateful for this.

4) You gain a better understanding of what’s working and what’s not 

Phone calls and traditional flyers have a huge weakness. They don’t give you any data on their effectiveness. Digital marketing solutions like ads and patient demand platforms solve this issue by giving you ROI intelligence and metrics tracking. Clear insights into marketing and staff performance allow you to ditch the spreadsheets and see the performance of your marketing efforts all in one place. 

5) You improve employee satisfaction and make it easier to hire

Aside from preventing mistakes, your front desk operators have more intellectually stimulating tasks to do. Starting at spreadsheets all day is mind-numbing and time-consuming. It’s also a low-value activity that lowers their productivity. 

Is your front desk spending most of their time on the phone booking appointments? That could easily be improved with technology. 

Use QR codes to get people to book appointments from you. Redirect people to your website when you can have online forms to automate data collection. Automate Insurance eligibility verification.

All of these activities are performed by front desks of inefficient practices. But with a little investment in the right technologies, you can get computers to perform then. This will lift a huge weight off your front desk’s shoulders.

Since these people are the face of your practice, you want them to always be in top shape.

By automating processes, you free up lots of time that your staff can spend on more fruitful activities. They’ll also be more satisfied with their work because you’ll have lifted them from tasks that nobody enjoys doing.

The Big Picture: Why Technology Matters

Implementing a solid physical therapy marketing strategy will make your practice thrive. You’ll be able to open more offices, add more clinicians, and improve your practice value. There is something special about seeing your business grow. 

You’re not only improving your patients’ lives, but you’ll also make your employees’ lives better. Everybody wins.

Technology, if used well, will drastically grow your practice. You can improve your services, attract more people who can benefit from your services, and streamline your processes. But, the key phrase  is “if used well.” You need everyone who works in your practice to understand the advantage of using technology, and must be trained accordingly. 

For physical therapy practices, technology can be looked at as a tool to improve your patients’ lives. If your patients are satisfied, they’ll gladly suggest your clinic to their peers, and become your best marketers.

It’s an investment for the future. Technology will turn your clinic into a sustainable business that grows on autopilot. 

Are you interested in giving your business the boost it deserves? Request a demo today, and see how Patient Demand Software can help you make your practice thrive.

 

Mike Fink on what to look for when hiring an entry-level DPT, and the latest advancements in physical therapy research, including the evolution of manual therapy

Plus, the Latest Advancements in Physical Therapy Research

In a recent podcast episode, Breakthrough Founder Chad Madden, MSPT speaks with Mike Fink — Physical Therapist, CMPT, and Department Chair at Lebanon Valley College. In this conversation, Chad and Mike discuss the latest advancements in physical therapy research, the evolution of manual therapy, and what to look for when hiring an entry-level DPT.

Who is Mike Fink?

Chad: Mike and I have been good friends now for the last 13 years. He is the Department Chair Head of the Physical Therapy Program at Lebanon Valley College here in Central Pennsylvania. We also work together at Madden and Gilbert Physical Therapy. Today we’re going to talk about the latest in physical therapy research, specifically around the evolution of manual therapy. And since Mike teaches DPT students, I’ll ask him about what practice owners should know about hiring entry-level DPTs and what to look for.

But first, can you tell everyone about yourself? I think our audience would find your background in the military really interesting. 

Origins as a Physical Therapist in the Military

Mike: Sure. I’ll take you through a brief history of my Air Force career. I first graduated from Thomas Jefferson University in 2000, then joined the Air Force after graduation. I saw a benefit to serving my country as well as being a PT in the military, and heard the military was where you can grow as a physical therapist. There’s a lot of autonomy and you get to treat patients at the first point of care. 

So I was stationed  in California at the Travis Air Force base, and eventually deployed in Iraq. It was in that arena that I realized the value of manual therapy and hands-on care, and what physical therapists can offer as that first point of care. I was the only physical therapist in a base population of about 5,000 airmen, soldiers and sailors. As the single busiest provider at the camp, I saw more patients than any other healthcare professional, including the surgeons and physicians. 

After my deployment, the military offered continued education. I went to the West Point Sports Medicine Residency in New York, and from there was stationed at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. 

Chad: So you were in Colorado Springs and I recall in the early days when we were talking, you said you would walk in at 6 in the morning and there was a line of like 35 waiting to be seen by you. You also mentioned the significant autonomy that you have as a physical therapist within the air force and the armed services. Then you rejoined civilian life and private practice. What were some of the major differences between working in the military and working in private practice? 

Differences between military PT vs. private practice PT

Mike: Okay, so I think one of the biggest differences that I saw was in the mindset of the other clinicians in the private practice sector compared to those in the military. 

In the military, I was used to having a lot of autonomy and responsibility, and that was the mindset of other clinicians too. When I came to the civilian sector and private practice, I saw that not everybody wants that level of responsibility as a professional or believes in the value that they could bring to patients soon after injury. I think they hadn’t realized that job satisfaction increases when you have more responsibility and can see positive patient outcomes. 

By the way, almost everything that’s coming out of the latest literature shows that the sooner we as physical therapists can treat after the point of injury, the better the outcome. So that’s what we always want to do, is get close to the point of injury. 

The evolution of manual therapy 

Chad: As we’re now 20+ years into our professions, I know we’ve both seen a lot of change. I’m not sure what amount of manual therapy training that you had at Thomas Jefferson, but as for me and my peers, we didn’t get a lot of manual therapy training in college. What changes have you seen over the last 20 plus years within physical therapy education and the services we provide? 

Mike: Chad, I’m much like you. I did not have a lot of manual therapy coming out of a physical therapy school.  Most, if not near all of my manual therapy training came through the military. Historically, before you or I graduated, manual therapy had a pretty significant place in physical therapy. However, I think many of the individuals that were leading the way in manual therapy really put it on a pedestal, and made traditional physical therapists feel like it was almost unattainable without decades of practice. That was part of the problem.

Because of this, many physical therapists felt like we had enough other resources that could get patients better and could get away without it. Then we realized we gave away the golden ticket and we needed to bring it back. Today, we’re still evolving our understanding of manual therapy. A lot of the research that’s come out is around how we pick the right technique for a particular patient.  

Chad: That’s great. So there’s a more developed and mature decision tree today than we had 10, 20 years ago. 

Mike: Absolutely, yes.

The latest advancements in physical therapy research

Chad: So the other thing I want you to talk about is the trends you’re seeing from the latest research. I know you do quite a bit of research yourself. How has physical therapy research evolved and where is it going? 

Mike: Okay. The latest research today is looking at manual therapy, its immediate and long-term effects, and the difference between those. But more importantly, how do we select techniques to yield the best outcome? That has created a whole generation of what we call clinical prediction rules. How do you select the right patient, how do you select the right treatment and match those two together? That’s where the research is right now. We have a lot of great clinical prediction rules that lead us down that pathway of what the best technique is for any given patient. 

And when we’re looking at most clinical prediction rules, they have one common criteria: The time from onset of injury or onset of symptoms and time of treatment. Meaning patients have better outcomes with hands‑on care manual therapy, if it’s closer to that onset point. So that really plays into the argument of why direct access is so necessary because direct access saves us time. It helps us get closer to treating soon after the onset of injury. 

Hiring challenges

Chad: That’s a great overview of the latest research and the overall evolution of manual therapy. The other thing that I wanted to ask you about is hiring entry-level DPTs. A lot of private practice owners are really struggling with hiring right now. It’s a real problem. We have a shortage of workers across the board but particularly in healthcare. Moving forward, demand for physical therapy services is increasing greater than the supply of DPTs that are graduating.

So, I know you understand both the private practice sector as well as the educational sphere, and you interact with students every day. Can you help us tap into their minds? What we should be looking for in an entry level DPT? 

The disconnect between PT clinicians and academia 

Mike: Yes. So there’s two mindsets that are usually on polar opposite sides of the spectrum that create this lack of communication between private practice and academia. There’s the private practice clinician who thinks that academia is full of out-of-touch professors that live in an ivory tower. And they’re teaching things from this textbook as their tech level, but they have no understanding of how the rubber meets the road. That’s one side.

The other side is from the professor side that says, “Oh, the clinician is just worried about one thing, the almighty dollar. They’re not worried about treating patients; they’re not looking at research. They’re still the dinosaur running off what they learned 20 years ago.”

It’s this opposition that keeps people from coming into conversation with one another. So what needs to happen is to bridge that gap between private practice and academia. There are ways to build that relationship, rather than work in silos and wall yourselves off from each other.

Bridging this gap will help you attract new DPTs to your practice. Many clinicians are lab instructors or TAs, so they’re embedded into the academic system. And if you have any individuals that have any interest in that, I would encourage you to foster that connection because that can be your hiring pipeline. 

I always tell students, “Many of you will work for companies that are staffed by your instructors. And what you don’t realize is that you’ve been going on a three‑year interview where your future employer saw your true colors, your work ethic, and your intellect.” Making inroads into academia is a great way to build relationships with future DPTs. 

What should practice owners look for when hiring an entry-level PT?

Chad: Very well said. So if I’m an employer and I’m going to hire a DPT, how can I evaluate their manual therapy skills?

Mike: I have very strong thoughts on this, as I do with many things, Chad. The first thing is to ask them about their program’s curriculum itself, and where manual therapy was introduced. What you want to see is that it’s introduced in the earlier stages. That’s because when hands-on manual therapy is introduced earlier, there’s less fear of it. We’re seeing that this new generation doesn’t fear it like our generation did. 

So the question that I would ask would be, where is it layered into the program? Earlier is better. It’s also a good idea to test their skills, because manual therapy can mean different things to different people. It’s an umbrella term that can be anything from massage type strokes all the way to thrust techniques at the cervical spine. So what level of manual therapy have they been taught? It’s a good idea to actually test their skills on this.  

Manual therapy certification and courses

Chad: Great. So Mike, I know you actually offer various manual therapy courses. Do you have any manual therapy courses coming out? 

Mike: Yes, we do. We are filling up for the spring, but we have our cervical-thoracic level 1 and 2 courses, along with our lumbar-pelvic level 1 and 2 courses. We have upper and lower extremity courses as well. These courses funnel into a certified orthopedic manual therapist certification. What a lot of practice owners like about this is it creates a level playing field for their clinics. So rather than having one therapist’s schedule be super full and in-demand while another is lighter, these courses help create parody so you can universally fill schedules.

Chad: What’s the best way for somebody to get in contact with you or learn more about those courses? 

Mike: You can find them on Breakthrough’s manual therapy course list, or you can reach out to me by email at [email protected]. 

Chad: Thanks, Mike. You’ve covered a lot of ground from the whole scope of manual therapy and how it’s evolved over the last 20 plus years, to what employers should look for in entry-level DPTs. Thank you!