Most online marketers do not know what HIPAA is. It is very, very dangerous as private practice owners to utilize this type of marketer for your lead generation and patient generation. Because most marketers use platforms, I am not going to name those platforms. Most marketers use non-HIPAA compliant platforms. It is not safe for doctors to use this because of patient information.
Even if you are generating leads, as soon as a patient opts in with their information (name, phone number, and email address) with the intention of you utilizing as a lead generation, contact them. It is still considered as PHI protected health information. Bring them into your practice; they may be a future patient.
HIPAA Compliance Marketing Course
Credit is now given to my friend and teacher John Hopshade. I took his HIPAA compliance marketing course and now I am helping other doctors, colleagues and my clients to make sure they are utilizing HIPAA compliant marketing. I am not going into details, but if you are already marketing for your private practice, make sure your marketer follows HIPAA rules and regulations. Between yourself and the marketer, have a business associate agreement with those two entities. It is a very expensive mistake you can avoid.
Penalty for non-compliance
Currently, I believe the government can fine you up to $50,000 or so a day if you’re not HIPAA-compliant. If you go to the government website, you will see a lot of ongoing cases which has something to do with HIPAA compliance and violating those HIPAA laws, regulations, and patient protected health information, etc.
If you are concerned, you can get in contact with me. I help my colleagues and clients to be HIPAA compliant with their medical marketing.
Are you familiar with the Chicago Restoration Hardware?
The owner purchased this whole deserted building loft and updated everything. He remodeled and created this awesome environment. Customers can come in and browse around. But in the middle of the building, there is also a restaurant that people can enjoy great food, wine, and drink. At the same time, they can look around. Everything can be done.
Niche Strategy
So why did I decide to speak about this? For you, as a private practice owner, something you should consider is to create a niche service. Unless you have something unique that you can offer to your patients, it is very hard for you to create a concierge practice. To do that, the first element is a niche. What is your niche? What is your unique service or treatment solution that you can offer your patients?
Valuable Resources
Great additional resources that you should look into are Michael Porter’s five competitive forces. They can help you understand strategy. The Five Forces will help you understand the environment that can affect your decision-making process for a strategy to build your hybrid concierge service.
There are the threats – the power of the supplier and the buyer, and obviously comparative rivals already in the market. So if you can research a little bit into the Five Forces, it will help you understand about concierge marketing and concierge medical practice.
Also, I am sure you are familiar with this, but Doctor Chan Kim wrote a great article about blue ocean strategy versus red ocean strategy. If you are not familiar, that is another great area to look into. As long as you practice in an insurance-based model without a specific niche, you are pretty much suffering. You are struggling in red ocean market i.e. an insurance-based model.
To all the specialists, if you are based on insurance reimbursement and are heavily depending on that, you are pretty much in a very tight competition. You are in a red ocean. You would have to play the volume game. Instead of a quality game, you are struggling so much to get more, more, more patients. Because your reimbursement per patient is so low, you have to work your butt off to meet your revenue demand every day, every week, and every month to play the volume game. Could you really provide the best quality service to your patients?
It is very hard unless you spend extra for more employees, more customer service, etc. It is very hard to provide quality care for your patients in that model. So look into that blue ocean strategy. Look into the five forces of the competitive market. And then again look into the hybrid concierge model where you can provide the best solution without hassles of an insurance network.
That is what I am coaching other colleagues and specialists in. I help you build that lucrative profitable practice model, while you provide the best care for your patients.
This is a sort of boutique practice or cash-pay patient model blended with an insurance-based model. So what does it mean?
As you know, if your private practice owner passes several years of reimbursement from an insurance plan, they have been steadily decreasing and hurting private practice owners. You feel it every year, the same procedure. As inflation is going up, the reimbursement has been going down tremendously. And of course, because of the inflation, your operating expense, payroll expense, everything else has been going up.
Who does it affect?
Is it only hurting private practice owners? No, not only private practice owners but it is also detrimental to the patients. Why? Because patients’ insurance premium has been going up every year. Their annual deductible is not uncommon to see – $5,000 and $10,000 a year in network benefits with coinsurance 20% to 30%.
Even if you want to provide the best treatment option to your patients, if they have this type of insurance plan with a huge deductible, it is very difficult for them to accept your treatment solutions. It is actually very difficult for private practice owners to survive with current, typical insurance-based models that you have been used to.
Time for Change
I do not know if you have been practicing for many years, or you are just out of practice, or you are a resident who is ready to come to the real world. Really, if you do not shift, if we do not convert or at least consider, it is very difficult to survive. Only current practice models may work through ACO, HMO or to the big hospital to get volume feed from this big network with the current reimbursement.
Now, what is the disadvantage of that? Your revenue may be okay in that model, but how many patients do you see with that type of model (volume base model, insurance-based model)? You are contracted and you have to see just so many patients a week. How can you expect to provide the best quality care to your patients if you have to see 200 to 300 patients a week?
Again, you have to be employed by a hospital and they have a lot of staff. I know the physician’s assistant or nurse practitioners are taking over lots of doctor’s responsibilities just to save money from bleeding the insurance company money, government money, or a hospital. It is a very, very difficult situation. So by incorporating the hybrid concierge model for private practice, it just makes sense because now you participate in only certain insurance network plans that are fair.
Even if you are in a network, patients still have to pay a lot of huge deductibles. It is almost about the same in-network or out-of-network. It is a matter of if you can provide the best treatment solutions. I think that is what matters the most. So, you do not get your decision process to choose the proper treatment plan. It does not get influenced by what insurance or if that is covered by insurance. So, by establishing and building a preconceived model:
you can focus on patient care
you can focus on choosing the right solution for each patient
you can provide the best possible quality care with time
My Experience
So right now, I practice a hybrid concierge model. I only participate in two insurance plans, so it is possible. Then, I can see 10 to 12 patients a day. But you can provide the best quality time and undivided attention to your patient, each patient. And you can provide the right treatment for each patient. So that is really why I am encouraging private practice owners to seriously consider a hybrid concierge model.
A 3-Step Strategy
Now, how do you do that? In the next six months, this is where I believe you need to invest your time and your resources.
You need to develop a niche skill set. So no matter what type of specialist you are, there has to be a niche treatment solution that you commit time to get better at. Learn more, study more and invest. Have a strong focus on a few niche skill sets so you can build authority in that treatment solution.
You need to study and understand medical marketing and patient psychology. As a physician or a surgeon, it is very difficult to understand how patients think in the decision-making process. Most surgeons and physicians are used to diagnosing the problem and just letting the insurance deal with it.
You need to develop communication skills. Without proper communication skill sets, it will be impossible to build concierge, boutique or patient-pay model practice. I am not teaching you how to sell like in typical sales. You are providing a service. If you believe your service is the best and patients are in-network, out-of-network or out of cash, they still have to pay.
If you do not know how to close that gap during the doctor-patient consultation phase, there will be no exchange of service. There will be no treatment solutions, therefore you will not help your patients. And if you believe in certain services, that niche skill set is great for patients’ health and a better life. If you are not able to communicate with your patients properly, I strongly believe you are doing a disservice to your patients.
So, I hope these 3 steps have awakened you a little bit if you are thinking about a hybrid concierge model.
