Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
More marketing
I’ve never before had to market a practice. This is not something you do in academics. Nor is it something you do in private practice in a community where you’re the only ENT for 70 miles around.
(Arguably, I should have done more marketing in Crescent City. There are no doubt LOTS of snorers up north whom I could have helped, if only they had known of my capabilities. Sorry, folks.)
This place is a different story. The HMOs have a big share of the commercial market, so the unaffiliated ENTs (those who aren’t part of Kaiser, in other words) have to fight for the community’s few non-Medicare paying customers.
So far, it’s been weird. We’ve advertised in the paper, we’ve spent half a day at one of the local health fairs, and I’ve showered the local medical offices with bagels and cream cheese and cookies galore (Italian stuff, none of those chintzy Pepperidge Farms assortments). I feel like I’m beating my head up against the wall, though, because the physician referrals we receive come from places I haven’t visited.
I ask my self-referred patients, “How did you find us?” Number one answer, believe it or not: the yellow pages. After that, Google. One person found me from my Craig’s List announcement, but I don’t think he liked how I cleaned his ears. No return customer there.
Some folks find me because they’re familiar with the office. The doc who was here before me moved to Brookings, maybe only two or three miles from our house (you know, the one that’s on the market? The one you really need to buy?) It’s like we swapped places. I wish he would come out of retirement and go into practice up there, because the need is huge and I’ve heard he’s a fine doctor. Anyway, he lived and worked in this community for many years, people loved him, and people still keep coming into the office hoping to see him. I probably see even more of those folks than I do the yellow pages people.
At the Chicago meeting, I went to a talk on marketing. The speaker works as the CEO for a multi-office group of 98 ENTs. NINETY-EIGHT. (That’s not a group, it’s a . . . a gaggle? No, how about a boogery? Yes, it’s a boogery of ENTs. Or perhaps an Mb, a megaboogery.) Consequently, many of his suggestions were unhelpful. We’re talking differences of scale . . . I mean, I don’t think I want to put up ads on highway billboards. Yet.
Somewhere in between cookie bags and highway billboards is an idea initially floated by the office manager who used to be here before I came on board. One of the local talk radio programs will let you host an “Ask the Expert” program. One day a week, you get a 22-minute program where you take call-in questions or do whatever else you like.
I met with the sales gal today, who’s also a lawyer for the station. What were the demographics, I asked her. She tried to convince me that talk radio reaches a baby boomer demographic. (I find this hard to believe, but she insists.) She also says they have an audience of over 30,000 listeners. (I find this REALLY hard to believe. AM Talk Radio — people listen to that crap? Gimme a break. But I’m polite, I hold my tongue.)
In case you’re wondering what they would pay me to fill 22 minutes a week of programming for them, I would pay THEM something over $9,000 for thirteen separate spots.
Now, part of me — the part that wants nothing more than to be an entertainer, that would, in fact, love the idea of reaching an audience of 30,000+ while esconced in the relative security of a radio sound booth — digs this idea. And heaven knows I have stories to tell. They don’t have much to do with ENT, but this is show business, right? Unfortunately, I’d be doing it on my employer’s bankbook (assuming he went for the idea), and I really can’t see it pulling in enough patients to justify that kind of cash outlay*.
And look at who does the other spots: a cosmetic surgeon. An attorney. Someone who talks about reverse mortgages. The station has openings on Wednesday and Friday . . . folks aren’t beating down the door to sign up for this, is what I’m trying to say.
It’s a shame, really. Stories like this might generate some interesting clientele.
D.
*Guess how many patients we got after running an ad in this town’s #1 paper. No, guess.
One.
Bang:Buck? Small, very small.
Wish I knew stuff about marketing. Don’t, though. Sorry.
Chris knows some stuff, though. Maybe she’ll have some ideas.
How many times did your ad run in the paper?
My father wore an “in the ear” hearing aid. His hearing aid provider once referred him to an ENT to have his ears cleaned out. I think it was a racket. My father had dementia, so it was I who took him to the ENT. The guy was a creep. He barely gave my dad a lookover. His nurse poured some hot water in both ears and charge Medicare a billion dollars. Even with dementia, my dad realized he had been HAD. But, getting referrals from the hearing aid folks might work. Have you tried your local Chamber of Commerce. Most Chambers have newcomers’ packages which they give out to newcomers (duh) and companies that relocate, etc. Realtors that deal with corporate relocations could be very helpful.
dan: twice.
Lucie: I could charge Medicare a billion dollars, too. Doesn’t mean they’re going to give me a billion. Medicare pays what they pay and that’s all they pay.
Why, then, would the doc send such a huge bill to Medicare? It’s all part of the game Medicare and the insurance companies force us to play. Let’s say Medicare gives us $60 to clean ear wax. Let’s say Blue Cross give us $68 for that same procedure. And let’s say Western Life & Health (which I just made up) pays $124 for cleaning ear wax. And let’s say we have patients with a couple dozen other insurance providers and we don’t want to keep track of what everyone pays for what. We would LIKE to send in bills that say, “Pay us whatever you pay for this procedure,” but that’s not how it works. If I send a $68 bill to Western Life & Health, they’ll give me 68, not 124. So the only way to make sure you get the max the company is willing to pay is to ask for some ridiculously high amount. That way, you’ll be sure everyone is giving you the max they’re willing to give.
Isn’t that ridiculous? But Medicare says we can’t have separate fee schedules for different payers. They say that’s fraud. Consequently, we have to do the “high price” thing, and our patients all think we’re trying to rip them off. We’re not. (Well, MOST of us aren’t!) We only want to get paid what the payer is willing to pay us.
The system is insane. As I’ve said before, I’m waiting for the day when the government really takes over and makes it aaaaaaallll betterrrrr.
(Sorry, Tammy. You looked like you were having a little low blood pressure, so I thought I’d help out.)
lol
My blood pressure’s fine. 🙂 I just hate the government and want them to leave me the heck alone. I pay my taxes, now back the hell off, G-Man! 🙂
If I lived in the Smoky Mountains, I’d surely have a still just so I could cuss about revenuers. lol
Fwiw, Talk Radio is freaking HUGE here in corn country. And, yeah, it’s boomers; the younger set listen to tunes. Dunno how much marketing on talk radio makes a difference to what the listeners actually go out and buy, but, yeah, rural folks love their talk radio.
Like my husband. Listens All. Of. The. Time. 🙂