Private Practice 101: Increasing Your Self Pay Practice
For those who choose not to bill insurance, or who tire of the billing process and delayed payments, here are some ideas for increasing your self-pay practice. These tips are low cost or free actions you can take starting today to build up your case load, independent of insurance or EAP companies!
*Get clear on your service and its benefits. Potential clients do not want to hear about your specialty, they want to hear how your services it will benefit them.
*Think about using the word “coaching” in your marketing. Coaching is a hot topic for private pay because it focuses on concrete solutions to current life situations. It may also help sidestep the stigma associated with treatment and therapy. While coaching is certainly a profession, there is no title protection in any state for the word coaching.
*Do some public speaking. Offer free talks targeting your ideal clients. If you specialize in stress management, offer free lunch hour talks on managing stress in the work place to local businesses. Seek an audience seeking growth rather then treatment.
*Develop a single page flier, with professional color photo and brief outline of your treatment philosophy and services you offer. More words are not necessarily better, as you will lose the readers attention after 5-10 seconds. Distribute them all over your community.
*Offer rewards to referral sources. Don’t be afraid to give small gifts at holiday time particularly with physicians who are accustomed to getting all sorts of gifts. Certainly don’t forget thank you cards when you do receive referrals (include a few extra business cards, with your brief note).
*Distribute business cards liberally. One therapist states “if you can’t get rid of a box of cards every few months, you aren’t even trying”. Take them with you and give them to everyone you meet.
*Cultivate former clients. Your best potential referral source is your satisfied former clients (who may return as repeat clients over the years). Some clinicians use former clients to promote speaking engagements or distribute a practice newsletter. Confidentiality should not be an issue as long as you are not addressing them as “dear former client”. And to cover your bases, you may add something to your intake form such as: “I may send you a quarterly newsletter or similar material. Please check here if you do not wish to receive this kind of mail or email___”.
These marketing ideas can be beneficial to your practice whether you are focusing on self pay clients exclusively or just trying to build your case load with various payment sources.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rachel Starck is a Licensed Professional Counselor in private practice at The North Portland Growth Place. She provides consultation to counselors in private practice, as well as counseling to individuals, couples and families. For more about Rachel’s practice and available office space, go to www.thegrowthplace.com
|