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Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi everybody. This is Perry Barnhill with the Fearless Acupuncturist, and we wanna welcome you to another show regarding HIPAA and compliance and how you can protect yourself and your patients in your practice. Slideshow please. First, I’m gonna give a big thanks to the American Acupuncture Council for sponsoring this show.
Okay, so let’s get into this. Let’s talk about loss or theft of equipment and data in our practices. Before I do that. Let me just go over just a couple things here on why myself and why Julie teach hipaa. We understand what it’s like to have an office. We understand what it’s like to take care of patients, and we also understand what it’s like not to really know what it is we’re supposed to know in regards to hipaa.
So that’s why we’ve created a compliance program, specifically addressing HIPAA and the needs in your office as it relates to you as acupuncturists. So before we get started there’s something, I’d like to go over this regarding where you fall within the whole HIPAA world. So what we’ve done is we’ve created a little bit of a quiz here and I’m gonna hop to the next slide here so you can scan this.
So scan this QR code, and this will take you to just a few questions regarding HIPAA and compliance in your office. Now, as you go through these questions, first of all, it’s quick, it’s easy. We’re not gonna share this with a bunch of people, so don’t worry about that. You can grade yourself based on the answers to your questions.
If you’ve gotten an F, just like anything else, you’re not even close to being HIPAA compliant. But let me say this as well, even if you have a B, that’s great and you can commend. You should commend yourself for at least having a B, but that means that there’s still a few things you need to get in play to be totally HIPAA compliant.
These things. Let me just say this. HIPAA is something we don’t wanna mess around with. In fact, I talk to acupuncturists and providers all the time. The biggest risk, believe it or not, I believe we all have in practice these days, is not being HIPAA compliant. And the reason I say that is because the penalties and the fines associated with not being HIPAA compliant.
Huge, and we just don’t want that to happen to us. So make sure you go there, you check this out and see where you fall within the whole world of hipaa. Okay, so seconds count. Here’s a little story about a provider going to a coffee shop. They have their laptop there. They jump on the public wifi, they order a coffee, they sit down, they get called, they go pick up their coffee, they come back and their laptop is gone.
Basically, their laptop got stolen, so as you can imagine, I think all of us would be freaking out because our laptop got stolen and we should be freaking out if our laptop had any kind of protected health information on it or something. You’re hearing me referred to as PHI. Or EPHI, which stands for electronic protected Health Information.
So did you know, and just go through this really fast, a laptop is stolen every 53 seconds, so these things happen all the time. 70 million smartphones lost every single year. Very small percent recovered at only 7%, 4.3 percent of company issued smartphones. Their loss are stolen every single year, and 80% cost of a lost laptop is from data breach.
Last one here, 50%. 52% of all devices are stolen from the workplace. This is a big deal. Physical loss and data loss, so physical awareness of the device. Just as some examples, we misplace our phone, or we leave our laptop like in the coffee shop, or we leave our tablet unattended at work. Or in transit.
We basically lose these things. We can lose data, not sharing or not using proper passwords. How do we do that? If someone can access your systems by using your password that are not supposed to they can access data they shouldn’t have, and that is considered a breach. Sharing passwords, again, don’t share passwords.
Don’t share passwords with anybody. Accessing personal or unauthorized. Non-work, internet access or websites on your work computers be very strict, not just with yourself, but also with your employees regarding the places they can and cannot visit on the computers and on the internet. So let’s do this.
Let’s take a quick little quiz here. And what I want you to do is think about the best answer here. Some of these might be answers, but. Pick the best one here. So here’s a question. Which of the following activities can cause data to be damaged or lost? A. Staying online too long. B. Never. Never fully shutting your computer down.
C. Unauthorized access to a system. D, always keeping your computer charging. Okay, so the best one here, the very best one. Okay, the best answer here is C. Unauthorized access to a system. Anytime somebody accesses our system, meaning they gain access to protected health information that was not authorized to do that’s a breach and that’s something we don’t want to happen. Here’s a really cool chart on how long it takes a hacker to break your password, and these are just examples. Again, I’m not gonna go over all of these. You can screenshot this, you can look for it, but it’s just very interesting. So if you go to the left here, look at the number of characters.
If you just have four characters and they’re only numbers. Are there only lowercase letters or even look at the next box over upper and lowercase letters or that whole row? A hacker can access your system immediately or break your password. So the goals are, and there are very specific requirements according to hipaa.
It’s a law. You have to have certain requirements for your passwords. They have to be so long, meaning so many characters, length, they have to have special characters. So there’s things that have to be done here, but go to the bottom. So check this out. If you had 11 characters and you just slide over to the right hand side, 11 characters with numbers, upper and lowercase letters and symbols.
Take a hacker up to 34 years for them to break your password. This is where we want to be so they don’t break our passwords. So how do you create unique passwords? Make ’em meaningful to use to you and nobody else. Something you could remember. Create past phrases with special characters, and avoid items that can be easily discovered in social media or pictures.
So don’t use your first and last name. Don’t put a one in front of your first and last name. Don’t put a dollar sign behind it. These are way, way too easy to access it. Here’s an example. Fly me to the moon. Now, what does this have? It has many characters. It has upper and lowercase. It has a number, and it also has a special character, which is an explanation point.
So what do you need to know in order or to help prevent loss or theft of your equipment? Make sure you know your organization’s policy. C before removing them from the office. You cannot, or you should not remove any equipment. From the office unless you have very specific policies and procedures in place.
We have these things in your Ma in our manuals. We know this is part of things that providers do. They take their laptops home. Sometimes they allow their staff to do these things. I would suggest do not allow your staff to take. Home any protected health information. All right. But anyways, here’s some questions.
Can you travel with your equipment? You could, but you have to have policies and procedures in place. Can you take your equipment offsite to work remotely? Yeah, you can do these things, but certain things have to be followed, and you have to understand how to access that data or your practice safely and securely.
Can you use a USB or other portable storage devices? You can. But you have to make sure, again, those things are protected. Is the information on the computer or storage device encrypted? If the answer’s no, then you cannot take that device anywhere. It has to be encrypted. How can I use the secure VPN Virtual Private Network password protected wifi to log into a network and work?
So you have to know the answers to these things before you do any of them, has to be in your HIPAA manners. These things have to be part of your policies and procedures. We have these things in there. So is it important to be aware your practices, policies on traveling with equipment or taking equipment home to work remotely?
I pretty much answered that, so here we go. Absolutely. It’s true. We always have to verify our practices, policies, and procedures associated with the use of equipment outside of our office location. This will help ensure that you’re not exposing your laptop or mobile device, mobile devices to unknown risk accessing unsecured networks.
This is a real big deal if these things get breached, if you get accessed by someone that shouldn’t be accessing these things. We have to report these things, and the likelihood is if we don’t have, not the likelihood, but if we don’t have policies and procedures in place, we’re gonna get fines and we’re gonna get penalties.
Really important to have these things in place. Here’s some best practices on how you can protect your devices and your data. Obviously, knowing where your mobile devices are at all times, don’t leave ’em hanging around. Never leaving them unattended or unlock. Don’t leave laptops in a car. Doctors, providers get these things stolen and when you start asking questions like, oh yeah, I left it in the front seat, and every, and then their car gets broken into, you’re in trouble.
If that happens, there’s certain policies and procedures that you have to have in place if you decide to do these things. You have to encrypt sensitive data if it’s not encrypted. It gets stolen or it gets breached, that’s a problem. Being aware of your surroundings, meaning maybe you shouldn’t take your laptop, in a car, depending on where you’re going.
I wouldn’t take it anyways. If I was to go into a store and I have my laptop, I would take it with me. Quite literally. I would take it with me. That’s how concerned I am about these things. Have to make sure your passwords are strong, and like I said, don’t ever share your passwords. And here’s the other thing too.
If something happens, you have to report the loss of this equipment. Immediately you have to report it to hipaa, and if you don’t have certain procedures and policies in place, this is where the fines come into play. And this, quite frankly, is what concerns me the most. So a summary loss or theft of equipment or data can have significant long-term implications that will far outweigh the cost to replace the device.
You have to follow all system instructions regarding secure passwords and updating your software, updating patches to make sure that this is secure as it possibly can be. If something happens, you have to take immediate action. If an event, and when I say event, I mean there’s a breach or maybe there was a breach, meaning there was a compromise, or maybe you’re not really sure if there was or if there wasn’t a breach.
We have questionnaires that assess, breach to say and determine, yes, there was a breach. Maybe there was, or, yes, there definitely was. And then given the answer to those things, what do we do from here? And again, if these things happen, you have to provide as many details as possible related to the incident.
Who do you provide those things to? You’re gonna have to provide them to the OCR, the Office of Civil Rights, which is basically the HIPAA place, and hopefully we never have to go down that road and be in that position. So here’s some next steps. If you have questions for us or if you wanna schedule a demo or quite frankly, just get started, you can do these things.
You can schedule a demo with us. If you go to go dot fearless provider.com/demo, of course you can scan the QR code here to the right. You wanna get started with our program. You can fearless acupuncturist.com. It’s easy. You go there, you sign right up, and you get access to all the manuals, all the information.
All the videos or sometimes people want to contact me ’cause they have some specific specific questions. Please feel free to, you can contact me at Dr. perry@betterhipaablueprint.com. In the meantime, everybody make sure you have all your HIPAA stuff as good as you can, is as dialed in as possible ’cause it’s not worth the risk of not having it.
I want y’all to have an amazing day and I will talk to you next time.
Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Greetings, friends and colleagues, and of course network members. The American Acupuncture Council is always looking for your success. And here’s another episode we wanna focus in on. What’s happening for 2026? How do we get prepared? How do we make sure? Because if your practice is not adapting, you’re probably gonna start failing.
So we wanna make sure that doesn’t happen. Let’s go to the slides. Let’s talk about what is coming in 2026. What do we have to be prepared for? The thing I think we always wanna start with that first year, at least for me, is always money. So as network members, I always wanna make sure at first the year you’re doing a meeting with me on your current fees and codes.
And I don’t care that we did one this year. We need to update it for the new year because what we wanna make sure that is clear and it’s what every patient wants to know. How much does it cost? What are the fees? And we have to come up with establishing a good, fair fee to many of you way, un way undervalue, or do not understand your services and costs.
So first things first. What we want every patient to know is a good financial understanding. But you know what? That financial understanding needs to be from us as well. What is your cost of practice? What does it cost for you to treat a patient? ’cause that’s how we’re gonna start to set. Fees. We have to make sure the fees actually sustain the practice.
So the financial understanding starts with us, but also the patient. They wanna know what’s the cost. Do you have a difference for cash and insurance? I assume many of you do, but what’s legal for giving discounts? What about prepaid plans? What about do using these discount medical programs, if any of you’re familiar with those?
What I wanna make sure is that we have a clear understanding so that we can pass it on to the patient and let’s not take it, that we can’t make a slight increase every year. Cost have gone up. If you don’t increase cost or if your cost of increasing, you don’t increase what you charge. You better have a very high volume.
And for acupuncture that often can be difficult because let’s face it, many of you are gonna see a patient 30 minutes to an hour, and that just limits how much you can see, so it’s not unlimited. You can hear about a lot of chiropractors treating hundreds of people a day. That’s not happening in acupuncture practice, so we have to value this properly.
So let’s make sure the patients have a good understanding because we wanna make sure there’s no surprise. Make sure in simplest terms, you want a disclosure to the patient of what your costs are with a good estimate of costs. What is the first visit? Follow ups. What services are we doing? What’s covered by insurance?
What’s not? What are they paying out of pocket? This should be in writing, but given to them orally. And when you do this agreement, remember agreement. It can’t be any longer than 12 months. I would recommend every time they come in for a new course of care, reiterated, have them sign something else, because we don’t wanna reach a point where we have to go to collections or do any credit reporting.
In fact, many states don’t allow you to do credit reporting anyway. So to avoid credit reporting, to avoid collections, how do you do that? Collect at the time of service, collect an amount you think the insurance is not gonna cover, and have that paid by the patient. My rule is maybe make it about 30%. If the 30% turns out to be too much, it’s much easier for us to refund back to the patient or credit them than it is to chase after money.
So if you’re not sure at all what the insurance pays, you might even collect 50%. What you wanna make sure is insurance is not something we’re expecting to pay everything but part. And until we know for sure, we’re not gonna give the patient any idea that, oh, it’s gonna cover in full until you learn that and that’s what we need to do.
Have you really looked at the insurances that you’ve billed? What do they pay? What are your expectations? What services? So that way when a patient comes in with that same coverage, you can go, oh, okay, I’ve seen that one before. Here’s the amount you’re gonna pay. That’s when you ever notice, you go to the dentist, they know exactly the copay.
It’s ’cause they’ve billed it before. They know exactly. Based on that coverage. What if you’re all cash pay upfront? Or are we gonna pay over time? Or are you gonna do a prepaid? So we wanna make sure all these things are set up so the patients are comfortable. The barrier to care for most people is always money.
So we want to deal with the money first, get that outta the way, and then get to the true care plan ’cause they’re coming there to get better. Let’s focus on the value of the service, not that it’s necessarily cheap. Because I want you thinking of, have you really looked at your fee structure for a network member with me, please make sure we’ve done this, and if we haven’t, we need to do one right away because for 2026, we need to update it.
This changes every year. It’s not stagnant. So I want you thinking of what are your charges for the common services you do? I just give some examples here of manual acupuncture, a mid-level exam, and massage by example. How would I use this? How do I make sure? Because I want you to see how fees should be structured.
By example, the relative value of acupuncture. First set manual is 1.38. And you may look and go I’m not sure what that means. What I do with that is to help you establish a fee schedule across all codes. Every code has a relative value, and it’s one of the things we emphasize at our first of the year seminars, which are coming up by the way, January 18th and 25th.
But nonetheless, we make sure you understand it to set the fees, because what I have found for most offices. You’re simply just billing below what you can collect based upon lack of knowledge. So by example, the value of 9 7 8 1 0 is 1.38. Let’s say another code has a value of one. What does that tell you?
The difference is the code that has a value of one is 38% less. Simple as that. Every code has a set of value this way. So the way to use this tool is to do this. Take the price you charge, and I’m gonna say start with acupuncture first set, because that’s the thing. I think you probably bill commonly, you know the value, you know what’s being paid.
So take 75, divide by 1.38. It gives me 54, 34. Now what does that mean to me? This 54, 34 is then what I use to multiply any other codes. RVU. To tell me the price. So if I take 54, 34 and multiply by the relative value of 9 7 8 1 1, which is 0.79, it tells me it’s 42 92. So if the first set is 75, second set would be 42 92.
Now, realistically, I’m probably gonna. Make that go up to 43 or maybe even 45. But you can see here, it’s roughly when you look at this, not 50% less because it’s not raw numbers, but in that range. So it’s gonna be probably about two thirds or a little bit below that for that set. So make sure if your first set, 75, 42, 92.
What about other services though? This is where I find acupuncturists have to start to come to realization of the services. Exams are detailed. Take a lot of time and hence they’re more expensive. Notice the value of 9 9 2 0 3. Okay, mid-level new patient exam. Notice it’s 3.37 with 3.37. You can see here it’s not quite three times the rate, but notice it’s three times the rate.
Quite, but just below. So notice it’s 180 3. What I find often is people will charge exams for 50 or $60. Now, if you said, Hey, Sam, I’m running mostly a cash practice. Maybe you do it to keep it affordable, but understand if you’re billing out to insurance, this is the value. It’s worth quite a bit. Are you undervaluing?
For many of you, you are. What about something simple as massage? A lot of acupuncturists do massage, and you’ll notice the massage value is 0.92. It’s more than the additional set. In this case, 49.99. So simply going through each code now as a network member, if we haven’t, please make sure you set up a Zoom appointment so we can work one-on-one with this to make sure you understand.
Oh, that’s why I would charge this. ’cause we wanna do this with every code and start to look at what you’re being paid to make sure to set a fair value. Because here’s the truth. In states like Michigan, Florida, Indiana, they literally take RVs, which is double the Medicare rates. For personal injury, work comp and so forth in these states or California work comp uses 150%.
So keep in mind, for most of you, what is the cost of a first set in the Medicare rate? It’s roughly about $50. So if you look at this at 50, if you’re doing 150%, it would be 75. So again, just using those rates and realize those will update at first of the year. Now, how do you get those? Get with me Network members, of course.
Or come to a seminar so we can go through them because they will change. We’re expecting a nice change for you this year, by the way, but we wanna make sure you understand relative value. Certain more than that. Look in these states. Arizona just uses a pure qualifier of $69. You can see here if I, in Arizona, I take 69 multiplied by 1.38.
That’s $93 for the first set. That’s the fee schedule for the state. Now, if you’re charging below that’s fine, but can you imagine if you have a work comp patient, why would you turn away $93 for the first set notice In other states though, they just use a conversion notice. Idaho 49, Maryland 51, Texas 70.
Utah 59. So you can see here when you take this and divide, you’re gonna see here even Utah’s higher than a $75 rate. Idaho may be a little bit below, so be careful of undervaluing. If you’ve not really done a real review of your fee schedule, it’s time members. Please set up a zoom. Now keep in mind, we should see an increase this year.
Now you’re gonna see some things come out that say Medicare’s reducing, they are reducing for hospital based or facility base, but not for doctor’s visits. We should see a very slight, 3% increase. So that’s nice. We’ll wait to see at first of the year again, as a member or a seminar attendee, we will update that, but you can expect about a 3%.
So what does that tell you? Should you increase your fees? Probably maybe 3% at least. Yes, in fact, maybe higher because maybe many of you have not raised rates in years. Can you imagine if you said, Hey, I Hoag, I owned my house for 20 years, but I’m gonna charge the same price I did 20 years ago. That would be foolish.
It’s worth more. So make sure you update that and understand the differences. They’re projected to increase payments overall due to the new budget. And they’ve realized they had to increase, or you’re gonna make doctors not wanna stay in the system. Now you’re thinking how does that affect me?
Realize Medicare rates help to set other rates because often they’ll just use a percentage. Now the Medicare deductible will go up. Does that affect us very much? Not really. Unless you’re working with a MD or a nurse practitioner, you’re not treating a Medicare part B anyway. That deductible will go up a little bit.
Remember Medicare Part C patients for acupuncture, you can directly access and realize relative value units will update. For many of you. You remember two years ago, you got a very nice increase in RVs for acupuncture. So with that being said, most of you should have had or should have increased your fees roughly 10% about two years ago.
If you didn’t, you’re simply losing money. Now, you may be hearing me say this and go, oh, Sam, come on. I belong to a SH or other plans. When you join those plans, you’ve accepted a lower rate and they do that because when they get you in contract, they’ll pay you less. So you may wanna rethink, should I join?
Remember we did a program on that? So be careful. I wanna make sure you have relative values that based on real information. Keep in mind, there are gonna be no changes to the codes you use regularly, but here’s what I would implore you to do. Do you really understand them? Do you have the full definition, how to document by example?
For our first of the year seminars, we’re gonna get into, Hey, can you bill for red life therapy? What about some of you wanting to do additional services? Cupping, moa? How do you code for those? How do we define them? We wanna make sure, but there are no new codes when it comes to the physical medicine codes that you do.
But are you doing the ones correctly? By example? What if you’re doing guha? Or deep tissue work. Realize 9 7 1 4 0 is more likely the best code for that, and it’s gonna have an actual two, two and a half percent increase above that other 3% y. They remove what’s called the efficiency adjustment. So the code is simply gonna be worth more.
So we have to make sure you’re up to date and understanding. So I want you to stay tuned. This is just to get you ready to say, okay, let me start looking because these will be published and we’ll definitely have ’em at our seminars on the 18th and 25th. Network members, it’s free for you. Just simply set up to register or give us a call.
If you’re not a member, please do we wanna make sure you’ve got the right information. Your practice depends on your understanding of the business then, and that’s what we do. So please make sure you’re ready for 2026. I’ll see you then.
Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician and an author, and today I will be doing a presentation on my top 10 favorite facial acupuncture points, some of which will surprise you, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity. So I got the idea for today’s.
Presentation when I was doing a book signing at the Pacific Symposium two weekends ago I gave out these little cards and on one side were my top 10 favorite facial acupuncture points. And on the other side were all of my upcoming classes and. Sold a lot. Sold and signed a lot of books, and inspired me for today’s presentation.
So let’s get started.
The first I. Acupuncture point that I use every time when I am treating one of my cosmetic acupuncture patients is large intestine four joining of the valleys, and this is a command point for the face, and it also allows the body to release any impurities that. Might exist because it is a large intestine point, so it helps to clear the face, farm acne oily skin, any kind of congestion.
And it also. Helps with all of the muscles in the face as well. Release tension and so it’s a really great point. It is one of my mandatory points when treating the face. And these are in no particular order, small intestine. Six. And that point is nourishing the old and it helps to the spirit of the point.
So I’m a classically trained Worly five element acupuncturist, so I’m always very interested in the spirit of the point. And the spirit of this point is it helps to nourish us in the face of old pain and empowers us to assimilate life’s lessons. From past traumas and on a more physical level, it helps.
If you think about where the small Intestine channel runs, it helps with sagging neck and chin area, right? ’cause the small intestine channel runs up the neck and the, through the side of the neck and then up. The side of the face, and I chose this image, so a lot of the images are from my book, but this particular image I chose because I find that a lot of people play small intestine six almost in the San Jiao channel, and I’m always reminding.
My students that small intestine six should really be right along the small intestine channel. My next favorite facial acupuncture point is gall gallbladder 18. And the way you find gallbladder 18 is you start right at the gallbladder channel and you follow it right. Straight back along the head until you come in line with due 20.
And that is where the point is. The name of the point is receiving spirit and. It is on the gall epi erotica, right on the occipital frontals, and it helps to, the nerve actually goes right along the channel. It helps to benefit the eyes, the forehead, and it has a direct action on the supraorbital nerve, and as I mentioned, the gall up erotica.
My next favorite facial acupuncture point is stomach four, receive nourishment, and this treats the mouth area so it can help with the lip lines, and it also helps to relax the DAO or the depressor anguli Aus, which could pull the corners of the mouth down. Small intestine 18, which is referred to sometimes as cheekbone, helps to treat the mouth area because the way that I needle it is I needle it straight up, as you can see in this picture, so it helps to treat the mouth area, lip lines, nasal labial, folds.
It also. Relaxes. So nasal labial folds go from the nose to the lips, so nasal labial. It relaxes the DAO also, and it helps to lift up the cheek area.
Helps to lift the eyebrows. And the way that I needle this is I go in line with the pupil. I go right underneath the eyebrow and I needle it straight up yin tongue. I I chose this picture this. Last picture. This was one of my students. This is from my book, as is the one before it. But this one I found online this morning.
I liked it because it showed not only the muscle, but so it shows the braceis muscle, which Yong is right. In the center of this ProsperUS muscle, but it also shows some of the wrinkles that people can get. That yin tongue helps to treat the bunny line that goes horizontally. And then these two lines here, which can come from frowning.
And Yong is right in the center. And the way I like to needle it is actually. Against the flow, not with the flow of energy. So I needle it up or I’ll needle it straight in if I’m using it as a motor point. And this helps to move the energy up as opposed to down. It helps to relax the mind and calm the mind and the spirit.
Leg three miles, which is stomach 36, helps to infuse the spirit of, the point is it helps to infuse the gifts of the earth within all of the meridians. It is a point on the sea of nourishment and it helps to tonify the Q and the blood of the entire body, and it fortifies the spleen, which holds everything up, and it also calms the spirit.
So if you are calm and your face is calm and relaxed, then you won’t have all of those contracted muscles in your face, which give you a lot of the expression lines and wrinkles that we get. Chen Men is another one of my mandatory points. I love this for cosmetic acupuncture. It helps to relax the face and it calms your patient.
Gallbladder 41. This image is a little blurry, but it was, an image that I thought was important because it really shows where gallbladder 41 is. A lot of people will put it on the wrong side of this, or even both of these tendons because they’ll follow the gallbladder channel. Then instead of hopping over this tendon, they stay on this side and the energy is really right up in this crevice right here.
So the name of the point is Foot Above Tears. It allows your patient to have an emotional release if they’re frustrated or angry, and it very strongly grounds your patient. So in my protocol, this. This is the first point that we put in the body. And it helps to spread stagnant liver chi in the, or chi rather in the liver, in the gallbladder channel.
So it helps again with anger and frustration and everything that’s going on below the neck is going to show up above the neck. So all that emotional stuff, frustration that we’re feeling is going to show up. Right here. So we wanna release that and it can also help to a lesser degree with some of the dark spots and other signs of liver cheese stagnation.
So those are my 10. Favorite acupuncture points on the face, and I want to again thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to present to you today. If you would like more information on my classes, you can go to facial acupuncture classes.com. And if you’re watching this on your computer, there is a QR code take you right to the website and you can also get information about my book there as well.
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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi there. My name is Michelle Grasek. I am a practicing acupuncturist, a marketing strategist, and the host of the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast. And today I’m looking forward to talking with you about three very simple search engine optimization tips that you can use to rank higher in a Google search.
And before we get started, I’d like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to be here with you today. Alright, let’s get into the slides.
Okay, so before we begin, I just want to define search engine optimization or SEO. I know that many of you are already familiar with this, but as always, I like to make sure that we’re all on the same page. SEO is the process of making strategic updates to your website. With the goal of your website ranking higher in search engines, and because most people are using Google, I’m probably just going to refer to it as ranking higher in a Google search.
Okay? And I like to think of SEO as both art and a science. And today what we are going to focus on are three tips that are more art than science. Meaning you are not gonna be. Using any code on your website, you don’t need to go into the backend of your website. What we’re gonna do today is really about teaching Google what kind of patients to send you, and I think this is more of the art side of SEO and I do think it’s our responsibility as small business owners to use SEO to tell Google what our business is about.
What kind of patients we want it to send us, and really to help Google know when is our business the answer to a question that someone has typed into Google. And there are a lot of different SEO strategies that we can use to do that. But today I just wanted to show you my top three ways to. Help Google know when your business is the answer to a question.
Like when someone types in acupuncture for fertility near me and you’re a fertility specialist, that you want Google to have a little bell go off and say, I know the perfect website to show to this person for this search query. Okay, so the number one, first thing I would love for you to do is to add keywords to the heading in the above the fold section of your website.
So let’s talk about that before we go any further. So what does that mean? This is a screenshot of my clinic website, and this is the above the fold section. So above the fold simply means when someone lands on your website before they have scrolled. That’s it. That’s the above the fold, and you can see that I have two header images and I have a heading here, and I’ve kept it very simple.
Women’s health, cosmetic acupuncture, and pain management in Seneca Falls, New York. And of course we have our booking button. And really your goal here is to incorporate keywords. That are symptoms. So think about what is your specialty or what do you love to treat? Who do you want to treat more of? What are those symptoms or conditions you wanna treat more of?
And this is also about. Location keywords. So think about a combination of the symptoms or conditions you love to treat and make sure you’re including your location in this above the fold section. So an alternate, because this is very straightforward, it’s, it’s just a list. If you wanted to use a full sentence, I’ve seen people have success with that.
You might say, for example, helping women. In the Finger Lakes region, or maybe just the Finger Lakes, helping women in the Finger Lakes balance their hormones and reduce fine lines and wrinkles naturally with acupuncture. So then you’ve, you’ve kind of described your target market and your location and the symptoms that they are struggling with that you can help with.
Okay, so either way is fine, but ask yourself, how can I really incorporate symptom keywords and my location keyword into that above the fold. Headline on your website and this section on most websites. Let me go back one more time, is generally an H one heading is what it’s known as on the inside of your website, and this is helpful to know because Google.
Uh, puts a lot of weight on an H one heading for each page because the H one heading is like the most important heading. Think of when you learn to write an essay in maybe junior high. So you had your, like, your most important thing that you wanted to say, and then under that you had like subsections, and then you might have had sub subsections where you were getting like.
More and more nitty gritty and detailed to make your point. So the layout of a webpage is kind of similar. So you have your H one heading, your H two, your H three, et cetera. And so Google puts a lot of weight on an H one heading because it’s assuming that your H one heading, heading is explaining this is what this page is about.
And so on your homepage in the above the fold section, your H one heading. It’s really important to get it dialed in with your symptom keywords and your location. Okay, let’s talk about tip number two, which is to optimize the images on your website, and there are multiple ways that you can optimize images, but I just wanna focus on two today that are very simple.
So one is to fill in the alt tags for all of the images that are currently loaded into your website. And two is the next time you go to load an image onto your website. Let’s say you wrote a blog post and you’re gonna add an image with that post before you load the image. You want to change the file name for the image to include keywords, and then you upload it, and then you would also fill in the alt tag.
So what the heck am I talking about? Let me show you some screenshots. So first, let’s talk about changing file names of images. Before you load them onto your website. So this is a screenshot from the downloads section or folder on my website, on my, sorry, on my computer. And you can see that I was making multiple images for blog posts.
And I think the most important thing here is that you can see the name of each image below the image itself. So if I were to tap on this, it would. Be highlighted and then I could type in that space and I could change it. And you can see that I named the image with keywords related to the blog posts that I’m loading it.
So these are all about microneedling, and I am really explaining to Google. What is this blog post about? Okay, so this is another place where we are helping Google better understand our website by adding keywords into the file names of images before we load them onto our website. ’cause once you load it on your website, obviously you can’t change the file name.
So this is inside my website in the media section. So it might just be called photos on your website. It depends on what kind of website you have. I have WordPress, so the media bin in WordPress is where I load all of the images. Okay? And so you can see right here it’s got file name, and this one is for a blog post about neck pain.
So it says acupuncture, neck pain, how it works. Okay. You could also add your location or your business name. So I could have said acupuncture, neck pain, Seneca Falls, acupuncture. And what I really wanna emphasize here is you have to add a dash in between each word because Google is reading the file name and the dash acts as a space.
So if I just did acupuncture, neck pain with no dashes, all one word, that’s harder. Or it’s pretty hard for Google to read, right? So acupuncture, dash neck dash pain. Okay. Whenever you are renaming your images. That’s the structure that you want to use. Okay, so while we are in this section, I have this image pulled up.
It’s got its file name with the keywords in it. The alternative text right here is what I was talking about when I mentioned filling in the alt tag on your website. So alt tag is sometimes also called alt text, and it’s short for alternative text right here. What you wanna do is you want to describe the image and strategically add keywords.
Okay? And let’s talk about like what is the alt text? What the heck am I talking about? Alt text or alt tags are used by screen readers for the visually impaired to. To let them know like, oh, there’s an image here. Here’s what it looks like, or Here’s what it’s about. Okay. So it is important when you are filling in the alt text for your images that you don’t just like stuff them with location keywords like acupuncture in Auburn.
Skinny Atlas Waterloo, SCA Falls, et cetera, right? You, you do actually want to put some effort into describing the image, but then you can strategically also add keywords. So for example, this alt text right now, it says acupuncture for neck pain, how it works and what to expect. So I’m describing the text that is on top of this image, and you could also add onto that.
So perhaps you could make. The whole alt tag, say acupuncture for neck pain, how it works, and what to expect at Seneca Falls Acupuncture. Okay, so. The reason that I chose my business name I is that it has the location in it, and it’s good for SEO. If your business is Ageless Acupuncture, then I would also add in Rochester, New York, right?
So then you’ve got your business name added as a keyword and your location as a keyword. In addition to obviously the key words, acupuncture and neck pain. Okay, so you wanna go back through all the images on your website and fill in the alt text if it hasn’t been done already. And it you, if you have a web developer, they may have done this but it never hurts to check.
Okay. And then the last strategy that I wanna share with you today is writing blog posts. Now. Please don’t shoot the messenger. I know whenever I tell people to write blogs for their website, their response is always, that sounds time consuming. So I get it, and here’s why it is worth it. So every time you publish a new blog post on your website, it counts as an entirely new page on your website.
So let’s say that the average acupuncture website is five pages. So homepage about US services, frequently asked questions, and the contact page, and. Okay, so let’s say your website has five pages and your competitor down the street also has five pages, but you decide to write a blog post twice a month for a year.
So that’s 24 new pages on your website, and you are writing those blog posts about things that you really love to treat frequently. Ask questions. Let’s say that you love orthopedic acupuncture. You love treating athletes, you love treating runners, and. Baseball players, like those shoulder injuries that baseball players get are your favorite.
So those 24 blog posts are all about. The injuries that are common for runners and baseball players, and specifically how acupuncture is helping, what people can expect, answering their frequently asked questions, et cetera. So now you’ve got 24 new pages on your website that are full of keywords that your ideal patients are searching for, which brings your total number of pages on your website to 29, and your neighbor down the street didn’t.
Any blog posts, they haven’t added any new pages to their website. They’re still at five. So who do you think Google would prefer to send someone to, especially if they are an athlete? Your website is going to feel so much more relevant and just chock full of keywords. But your website is also being updated twice a month, which Google loves.
Google really prefers when websites are, freshened up, for lack of a better word, on a regular basis because it gives Google a lot of confidence that your business is relevant. It’s still active, you’re still in practice, you’re helping people, et cetera, so you have more pages with more keywords, and your website has been refreshed more often than your neighbor down the road.
For all those reasons, Google would prefer to display your website. Okay, really think about who do you want to treat more of? Who do you love treating? What are the frequently asked questions that you get all the time? So instead of answering questions that are broad, which you can, you can have blog posts like, how many treatments do I need for acupuncture?
Right? So just. Big picture, but I would also recommend answering specific questions about the things you love to treat. How many acupuncture treatments do I need for carpal tunnel? How many acupuncture treatments might I need for osteoarthritis of the knee? Okay. And think about, you know, your, your knee pain patients.
What are they asking you Think about? If you really love to treat runners we’ll use that example again. I feel like one question runners ask all the time is, can I keep running while I’m getting treatment or do I have to, are you gonna tell me to stop and take a break? ’cause runners hate to take a break.
Okay. So really, really think about your target market and what you love to treat, and what are the specific questions those people are asking you and answer them as blog posts. Okay. It makes a big difference. It helps Google choose you. It makes you look like an expert to your potential patients because you’ve got this body of knowledge that you have published on specific topics on your website.
Okay? So please don’t feel like you have to do all of these things at once. I, I like the strategy of choosing one thing to start with and then. Just taking the other two suggestions and putting them on your calendar, maybe like one month out and then another month out. It sort of helps you like remove that mental burden so that you can just focus on the task at hand.
You can focus on your patients, and then next month it will pop up in your calendar. Oh, I am supposed to be filling in the alt tags for my images on my website this month. Okay. And over time you will really see your. Google rank improve, and one thing to keep in mind is that it takes, I think, on average about three months for the changes to have the effect where now you.
Actually are ranking higher and you are seeing patients as a result. So just pick one thing to start with and get started with that today so that in three months you will really thank yourself for making this effort. So of course, if you have questions, you are more than welcome to. Send me an email, michelle@michelleGrasek.com.
I love talking about marketing. Clearly. I would love to talk about marketing with you. And I recently released a series of. Workshops about ranking higher on Google. So one is about this type of website, SEO strategies, and we get. Into the details of non-tech SEO strategies, other changes, like, just like these strategies that you can make to help your profile, sorry, to help your, uh, website rank higher, and then the sister.
The companion workshop to that one is how to optimize your Google Business profile, because between those two things, your website, search engine optimization, and your Google Business profile, you can have a significant impact on your Google rank. So if you’re interested, you can check those out at michellegrasek.com/google.
And before I go, one more time, I’d like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for the chance to be here with you and talk about these strategies today. Have a great day