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. It’s Sam Collins, the coding and billing expert for acupuncture, the profession, of course, the American Acupuncture Council. Of course, I’ve got a little update coming up because obviously many of you have been contacting me, network members, and even others have contacted me.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Say, Hey, Sam, what’s going on? I notice. That they’re not paying for exams and they’re also still recouping. We’re gonna talk a little bit about that, but we have to update from what we did in April. So let’s go to the slides. Let’s talk about what’s going on with recoupment and standard episode of care specific to acupuncturist and frankly non-physician providers.
So you’ll see here is a letter dated June 23rd from Tri West, and it says, we received the above claim. Let me bring it so I can pull it up. And it says. Try West. Receive the above-mentioned claim for your often notice I highlighted in yet it says evaluation and management procedure codes are not paid for this rendering provider specialty.
This is the latest thing we’re seeing. It appears, and I’ve seen it absolutely published way that to me would make it more, but it appears they have taken the ability for acupuncturists to be. Separate exams when it comes to the va. That of course is very frustrating because of course is an exam necessary thing.
Of course, I to determine the need for care you to determine the continuation of care. So what’s occurring, I think is maybe A-D-O-G-E cut here that they’re eliminating the payment for exams. That doesn’t mean you don’t need do one, they’re just not. For it. I think it’s probably we’re seeing the patient for the overall payments, but they’re not covering it.
We’ll see directly. Now the word that they did this in ap, what I’ve seen Pub in their newsletter is not quite clear enough for me. So I’m waiting to see the full publishing and episode of care, but I’m sure many of you have met. Now. Here’s gonna be the pushback if the exam after April when they published it.
They’re gonna be damn behind it because published, however. But then I want you all to think of standard episode of Care for Acup Occupy. Whenever you notice the standard episode of care, you’ll notice whether it’s going to be initial chronic follow-ups. They include e and M codes. You’ll see really, 9 9 0 2 to 2 0 5 9 9 2 1 to 2 1 5, and I bet probably your authorization as well.
So my argument’s gonna be, they’re saying they’re not gonna cut well if it’s after April, send an updated authorization’s not listed. I’m waiting to see that, then I would say, okay, but if it’s prior dispute’s gonna be, how did you send me an authorization? Clearly indicates exams and they’re, now, I’m not gonna pay for it now, it appears after April.
This is gonna true. But prior, it’s gonna be a pushback. Now that very frustrating. Of course it is. But I’m gonna ask you, is it worth it to still be part of it? I do, because think of the overall payment on a VA patient. You’re getting 12 visits to start, probably eight and eight to follow up. Assuming you’re doing three sets of acupuncture and a therapy or two, that’s maybe 110 to $150 of reimbursement.
Am I going to take away potentially, three to $4,000 a payment? Because they’re not gonna pay for a couple of exams. I prefer they do, but I’m gonna say I’m not gonna go that far. It’s something I think though we’re gonna be fighting. I shouldn’t say think. I know we’re gonna be fighting as a profession on a national level along with chiropractors and physical therapists, because this affects them too.
Because this goes against the equality provision. Equality says that if it’s within scope and you pay, other providers have to pay you because this is not Medicare. Now that’s gonna be a little bit of a fight, and that’s not gonna happen in short term. So when you get this, I do think we should dispute it.
I would certainly push back if it were pre-AP April, that they should, if it’s after April, not so much. Of course, if you’re a network member with me, reach out. We’ve got some letters for that as well. But I do wanna highlight also beyond that, just a couple of quick updates. Let’s talk about what’s happening and what’s gone on with doing.
Things with 9 7 0 3 9 or 1 3 9, and that’s of course what a lot of offices have used for cupping. Remember that was removed more than a year ago, so please do not use that code for cupping. It is not appropriate. Do not list it. They may pay it, but they’re gonna recoup it. So do not, if you’re gonna do cupping, use 9 7 0 1 6, which is a vaso pneumatic device.
It’s not a high payer. It’s about 11 to $15, but at least you are being paid for it. But again, do not use 9 7 0 3 9 and if they are recouping that, if it’s pre 2024. I would argue they can’t, but if it’s after 2024, they can. Now some people have argued. What about statute of limitations? Statute of limitations, I would argue certainly does apply.
Unfortunately, you know what I’ve realized or what I’ve learned, the statute of limitations for the VA is actually six years, so we’re not gonna win on that one as far as this goes. The other thing here is, and this has come up recently because obviously a lot of you are using paint indexes or similar.
To verify how the patient’s improving. I recently had an office, or actually a few that they were denied few further care because they weren’t showing at least a seven point difference on the general pain index. I really like the general pain index. It’s certainly the similar to the pain interference.
Make sure though, if you’re using it. If you’re doing it once a month, there’s gotta be at least a seven point change to be considered significant. Now, most of you, I hope, are getting bigger than seven point changes, frankly, but if you’re not realize it’s going to be a problem ’cause they’re gonna push back, which means you also have to focus in what if I’m using the pain scale?
That also has a limitation, which means it’s gotta be three points or more. Obviously if I say I’m a seven, I go to a six. That means I’m better, but it’s not considered significant. So if they start at seven, the next time you do it to really be considered significant, say on re-exam, it’s gotta be four.
So a three point difference, I would say. Then obviously those two factors are important. If you’re not getting at least seven or three, you better focus in on something about an activity, particularly a home or work activity that couldn’t do before. What they care about is the patient getting better.
Because remember, once they’re stabilized, they have to be on a continua care with flare up. So keep in mind, Acture works well. We need to demonstrate it. Show me on this general index pain scale or function, how much improvement there is. Now this brings me to, for some of you, and I’ve had this question a lot, is being part of the VA worth it?
Does it cost anything to join? No. Do the patients sometimes have some hassles getting authorization? Yes, that’s true. But when you’re paid. Let’s go over it. If you’re getting a standard episode of care for 12 and eight visits, just say the first two 20 visits in a year, considering just the treatment, that’s probably 2000 to $2,500 now, even with taking out exams.
Is that worth it to me? Absolutely. However, am I frustrated with the exam part not being paid? I. But at the same token, that’s not gonna stop me, but this is where if you’re not part of your state and national association, this is where we need to belong. ’cause this is where we need to push back because how are they treating us differently?
Now the downside is they are doing it to chiropractors. To physical therapists as well as massage therapists. So it’s not just you. But at the same token, I think it’s valid to say that it should be covered. ’cause how are you supposed to determine care without an exam because they’re doing this based on a Medicare rule?
Medicare only sets the fees for the va. It’s not the protocol. ’cause if that were true, they shouldn’t pay for acupuncture at all unless it were chronic low back pain. And under supervision, so we know that they’re just choosing and picking certain ones. So I think we’re gonna have a pretty good pushback.
But I do still, it is worth it if you’re thinking, I’m not so sure. We are doing next month in August. A whole seminar on the va, what to do, how to make it work for you, make sure you tune into that. Otherwise, I’m gonna say to everyone, we always wanna be resource. If you’re having issues, reach out to our Connect Acupuncture council.
The next specifically, we highlight updates right on our website. And if you’re a member, it allows you to have direct interaction with me via calls and zooms. And otherwise, until next time to our friend, be well.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Are you interested in American Acupuncture Council’s Elite Program?
The American Acupuncture Council Elite Program is a malpractice insurance program that offers a significant premium discount to acupuncturists who agree to use an arbitration agreement and informed consent form as a standard part of their patient intake paperwork.
This program is designed to reduce the risk of malpractice lawsuits and provide protection from ‘nuisance claims’ by proactively addressing potential legal issues with patients upfront.
When a malpractice problem arises you can count on the American Acupuncture Council to be there today, tomorrow, and long after you retire.
Remember, the American Acupuncture Council ( AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.
There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.
Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!
Okay, so today we’re talking about micro marketing, or you might’ve seen it called micro content, and the subheading here says 10 minutes a day or less.
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 and the host of the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast, and today we are going to talk about micro marketing or micro content and how effective that can be. Before we dive in, I’d like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to be here with you.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Alright, let’s get into the slides.
Okay, so today we’re talking about micro marketing, or you might’ve seen it called micro content, and the subheading here says 10 minutes a day or less. You don’t even have to do this daily. The reason that I really wanted to talk about this is that I have noticed, I’m sure you have noticed, everyone has noticed that lots of us are.
Very stressed out. Most people are at max capacity for their to-do list, and stress is simply very high lately. Seems to be across the board. So how can we continue getting visible for our practices consistently in a very low lift way? So that’s really what micro marketing is. And I found that even on a good day, on days where we’re not super stressed, where things in the world are calm and there’s nothing extraneous for us to worry about that we as acupuncturists, we often find it difficult to set aside time for marketing because we would just rather be treating patients.
So this is for you. Whatever the reason that you have a hard time setting aside time for marketing, this will be really useful for you. Okay? And really the big idea here is simply that consistency. Beats perfection or making things that are complex, right? If you are showing up regularly, even in tiny ways in the digital world, in your community, in real life, it aggregates over time, right?
It really. Matters and it makes a difference compared to not showing up at all. Okay? So this is really about those small actions having big results over time. They really build on each other and snowball. So that’s what makes it worth it, even though these actions are going to seem really pretty tiny.
So what is this? Micro marketing or again, sometimes it might be called micro content online. It is really. Simple brief marketing that you can create and then hit publish in less than 10 minutes. Let me skip ahead a slide here. Key features of micro content or micro marketing are that we are not overthinking it.
We are asking ourselves, what’s a frequently asked question I can answer. How can I answer that in three to five sentences? What format would work best for me today? Text, video, a Canva graphic, and what platform am I gonna choose to publish it on? And then just hit publish. Okay, so going with your gut for what you think your audience or your community needs to learn to help remove a barrier between them and making an appointment.
And then just putting that content out there and then it’s over with. It’s done. Okay. You can move on to better, better things for the rest of your day. So some examples of micro content or micromarketing is really anytime that you repurpose anything, I consider this a type of micromarketing because your workload in repurposing something is like 10% compared to the effort.
Required to create it the first time. So for example, if you had an Instagram post that did really well, maybe you take the caption and you repurpose it as an email newsletter, or you had a blog post and you repurpose it as an email newsletter. You can go in any direction with repurposing content. The idea is simply that you are not recreating the wheel.
You are copying and pasting as much as possible, and then just making small tweaks so that it makes sense for the new platform. Okay, so probably changing your call to action if you’re going from Instagram to an email newsletter or vice versa, but it’s really, it requires so little. Thought or decision making and no new content creation, which is the bulk of our effort that I consider this to be micro marketing.
You can also resend an email that you sent in years past. I do this all the time. Okay. I have a couple emails. That tend to do really well especially my knee pain for osteo osteoarthritis, knee pain email that I send to my list of current patients and potential patients. I have been in this location for six years and I believe I’ve sent that email three times, four times.
No one ever complains, oh, I remember this from last year. They don’t remember. And the number of people who saw it you, when you send it again, you’re probably gonna catch new people who never even saw it the first time. So I like this because you are literally just copying, you’re just duplicating a previous email that did well, right?
It got engagement. Hopefully you got some new patients on the schedule from that email, and that’s your motivation for sending it again. Okay, so whether it was a year ago or two years ago, I think that’s a sufficient amount of time to start resending emails. And that way you’re not writing them from scratch.
A really simple video to create if you are looking for a reel or a video for a reel for Facebook or Instagram, is to just do a quick walkthrough tour of your office. It’s nice because it’s pretty self-explanatory. You don’t have to put text or captions on it. Okay? You can also share that to your Google Business profile if it’s under 30 seconds.
And then really any update that you want to do to your Google Business profile, I consider powerful. But miniature, right? So maybe you add a new photo to your Google business profile, or you add an update. You know how you can add, it’s sometimes called a post and sometimes called an update. It’s like a micro blog.
You just share a picture and three or four sentences and then a link. Read more here or book here. Or maybe you just update the description of your Google business profile, or you update your services with keywords, right? So all of these are very small actions, less than 10 minutes that actually have a big impact.
And before we move on, I wanna explain I did a previous video about updating your Google business profile and why that matters and how to do that in ways that really get Google’s attention. But Google. Happy anytime you make an update to your profile, because this helps give Google confidence that your business is active.
Whenever you are posting fresh content on your Google business profile, it’s a strong signal to Google that it. It can have confidence in providing your business as the answer to someone’s search query. Okay? So don’t discount those tiny micro actions that update your Google business profile. Those count and they really matter.
Okay? Why does this work? I’m sure you can guess, but let’s go through these really briefly. This approach to marketing. Even if you’re just doing 10 minutes a week, if you are consistent, it helps put you in front of your audience over and over again. And I mentioned this earlier, but that is so much better than just not showing up at all and saying, oh, I don’t have.
Two hours set aside for my marketing this week. I can’t do a big marketing project. I’m not just gonna do anything instead, do something tiny and count it as a win because it is right. It helps you avoid burnout. So you can do this for the long term and it really does help keep you in front of your audience and in front of Google in terms of search engine optimization.
Okay. And of course it makes the social media algorithms happy when you publish anything, and that makes the algorithms show you to more people. Okay? You get more visibility and the more that you are showing up consistently, even if it’s only in these. Tiny ways each week. It builds trust with your audience because they know that they can visit your Instagram profile, for example, and learn something new or see an update from you.
Even if it’s just that you’re consistent with stories and you’re not putting anything on your Instagram grid, that can still work really well because some Instagram users still primarily. Just focus on Instagram stories. They’re not even looking at people’s grids. So you’re going to catch a subset of the population of your community, even if you are just posting something on an Instagram story each week.
Okay. And then of course, I just talked about how important Google Business profile updates are for search engine optimization and getting Google to pay attention to you and show you as. A search result. So I have two 10 minute formulas. You probably don’t need these formulas, but I just wanna put them out there as concepts for if you sit down at your desk and you’re saying, okay, I wanna do some kind of marketing, something micro, but I don’t know where to begin.
So there’s really two options for you. So the first is to just pick a frequently asked question that you get about your specialty. We’ll take cosmetic acupuncture for an example. That’s my specialty. How many treatments do I need? Or why do I need so many treatments? Or how does cosmetic acupuncture help build collagen?
Or how is it different from microneedling? Any of those would be great, right? And. Answer it in three to five sentences. So one paragraph, very brief. Again, we’re not overthinking it, we’re not writing a 3000 word blog post or a dissertation. This is helpful not just for us, but if we are burnt out, you.
We are having a hard time focusing and dialing in and doing deep work. Probably our patients and the people who are consuming our content are as well. So do them a favor and give them something bite-sized that they can quickly absorb and understand. That doesn’t require them to set aside time to focus on the content and learn an answer.
Okay, so quick wins are great for our audience as well. So then pick a platform where you’re gonna share this. Maybe it’s in your email newsletter. You’re gonna send the email newsletter answering that one question. Maybe you’re just gonna make it into a Facebook post, but hit publish and then you are done.
Okay? So that’s your first option, answer a frequently asked question. So your second option is simply. Repurposing or resharing content that you already created. So we discussed repurposing already where maybe you had a, an Instagram reel that did really well. So then you take the caption and you send that, for example, as an email newsletter.
So it’s the same content but a different platform, sour.
Actually sharing that same reel onto your Instagram account a second time. Okay? And if as long as you sent it a little while ago, it’s totally fine. Remember that not all of your audience saw it the first time. And most of my marketing clients, if they’re gonna do this resharing, they’re picking something that they shared like.
Five, six months or more in the past. So it’s been a while, right? It’s not something that they shared last week that they’re repurposing. It’s also important to, of course, to pick content that did well to begin with. Hopefully something that got good engagement, likes, comments, shares and saves are really important engagement metrics to look at on Instagram.
Click throughs to your website. And if at all possible, if you know that you had an Instagram reel or post or Facebook, if that’s your preference, that actually got new patients to sign up, then obviously, that’s the outcome we all want. That’s the one you wanna share again. Okay? So don’t be afraid to do that.
I know people are always worried. My audience is gonna notice if you shared it a couple months ago. They are not gonna notice, they’re not gonna say anything, especially if it’s six plus months ago. I think it’s a great choice. So I feel like that’s your best butt if you are truly crunched for time or just out of ideas, right?
Re-sharing. A post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, et cetera, that you shared in the past is the lowest lift possible type of micro marketing that you can do. Okay? So those are your options. You can answer an FAQ and create a tiny piece of content and then just hit publish. Or you can reshare something, or you can repurpose something to a different platform.
Okay? So a few more tools to help you with this. Hopefully you are familiar with the graphic design website, Canva. I use the free version. It’s amazing. You can create templates that match your clinic’s branding, and you can just duplicate the template and you can change the words. And it’s very easy to use that to create carousel posts for Instagram, for example, or graphics for Facebook to make this process really simple so you are not making graphics from scratch every time.
And I really encourage the use of chat, GPT or any Gemini, any other AI that really. We’ll help you with brainstorming or outlining content, especially if you’re feeling stuck. If you’ve got a bit of brain fog or you just really wanna hammer it out and be done with it, ask chat, GPT for help. Okay, we’ll speed up your process and help you refine your final results.
So much compared to doing it by yourself. I really encourage it. Okay. And then of course, using any sort of social media scheduling platform. I like later. It is paid. I think it’s $16 a month for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest. Twitter, the list goes on, but you can also just use the scheduling built Facebook and Instagram.
But this is nice because if you are resharing content that you already created. The meta platforms can make it really easy to just reshare in a couple of clicks. Okay, so Meta Business Suite and the content tab is really your friend here. Okay, so a couple more things. People, when I talk about these micro marketing approaches and.
They’re having a hard time and they don’t wanna do marketing. Here are some of the questions that come up. So one is, I don’t know what to post. So in that case, I recommend going through your FAQs that you get about your specialty, and just pick an FAQ and start there. It usually gets the ideas flowing pretty quickly and then use Chachi PT to help you if you need it.
If lots of people are like, I hate video, I don’t wanna create reels, no problem. Text works well on Instagram. The algorithm is actually still prioritizing. Carousels slightly over reels. So carousels, if you’re not familiar, are still images, but you publish multiple in a single Instagram post instead of just one static image.
So people have to swipe through. I’m sure you’ve seen these, if you have spent any time on Instagram, if you hate video, it’s totally fine. Use Canva to create graphics instead, or focus on a type of content that is mostly about writing, like writing an email newsletter or a very short blog post.
Okay? And then of course, if if people tell me they don’t have time, that is when I refer them to resharing, a post that they created in the past, because as I said earlier, it’s the shortest, the easiest. You sharing content again in just a few clicks. So a action item for you, or some homework, however you’d like to phrase it, would be to set a 10 minute timer, pick an F, a Q, answer it, choose your platform, and hit publish.
And then the little bonus thing that you can do is ask your audience to share it right? If you’re on Instagram, you could tell people you know in the comments. If you know someone who’s struggling with, we’ll say migraines, is what you talked about in the post. Tag them here or in your email newsletter.
I always recommend putting in the footer of your email newsletter. PS like post script. If you know anyone who is struggling with migraines, please forward this to them. We’re accepting new patients. It would be our honor to help your friends and your family feel better. Okay, so try to, if you have the extra brain cells, try to ask people to share it because that increases your reach without you having to do anything.
But if that is too much, too many extra steps, that’s okay too, because at least you published the thing. Okay. To summarize, micro content is really easy, really basic, but consistent and it snowballs over time. Okay? It gets you that visibility and engagement and builds trust with your audience over time.
So as always, thank you so much for being here. If you have questions, you are always welcome to send me an email, michelle@michelleGrasek.com. I love getting your marketing questions clearly. I love talking about marketing. I also have a low cost marketing membership. Called the Snack Size Marketing Club.
You are welcome to join me inside. It’s a monthly membership where we have suggestions for marketing to do each week. Keep it very simple. And before I go, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the American Acupuncture Council. One more time for the opportunity to be here with you today. Have a good one, and I’ll talk to you next time.
email newsletter.
I always recommend putting in the footer of your email newsletter. PS like post script. If you know anyone who is struggling with migraines, please forward this to them. We’re accepting new patients. It would be our honor to help your friends and your family feel better. Okay, so try to, if you have the extra brain cells, try to ask people to share it because that increases your reach without you having to do anything.
But if that is too much, too many extra steps, that’s okay too, because at least you published the thing. Okay. To summarize, micro content is really easy, really basic, but consistent and it snowballs over time. Okay? It gets you that visibility and engagement and builds trust with your audience over time.
So as always, thank you so much for being here. If you have questions, you are always welcome to send me an email, michelle@michelleGrasek.com. I love getting your marketing questions clearly. I love talking about marketing. I also have a low cost marketing membership. Called the Snack Size Marketing Club.
You are welcome to join me inside. It’s a monthly membership where we have suggestions for marketing to do each week. Keep it very simple. And before I go, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the American Acupuncture Council. One more time for the opportunity to be here with you today. Have a good one, and I’ll talk to you next time.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Does research support the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating low back pain?
A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine assessed acupuncture’s effectiveness for treating low back pain.
33 randomized, controlled trials met inclusion criteria and were sub-grouped according to acute or chronic pain, style of acupuncture, and type of control group used.
For the primary outcome of short-term relief of chronic pain, the meta-analyses showed that acupuncture is significantly more effective than sham treatment, and no additional treatment.
This study’s findings concluded acupuncture effectively relieves chronic low back pain.
However, no evidence suggests that acupuncture is more effective than other active therapies.
Remember the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.
There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.
Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!
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. Good morning, good afternoon, whatever it may be for you. This is Perry Barnhill with the Fearless Acupuncturist, and in the background that you don’t see Dr. Julie McLaughlin. We want to give a big thanks to the American Acupuncture Council for bringing you this presentation on the top three cybersecurity threats that you need to be aware of in the context of your practice and hipaa.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
Start slideshow please. I am gonna give big thanks to the a, a C for bringing this to you. All right, here we go. Let’s talk about the top three. There’s many tops, but we’re gonna start with the top three. Okay. The top three cybersecurity threats. As outlined in the health industry, meaning you, your acupuncture practice and AC cybersecurity.
Oh, so why do we teach hipaa? We understand what it’s like to have a practice. We understand what it’s like to take care of patients, and we also understand what it’s like to not really know for sure what it is we should know in regards to compliance and in regards to hipaa. So we’re here to teach you this and we’re gonna start going through some of these top three cybersecurity threats.
Again, myself and Julie we’re both he healthcare practitioners, as you can see, and also both have certifications in compliance. Alrighty. So let’s talk about some things, buzzwords, as I would say that you hear probably quite frequently, but don’t really think about in the context of your practice and in hipaa, social engineering.
So what does social engineering mean? Let’s go through this. Social engineering is a form of psychological manipulation that tricks users into making. Security mistakes and giving away sensitive information. It relies on human error. So it relies on things like our staff that may make a mistake and click the wrong link.
What we’ll talk about, and also mistakes that we as the providers may make as well. So in uses humans to make mistakes and instead of specifically using the software or actually your system to make a mistake, it tricks us by exploiting. Our human emotions. So let’s get into some of those things.
One, this is something that you really need to sit down, talk about, train with your staff such that they don’t get themselves in trouble with clicking on the wrong link. Now, what are some things you need to pay attention to? This is what they call phishing. If you’ve ever heard the word phishing, it’s not like catching a fish in the water, but these crooks are out there phishing for us to make mistakes and trick our brains into clicking something we shouldn’t click.
So if for example, number one here, if you don’t recognize the sender in an email, for example, do not click it. Okay? If you’re not expecting an attachment or an email. You may not wanna be clicking it. ’cause if you click it, you might get yourselves in a whole lot of hot water. What about this one?
Does the from address match the message? When you get an email, look at these things closely. You’d be surprised. But the little things here, these little tips, could prevent you from having the compromise of protected health information, which in turn could potentially get you some fines and penalties with HIPAA if you’re not doing the things you’re supposed to be doing.
All right, and number four. What about this one? You get emails that sort of create or invoke a sense of urgency. Double check it. Maybe it’s not a legitimate email. What about the, not recognizing the destination URL or the website, is it a secure website? These are things where I, it professionals help out a ton, but simple little tips like this training our staff and us being aware of them can help prevent massive compromises and breaches of PHI.
Number eight is this email asking for your logging credentials. Seriously, be very cautious. Certainly if you’re not aware that something’s coming across, if anybody asks for your logging information, it’s probably better idea just not to do it unless you’re a hundred percent for sure. Number nine, bad grammar or bad spelling.
I know you’ve seen this. Have you seen emails come across The spelling? Looks a little weird, a little funky. It’s not correct. The grammar doesn’t sound particularly correct as well. Don’t click on it. Just don’t click on it. What about this one? Number 10 is the greeting or signature generic or lack contact info.
Anything that looks funny with emails that are coming across, just don’t click on ’em. ’cause if you do and they’re contaminated and they’re corrupted it’s a lot of energy and it takes a lot of time to make sure that. Compromises of PHI didn’t happen. And you didn’t get hacked. Which kind of brings me to the next one here.
Ransomware. We’ve heard of ransomware. What is ransomware? Ransomware is a threat, to us and to our devices. And what makes this form of malware so unique is the word ransom. Basically, ransom extorts us, these hackers. They’ll steal our information, our protected health information, like our patient’s information, the patient’s files, and they’ll tell us, Hey.
We have this, we’re gonna keep it. You can’t even access it until you pay us X amount of money, and it sometimes is thousands and thousands of dollars. Now I wanna say this, don’t ever pay them until you speak with an IT professional or you speak with someone who you’re very confident, that’s very aware of all of this ransom, this malware don’t do anything until you contact someone, a professional regarding these things.
Okay? So here’s some threat quick tips to be aware of, kinda like we talked about in the phishing side of things. Most ransomware, they’re sent in phishing emails. So you get these funny looking emails, you click on ’em, and guess what? Now they got your information or your patient’s information, and they can hold it ransom.
So don’t click on those things, stay alert when any email prompts you to enter your credentials. If you notice, a lot of these tips are very similar. To the phishing tips. First they gotta get you, and then when they get you, they can hold you for ransom or hold that information for ransom.
So be cautious, before you click any links in any emails that you have, make sure those senders are legitimate and as a proactive measure, check to see whether the computer and network to what you’re connected to have proper intrusion protection systems and software in place. I can’t overemphasize this unless you really need to make sure your computers are secure.
Now that we’ve talked about ransomware, kinda like we talked about phishing and gave you some tips, let’s talk about some tips regarding RAN regarding ransomware and how you can prevent yourselves from getting hacked and having to pay some of these ransom demands. Okay, most ransomware, guess what?
They’re sent in phishing and email campaigns. So be careful if you open up any attachment that may look weird. Funny spelling, grammar, just like we talked about earlier. ’cause once they get that, they can hold your protected health information for ransom. Number two, stay an alert when any email prompts you to enter your credentials.
I know we said this earlier, but it’s really important because these fishers, these scammers, they will check on these things. They will ask for these things and once they have them. They’re into your system and they have your passwords. Be cautious. Before clicking any links looking at the senders and checking the URLs.
Very important. Share all of this information with your staff. ’cause your staff, you may think that, okay, this ain’t gonna happen, but it might if you don’t train your staff on the things they shouldn’t be clicking on and what they need to be aware of as a proactive measure. Check your computer, and make sure the network to which you’re connected have proper intrusion systems and software in place.
It’s so important that you have IT professionals. Help and protect your computer systems. And due to the severity and time sensitivity of ransomware attacks, if you think this is happening, or if you think it happened, or if it’s in the process of happening or something weird is going on with your computer.
Make sure you seek out your IT professionals, because if they get it, it’s a big process of trying to get it back. And then guess what? Now we gotta deal with hipaa. Now we have to deal with the OCR and potential report. And then guess what? We might even have to send notifications to patients. Something we just don’t wanna have to do if it’s not necessary.
So here’s some other things. Preventing loss or theft of equipment or data. Things like taking your laptops or your data in your car. So physical loss of equipment, these things can happen. Or even data access to that you work with daily has to be carefully protected. Alright, so let’s talk about some tips here.
Never leave your laptop or your iPad unattended at work or in transit. Yeah, in transit. What do I mean by that? Like I said, in your vehicles. There are providers that have left their laptops wide open, sitting on the front seat, even sitting on the dash, and they get stolen. It’s not something we want to happen.
Password policies and updating the passwords. These are all things that need to be in your manual. They’re all things that we have to do. They have to be part of your procedures and your policies. If you don’t have these things in play, guess what? You’re not HIPAA compliant and maybe subject to some fines or some penalties.
We don’t want that. It’s not necessary. Don’t share your password with anyone. I know a lot of us, we don’t do these things, but sometimes we do. Staff shouldn’t be, sharing their password with the staff person next to ’em. They need to have unique passwords again. If this is part of your policies and your procedures, USB drives, be very careful if anybody brings in, like a patient, A USB drive.
’cause they want you to look at their files or their imaging. It could be corrupted. So I would avoid. Even going down that road with them, you have to encrypt sensitive data. Of course if you lose anything, number seven here, lose any equipment or if you have any at all suspicious activity on your systems, you have to get on top of this early, seek out the IT people, get ’em to stop it so it doesn’t go any further.
Alerting officials again promptly if something seems suspicious. And keeping your emergency context close by this is so important. I can’t even overemphasize how important this is for you to be aware, but also anybody in your office really needs to be on top of these things. So what are some next steps?
A lot of people say, Hey, I don’t know if I’m compliant or not. Go through a HIPAA download checklist. You can download this right here for your office. You can scan the QR code here, go through and look at these questions. And sometimes they’re not always as a simple yes or no, do you have policies and procedures to protect patient information? A lot of us do. So you could say, oh, I got that one. But do you have. Legitimately written down policies and procedures, what’s the policy? What is it? And the procedure is how do we do it, or how do we implement it?
You have to have all of these in play for everything HIPAA related, even passwords, updating passwords, making sure passwords are strong. All right. A lot of times if you’d ever, if you ever want to, a lot of people like to schedule a demo. They wanna see what our program looks like. So you can do that, you can schedule a demo by going to this go dot fearless provider.com/demo.
You can scan the QR code. We are more than happy to go over it with you. You can look at our program from the inside. A lot of times people just wanna get started. So go to www.fearlessacupuncturist.com. Or you can contact myself at Dr. perry@betterhipaablueprint.com. I’m more than happy to answer any questions that you may have.
So in the meantime, everybody have an amazing day, and thank you so much for joining us here. Take care.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
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’s Michelle Gellis, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today about microneedling for hair loss. Go to the first slide.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
A little bit about me. I am an acupuncture physician. I am the author of this book called Treating the Face. It is a comprehensive guide. Wait this way and back a little bit. Okay. It is a hardcover 500 page full color book with over 350 images in it, on treating the face and. There’s an entire chapter in this book on micro needling, so you might wanna check that out.
And I teach cosmetic and facial acupuncture classes internationally, and I am currently on faculty at Yoan University in Los Angeles, California. So what is microneedling? Microneedling creates micro channels in the skin, and these micro channels will trigger cellular repair and regeneration. It helps to stimulate collagen and elastin and growth factors in the skin, improves the blood flow to the skin, and therefore nutrient delivery.
It enhances the absorption of any topical products that are put on the skin. And. Therefore it is used for skin rejuvenation, for things like wrinkles, scars, pigmentation issues, and what we’re gonna talk about today, hair growth. This is what a micro natal pen looks like. This particular one is made by AccuLift and you can see the website on the slide there, acif skincare.com.
And these have a dial here, and this determines. How deep the little needles on this cartridge will go into the skin. And this little window here it determines the speed, how fast those needles are going in and out of the skin. And this is what the needle cartridges look like. These are the 16 pin or 16 needle cartridges that would be used for microneedling the scalp.
And I did wanna talk to you a little bit today about hair loss, different types of hair loss. There are a lot of different reasons why we lose our hair. And this quick 10 minute lecture I’m giving you today is part a much longer one hour CEU lecture that I give. Which goes into all of this in much more depth.
So this is an overview, but some of the more common types of hair loss are androgenetic. Alopecia, which is commonly referred to as male pattern or female pattern baldness or hair loss. Intelligent effluvium, which is typically from stress or illness if your hair falls out. Alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune disease, scarring up.
Alopecia, which is an irrevocable follicle loss. There are other hair shaft abnormalities. Enogen Effluvium, which is a rapid hair loss resulting from some sort of a medical treatment like radiation or chemo. Tinia capita, which is ringworm in the scalp. And hypo psychosis, which is just naturally sparse hair or reduced hair growth.
Now micro noodling is good for some of these and not for others, but I just wanted for to purposes of today. I just wanted to give you an overview on some of the different types of hair loss within the TCM framework, hair loss. Can mean reduced follicles, whereas hair thinning is the reduced shaft, the caliber of the hair shaft, and we have several patterns that we look for.
So chi and blood deficiency, damp heat, liver, kidney deficiency. These are all different patterns that can show up with hair loss, just microneedling. I’m sorry for hair loss that microneedling can be effective for. So you want to address the root with body points and then do some local scalp therapy with the microneedling.
So you do your acupuncture body points, and then you would do the microneedling locally and. Blood heat generating wind pattern might show up as itching, headache, red tongue, and the treatment. Would be to clear the heat, extinguish the wind chi and blood deficiency frequently, or post illness or postpartum.
And your patient may have fatigue, palor, weak pulse, thin hair. And the treatment would be to tonify the cheek, nourish the blood for damp heat. This is often diet related. They might have a greasy scalp, loose roots, itching, red tongue, so you wanna clear the heat, resolve the dampness. And for a liver and kidney deficiency, this can happen in middle aged individuals.
They might have dull or graying hair, so microneedling can actually help the hair to not be as gray as well. They might have sore back knees, dizziness. Red tongue thin coat. Thin rapid pulse. So you wanna nourish the liver and the kidney. And of course, within Chinese medicine, mental and emotional factors can play a role in hair loss.
So stress, grief and worry can cause hair loss. So how does microneedling support the hair growth? Microneedling, as I said, stimulates the collagen production. Also, when you create these little micro injuries, it triggers cytokine and regenerative cycling in the skin. And this can help with the hair regrowth.
It enhances blood circulation. It, as I mentioned, improves the absorption. And trans epidermal delivery, how any topicals that you would put on your scalp, whether it’s a medical topical, like something like Minoxidil or some sort of a peptide or a growth serum, it can thicken the existing hair. And enhance the overall scalp health, making a more more, better, more fertile place for the hair to grow.
And it can activate some if the person has a hair follicle, it can activate the dormant follicles promoting new growth. It also releases growth factors and in my longer lecture, I get into what all of these different growth factors are, and these can help with all of the above concerns. So within Chinese medicine, the way we think of it is microneedling promotes qi blood.
And collagen renewal and stimulating the scalp works with microcirculation for the follicle vitality.
So again, activating stem cells, enhancing the microcirculation and creating collagen production can help to thicken the hair and enhance the overall scalp health. The equipment that you need is a professional microneedling pen. Especially if you’re working in your office, you don’t want to get a commercially available pen.
You want to get a professional microneedle pen because the speed. Will be calibrated properly. The pen itself should have anti backflow technology. The needle should come in single use cartridges and then serums that are appropriate for hair growth. Things that. Contain growth factors or peptides.
Botanicals, and you will prep the scalp with witch hazel or alcohol to cleanse it. You’re going to need gloves. You’re going to section the hair. And you could put topical anesthetic on and then put on a disposable, like a shower cap for 15 minutes. You can even use blue light if you have a blue light device.
So you want, the basic treatment flow is you meet with your patient. You’re going to prescreen them for any contraindications and go through a treatment plan. Typically, you’re going to see them once every two weeks or so, and. You’re going to cleanse the skin, apply numbing cream. Then that has to come off and you would section the hair, whatever hair is there, and you’re going to apply serum.
You’re gonna set the depth on the pen, depending on where in the scalp. And other factors, it’s either gonna be 0.25 to 1.0 millimeter, and then you’ll either do a linear or a stamping motion. You could use red light afterwards to help to increase the blood flow, and then you would set up aftercare with the patient, tell them what needs to be done, and then you could see them again in two to four weeks.
Typically improvement is seen within eight to 12 weeks. And that usually looks like enhanced density and reduced shedding. And you want to make sure that. You are following clean needle techniques. You’re going to use gloves. Your hands are gonna be clean. You would have a clean field set up. You definitely want to use single use cartridges, and they’re put into the sharps afterwards and you want to record the.
Of the needle, how many passes you did, if you used an LED light, how much time and what the response was. And then of course, document with before and after photos. So here are a couple of before and after photos from patients over about 12 weeks. And as you can see the density. Was quite significant density change in this patient’s hair.
And the first one was taken. If you’re wondering why the hair color was different this was taken. In the beginning of the autumn after the summer, and then this was taken 12 weeks later and after some haircuts, all of the blonde had grown out after a few months. And this is another before and after, again, significant changes in this bald area.
So if you want to learn more on my website, facial acupuncture classes.com, you can get a copy of my ebook on microneedling. And I also offer several different classes on microneedling for anti-aging acne. Hair loss. And I also teach live hands-on classes around the country and around the world.
But the online classes do have live they have demos and they’re all approved for continuing education. So you can visit facial acupuncture classes.com. And if you wanna learn more about the products, go to Alife Skincare. Com.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsI ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
