Tag Archives: Practice Building

How to Transition to a Cash-Based Practice

thinking about transitioning to a cash based practice so that you could just focus on helping your patient instead of figuring out what codes and how to jump through hoops, and then you’re in the right place.

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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.

If you are tired of dealing with the hassle of insurance, the paperwork, the, it’s taking too long to get reimbursed, sometimes even insurance companies saying that you have to jump through these hoops and even taking your reimbursement back. and you’ve been thinking about transitioning to a cash based practice so that you could just focus on helping your patient instead of figuring out what codes and how to jump through hoops, and then you’re in the right place.

But how this is Chen and your six and seven figure practice makeover mentor@introvertedvisionary.com and your host for the AAC show today. And today we’re gonna talk about. Just from having a lot of experience with helping our acupuncturists and other holistic health practitioner clients transition from an insurance based practice to cash-based practice, I’m gonna share with you some pearls of what has helped our clients with that transition well, so that you can apply if you’re thinking about transitioning to cash based practice or already planning on doing so.

So the, there a couple things in terms of. Certainly. Let’s first talk about some benefits of cash based practice, and then let’s also have a look at some of the biggest challenges to transitioning and what to do about it. So some of the benefits are that you don’t end up having this waiting period.

You could get paid right away. Also, you don’t have to have either yourself spend time on this admin stuff or having to hire a biller or someone to chase after claims and different things like that. No more cat and mouse kind of game, right? so many benefits of, or being able to, to transition, but what are some of the.

The challenges to to transitioning that I often see, So one of the things that I hear is that but if they’re used to paying for insurance, then once I transition to cash, then they’re not going to be staying or that I want to still be affordable. And by the way, in terms of if your patients are used to paying for insurance and you’re afraid that they’re, they won’t end up continuing to work with you.

I’m going to share with you a couple of practical tips that will help you with this. But the most important thing is if you have a way of attracting new patients in the door, even if you some patient. Don’t end up staying with you, you will still have a patient flow of of new patients willing to pay cash if you know what you’re doing.

And then as far as the concern about, I want to still be affordable. So I think it’s very important for you to be in alignment with your own practice philosophy and if there are still reasons where you really want to accept insurance and keep doing that, but there’s still. But some of the shortfalls of that is you may need to see a higher volume of patients in order to be sustainable in your practice.

Or you need to hire or things out like billing or have higher expenses related to that or your time insanity, right? So there’s a trade off with that. So it’s just a matter of you choosing what’s most in alignment for you and then. If you’re not liking it, explore other options like transitioning to cash’s practice.

But some of the other things that I hear are, But what about the economy? So even during the start of the pandemic and when people were freaking out and being concerned about how, I’m not working right now and not making money, things like that. In, in terms of potential patients in that situation, even during the start of the.

When potential patients might have been in that situation or there was just this fear about things there were still acupuncturists who were doing just fine with cash based practices. In fact, some of our clients who are, were completely cash based, were doing great during even the start of the pandemic, during the pandemic and even, and also now as well too.

There’s always a, at any economy, there are people who have the ability to pay cash there. Are there gonna be people who may not be able to afford it? That might be true, but there are always, in any economy, even if there’s a recession, there’s always people. Who are able to and willing to and open to paying cash and interested in seeing you in your cash based practice.

It’s just a matter of being clear about the who you would really like to be helping. So let me share with you three tips to transitioning to a cash-based practice. And I feel like the very first one, Is very key. When I, when you hear me say it, you’re gonna think, Oh yeah, I know that.

And then you might think, Oh, I’ll just skip a scope, but what about the next one? And and yet I feel like this one that I’m about to share with you is one of the reasons why a lot of acupuncturists don’t do it is just mainly because of this main reason. And is the distinction between those who don’t do it and who do it.

What’s the distinction? is being really confident in your abilities as an acupuncturist and in that you’re totally worth, people paying you even if it were cash based practice. So when you are able to show up from that place of confidence and that sense of where you are really the expert. and a both in the knowingness that you’re an expert and in that you are good with your clinical skills, then it’ll make it an easier transition to you having a cash based practice if you’re still feeling like you’re.

Not that good clinically or you are, You have a lot of fear coming up around this then in terms of how to transition, then maybe it’s not time to do it yet. You really owning that energetically is going to be the key to everything else I’m gonna share with you beyond this as well. . And then the second thing is and also I was gonna mention related to the first thing, cuz otherwise how come there are acupuncturists and other holistic practitioners we’ve helped who’ve come straight out of school, they’re totally fresh grads and they start off with a cash based practice.

In fact I have a, an acupuncturist client who just did that in the last two months and she is at 12 patients a week, and she could be seeing more actually. But she does go and goes to where they, the her patients are. So she’s more limited with being able to travel and that kind of thing.

That’s her preference right now. But There, otherwise she has the capacity to see more, and she has a hundred percent cash based practice straight outta the school. People are totally happy to pay it. So why is it that, that some fresh grads can do that, but then some acupuncturists are have been in practice for 20 years and are still afraid that if they were to transition to a cash based practice and then people won’t, will stop coming.

So that’s why this confidence factor and you really owning that your expertise makes a big difference. So then the second thing is to carve out your differentiating factor and what is your differentiating factor? What’s your specialty? By the way, specialty doesn’t mean that you always have to focus on.

One particular kind of health issue or anything like that. It’s just really looking at what differentiates you and how can you help people see that you are the one to go to, whether it’s in your community, whether it’s for a particular kind of a health issue that you’re the go-to person to go to, whether it’s for a certain kind of patient experience too.

So have you ever thought about that? What is your differentiating factor? Of your practice that makes your practice the experience of a patient coming through your clinic different than the experience of other people going to other acupuncturists. And if the reason for that is it’s either unique or it’s very, Like it’s something that people really want then, and you also are able to communicate that in such a way that people feel like, Oh, I just have to go see her, or I have to go see him.

Then you it’ll make it a lot easier for you to transition into cash base practice. And they’re not just comparing you like, Oh wait, but my insurance covers this. They’re feeling like I just need to see you. And so this could. Also there, there could be, as I mentioned, it could either be that you become, decide to really carve out like this, I’m the go-to acupuncturist for particular health issues.

Or it could be the patient experience whether it’s like you can always get seen within x number of hours. Maybe that’s your differentiating factor, right? That maybe it could be that they don’t have to travel, that you go to them. Maybe it could be that you are the, you’re just the go-to acupuncturist within this kind of, this vicinity in, in, in the area.

So it could also be how you showcase your credibility factor. So one of our clients who has a cash based practice, Whenever someone would call at her front desk and then they weren’t really sure if they cuz yeah, they weren’t really sure if they wanted to book with her. One of the things that her receptionist says before they hang up the phone is, go check out all our five star reviews on Google.

So that’s an example of where a contributing factor to your credibility factor. So how clearly are you showcasing your credibility in whether ways like reviews or in how you describe your clinic and how it’s different or in how you’d describe your story and journey and your expertise. Those are all aspects that make up your credibility factor.

That’s really important to help you with transition more seamlessly. And then the third key to transitioning to a cash based practice smoothly is having a way of explaining to people in such a way that, that they they like they’re totally willing to pay cash, right? So where you are able to be prepared with what to say.

To and the right visuals that support it too. So when we work with our clients and get a few key visuals in place and then make the transition, the patients, the existing patients also are able to. Not only like verbally hear it from you or experience from you about how you’re like the person they wanna still keep seeing, but also what’s happening in terms of what do they see on your walls?

What do they see in what you give to them that makes them just see this clinic, or see you as an acupuncturist as this is the place I still need to go to because. , there’s nobody else who does it like this, right? So do you have visuals in place that really differentiate your practice?

And I found that when we get these in place with, in working with our clients, it makes a huge difference in transitioning to cash based practice. Now, the fourth thing, a bonus tip here is. , you can also consider offering other kinds of products or services too that can help support cash flow in the practice as well.

So these could be either additional streams of income related to supplements, herbs, or there could be products that you feel like are beneficial for your patients or even just a lay public. It could be ancillary services, whether it’s, for example, an acupuncturist client of ours is doing point injection therapy and she end.

Making additional income stream by adding that on top of the acupuncture treatments. We have clients also offering other types of anular services that are in alignment with the rest of their practice, whether it might be microneedling or it might be having other practitioners in the clinic like are doing, fertility clinic and offering our Vigo massage.

And then there are also. Opportunities for, even things that don’t require your time. For example, maybe they’re, you feel like foot baths or sauna is great. Ionic fit foot baths or saunas or, that kind of thing that you end up having at the clinic, which can also help support your patients and cash flow.

And that can also. Be helpful as you’re transitioning to cash based practice, although for most of our clients in that timeframe of transitioning focusing on one main thing, which is about. Being able to have good communication with your existing patients so that it’s a seamless transition and that most of your patients do end up staying with you is the most important thing to focus on.

And then also with bring in new patients that are willing to pay cash and this is what it is. So some of, sometimes acupuncturists tell me they’re like But I’m still a little afraid that if I go all cash then I’m just not gonna have enough patience because that’s just how it was.

And how I, I used to track people through insurance companies. And so part of it in looking at this is by thinking about this, it’s like radio weights. If you are sending certain radio signals at at a frequency, let’s say it’s like 89.5, right? Is what you’ve been sending radio waves at for insurance, then you’re gonna keep attracting the insurance patients because of what you’re doing.

But if we just tune your frequency to 94. Nine . And then your, all your communication, all your messaging, all your radio waves are all about that, whether it’s in what you say, what people see also in your marketing and your communications with, then you’re attracting a different kind.

Of patient who is at that different wavelength. And so that’s what we need to get in place. And then you will be able to feel really comfortable with transitioning to cash based practice. And it doesn’t have to be hard, It doesn’t have to feel like you, you just, you keep putting it off until you get so.

Frustrated by having to deal with the headaches of insurance or having to stay late. For example, I know an acupuncturist who has a busy insurance based practice, he stays late every day to do charting and then and billing related stuff. His family’s not really seeing him like he has kids, and his wife is when are you gonna come home Earlier?

Because you’re missing your kids growing up, right? So you know, you don’t need to wait till it hits that point, because once it hits that point, you’re already burnt out. And then wanting to transition is just not as good of a place to be. So why not be able to plan ahead and then. Especially at the start of the year, it’s oh, is this a really good time to actually transition?

It is one of the moments of start of the new year. So new things on new practice, new you, new energy, right? In terms of, or evolution and reinvention. So if you are in a place where you would like help with transitioning to cash based practice, or if you would just like free six and seven figure practice makeover tips that can help support the growth of your practice so that you could grow with less stress and have a practice that you’re proud of, then go to introverted visionary.com, then go to introverted visionary.com and look around or book a free chat with us and happy to help you further.

Till next time.

Best Practices for Structuring a Virtual Visit

So there are two types of virtual visits…

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Would you like to have a virtual practice but you’re not sure how to structure your visits? Or you currently already have a virtual practice, if would like, is to flow better and help your ideal patients or clients get the best outcomes possible. Welcome, this is Chen Yen, your six and seven figure practice makeover mentor at introvertedvisionary.com. So there are two types of virtual visit. Number one is that you might be treating them in more of a practitioner patient kind of a relationship.

And then so they are considered your patient and maybe you have seen them in person before. And then you’re just having the virtual side of the connecting, going done virtual. And then and then some of you may be completely telehealth, and of course you need to check with the loss of your state and profession about that and how it’s kosher or not.

And then the second possibility of virtual visit is that you are type of virtual visit is that you are coaching them on more and educating them on mindset and health kind of education. So there is no. Provider patient kind of relationship here, it’s strictly on educating, it’s strictly on teaching and perhaps coaching.

And those are the two types of virtual visits that, that I see are most common. And so what, how can you structure the flow of these visits? So the first hot tip is to. At the beginning of a visit set a strong intention for for the visit and what to expect. So certainly some of the PR principles that if you’ve had a brick and mortar practice apply if it’s virtual, but sometimes because you’re not used to what a virtual flow would look like, then you’re wondering how best to.

Communicate it and communication becomes, and setting expectations and inspiring becomes even more important because that dimension of being with you in person isn’t there. So the. First is setting the intention of the visit and letting them know what to expect today. So that way your patient or client feels really grounded in what to expect instead of just starting off in a visit and talking about things.

One important thing is to set the intention and expectations for today, and then at the end of the visit summarize what’s been covered. Many times in a treatment, in person what has happened, they can experience it and feel it. And and maybe sometimes you, for you don’t always think to summarize what you did to today.

But it’s even more important if it’s in a virtual relationship to, to summarize what happened, acknowledge the progress that’s been made, and then ask them. So this is really key. So this is something that, this next thing I’m about to share is something that is often overlooked because as a clinician, it’s easy.

Just bring up what you saw was had shifted for them or what to ex, what to expect perhaps next time and that kind of thing. But even before then, if you’re able to ask them to share what stood out for them and then solidify your next step recommendations, then it helps the, your.

Patient or client be able to verbalize that and settle into another level of owning that and feeling that from the visit instead of you just bring up what, what stood out for you about that session for them and the Also using powerful questions throughout your visit. So this is a second hot tip.

What, how do you structure the visit? So I shared with you this overarching idea of structuring and what to say at different moments in time, beginning and then at the end of your visit. But then what are some powerful kinds of things to ask or say during your visit? Consider asking questions that might be powerful questions, for example, saying things like, what will having that do for you?

What’s important to you about that? So these are kinds of questions that can help your patient or client. Reflect on things more especially if a virtual visit may not be as quite experiential as in person in the way that you have imagined, in the way that you’re used to in person. So certainly a virtual visit doesn’t mean that, that people don’t have an experiential shift.

It’s just that the shift typically is a little bit different than an in person experience. Another kind of a phrase would be saying, Oh, something like this. Imagine if X, Y, Z. So when you are sparking belief changes, how can you weave in words that paint a picture of that for them? One of the things about virtual visit many times in terms of the practitioner’s role and how it shifts compared to a brick and mortar in person role is that there’s likely even more within a virtual visit where you are able to like that the.

Part of the value is sparking belief change or inhabit kind of change. And so what you can, whatever you could say to inspire to also hold them accountable for those shifts can really make a difference for a patient or client. Cuz how many of you have ever thought, especially if you don’t have a virtual practice, ci, you’ve thought.

What can I actually do in a virtual visit that people would find beneficial? Cause I just, I, I need to see them in person. There’s, I don’t see that I can really give much value in a virtual visit. And sometimes we don’t think about how some, the most significant shifts that a patient or client can make has to do with the lifestyle changes that they’re making in between your visits and.

So it, but sometimes those are the hardest things for a patient or client. So how can you help them ha have better outcomes Because they’re actually motivated, inspired, and they are sticking with the lifestyle changes that you are recommending for them. And Also the, Have you ever had a, discussing the, at the begin, also at the Beginning of each visit, like at the next visit, always discuss the commitment.

So what was the previous commitment that your patient or client made? What and verbalize that. So last time we discussed you X, Y, Z. And then talk about the progress with that commitment. And this accountability piece might seem so trivial but still crucial because have you ever had that experience or maybe either you had a coach before, like in sports or something or a teacher in school where you had to be accountable to whether it was just even turning homework in.

Then did you notice you, you then worked on the homework and turned it in. Whereas if you didn’t have homework to turn and you probably wouldn’t turn it in, or if you have had a coach you were responding to, or a coach, sports coach who made you do 10 pushups every morning then you did do those pushups.

Whereas if you, and maybe someone watching you right, doing the pushups, then you were more likely to do it. Same thing with your patients or clients when you can hold them accountable. There’s huge value to that. That way your patients or clients are held accountable even if they didn’t feel like it.

Final couple hot tips is are this, so remember that. Because I think one of the things about a virtual practice and virtual visit situation is especially at first feeling like, Oh, I’m not sure if I’m really giving enough value here because I’m so used to treating and then they’re feeling the treatments being having shifted.

And and so is this feeling. We need to give in, in, in each visit. So we need to educate them about as much as possible because we’ve got this time allotted. So we need to put everything in that visit as much as possible. And guess what happens? Patient or client gets into information overload and feels so overwhelmed.

And then sometimes then they don’t end up rebooking or, have this that ever happened to you before where you if you’ve had a virtual Practice, you’ve noticed that, oh, maybe I said too much in that visit. , right? And so remember that information overload is not helpful. It’s actually the right balance of, because it can overwhelm people and people can tend to only absorb so much each time, even though we wanna give so much each time.

And so it’s helpful to, it’s an art and a skill. To be conveying what is important to convey in that container and enough to help them move forward with an important shift. So when shifting from a model of treating people to helping people online and perhaps missing the treat treating component, remember that the value of the visit is not just in fixing people.

So think about what are the most significant things that will spark lasting transformation and focus on that in, in your visits. If you are in a place where you already have a virtual practice or thinking about getting it, shifting into more of a virtual practice, either hybrid brick and mortar and virtual practice model, or maybe even a hundred percent virtual so that you have that flexibility to travel anywhere or work from home and not have to.

Be tied down to renting office space and being tied to having staff and that kind of thing as much, then I, but you’re not really sure how to go about it. You’re welcome to, to check out our website and reach out to us at introvertedvisionary.com. So introverted visionary.com and till next time.

Getting Ideal Patient Referrals

“How do I Get Ideal Referrals into my Practice?”

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Hi everyone, and welcome. I’m so excited to be here. I’m Dr. Nell and I just wanna thank the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to be here and talk about one of the most common things that I get asked questions about, and that is, how do I Get Ideal Referrals into my Practice? Let. What are the slides?

So this is what we’re gonna be going over today. We have a lot of information we’re gonna get in a short period of time, so value packed. We’re gonna talk about those ideal patient referrals. Not just a Luke warm person who might be interested, but really, truly deep dive into how are we getting those ideal people into our practice?

We’re gonna go through what’s your current referral strategy. Three key questions that you really need to be asking before you even seek out referrals, and then what those next steps are. So let’s get right into it. What is your current referral strategy? And I will say a lot of times I get a blank stare when I ask practitioners this question.

Sometimes if it’s current patients, Oh, I rely on the patients who are already coming into my practice. They like my treatments, so of course they’re going to refer to me. Maybe it’s m. If you work in an integrative setting, if you are working with patients who have other health concerns other people on their care team, that could be MDs, that could be other integrative providers it could be maybe friends and family.

Are you thinking my friends and family know that I’m well educated in this medicine, They know that I can do to help so my friends and family can refer to me. That’s my strategy, That’s my plan. Maybe you enjoy public speaking. You might do continuing education. Perhaps you are a leader in a certain area of this medicine, and so other practitioners might see you as a thought leader, an expert in a certain space like fertility, for example, and then say, Oh, that’s the person who I’m gonna send referrals to.

I will say though, that when I ask this question, , it’s usually met with, I’m still looking for a strategy or I, I do rely on patients to refer to me, but I don’t really have a strategy around that. I don’t know how to ask people for referrals. And a lot of times we get stuck in this, what I call the.

The one man, one woman, one person referral machine. And that means that getting referrals into my practice is directly related to me being there personally. So I meet someone on the street and get them in or I am, at an event and I talk to someone and they become a patient. And really the goal of a referral strategy should be to get you out of a place where it has to be you telling people to come into your.

And there’s another trusted person funneling people in. And ideally, you want these to be ideal people for you. So that means people who geographically are in the right place, are the right fit for your practice. And we’re gonna go over some of those really key things and how do we make this a seamless transition.

So let’s go to the next one. First step. You’re gonna have three questions here, and the first thing you wanna ask yourself before embarking upon this journey to getting ideal referrals, who do I even want to attract into my practice? Let’s take a pause for a second because I know so many of you, including myself, wanna say anyone acupuncture can help.

So many things. Why would I turn anybody down? Why would I not seek out as many patients as. Having a targeted referral strategy does not mean that you have to turn down patients that walk in your door. It just means that you get really clear with what your ideal patient is so that your bandwidth, your energy, your time, your money.

All of it gets funneled to the right place to bring as many people in that are ideal for you and for your practice. We can’t be the be all, end all for everyone. But you wanna look at, okay, who am I attracting? Is it people with specific health issues? Do I like working in the fertility space?

I do a lot. Men’s health and post-surgical work specific health issues can be a great way to start narrowing down that target for you of who you wanna attract in if you have a specialty. Makes a lot of sense. But if you don’t, there are other ways to lean into that too. So you can look at age, location, obviously, financial status, occupational demographics.

Who is it going to be? Seamless and easy to get in and maybe past experiences with medicine. So I know that some practitioners. Are the person that people come to once they’ve exhausted a lot of other treatment options. They’ve tried particular things in western medicine, or they’ve gone for another type of care they need an additional provider on their care team or something didn’t work for them.

With my postsurgical patients, I have patients who have a history of addiction. And so when they’re having a surgery, they’re very concerned about avoiding pain medication after the surgery. And so that’s a real consideration. So someone is seeking me out because they know that they need that specialized care so that they don’t only have standard of care as their option.

Even looking at what interests do these particular people who you’re hoping to welcome into your practice as patients, what interests do they have? Do they travel a lot? Are they, really high performing, hardworking, stressed out individuals and their favorite downtime is to. Be a foodie and go to restaurants.

These are all things that you wanna consider when you’re looking at who is ideal. How do I come up with that ideal patient avatar? And we’re not gonna go into this a lot, but I wanna show you how granular this can truly get. So again, not reading all of this to you, but when you’re thinking of that ideal person who you wanna welcome in, you wanna name them, you wanna think about their age, What is their family life like?

What’s their occupation? Where are they living? Where are they traveling? What’s their personality type? Where do they go to eat? What do they wear? Where do they shop? Really thinking about what are their values, and that’s gonna bring us to this next very key question. So the first question was, who am I looking to attract into my practice?

Second question is, who does this person already value? Quick note here, not who we value as a practitioner, who does that person value? So we’ll go with my example of Craig who does Craig value? What’s important to him? And so when you’re thinking about who they value, you wanna think, All right, they already invest in this person.

And what I mean by invest we mean financially or with their time. They trust them. They rely on this person’s council, and they’re influenced by this person. So that’s how you can get a little bit of an idea about who they truly value. This person could be a personal trainer, it could be another healthcare provider that they have.

It could be the leader of their business, networking. Let’s go with personal trainers as an example. Let’s say Craig is religious about going to his personal trainer. And I’m speaking from experience here because I have done this and I know you all can do this very effectively. When I had was first starting out in Beverly Hills.

I had my practice and there was a. Equinox, I’m sure you all are very familiar with, and I started looking at the personal trainers there because all of those personal trainers had clients who were paying a very high amount for personal training. So I knew they were in close proximity to my office.

These clients, I knew that they could afford my services. I knew that they were already invested in their health and I knew they already trusted their. So when you get through that, you say, Oh, okay, so we’ll keep with the personal trainer example. I know that. So now that’s gonna lead us to our next question, and this is the big one.

Now how do I become the trusted source? And really the strong point behind that is, How can I provide value? We know you’re going to provide value for your patients, but it’s about getting them in the door. It’s about getting that buy-in. It’s about it not having to be you convincing that person to come in.

Following this example of Craig and the personal trainer, I want the personal trainer to start convincing people. To come in because then it’s not dependent on me to stumble upon Craig at a restaurant and convince him to get acupuncture. You have someone who is out there who believes in what you do, who can tell their clients, the people who value them, and their opinion that they should be coming to you.

And so when you’re thinking about how do you become the trusted. In this example for the personal trainer at Equinox thinking about how can you provide value, I always have loved to think that it’s enough to say. I can help your people. That’s true, but it’s not specific enough. And so when you’re looking for getting these ideal patients into your practice, you need to solve a specific problem for that personal trainer, for the person who has those ideal clients that you wanna bring into your practices.

So what could this look like for a personal trainer? What type of problems are they experiencing that you can solve? Perhaps if their clients are in pain, they’re not coming to train as often. Perhaps if they’re training athletes who want to get to a higher level of performance and be excited about continuing to train they wanna recover better, they wanna perform better, we need to be able to speak to those key areas where we can add value.

To that person who can influence their clients to then come into our practice as patients. So let’s just, That was a lot of information in a short period of time. Let’s look at it from big picture again. So when you’re looking for ideal patients to come into your practice, not just anybody, because you know you do well for your patients, people will refer to you, but this is about having that strategy that doesn’t take a lot of work.

That doesn’t require you being the person who always has to meet somebody for them to become a patient. You wanna ask these three key questions, and this is what is going to narrow. Focus, it’s going to allow you to use less bandwidth, less energy less money targeting people. So you’re gonna ask these three questions first, Who do I wanna attract?

Remember, get very specific with this. It doesn’t mean that these are the only people you are going to see in your practice. It simply means this is who I am going to put my energy towards. I’m gonna look for. Second question, who does this person value? And again, Not who we value, but who that ideal future patient values, who they invest in financially time-wise, rely on for their council.

So that’s really important cuz it’s that patient centered care. So we need to be thinking about what is this perspective patient care about. And then lastly, how do I become the trusted source? The trusted source? No, not only for the future patient, the trusted source for the person that future patient values.

So the personal trainer in this example, and that’s really about. How do you as a provider, as a business person, as an owner of a private practice, who wants to do right by your patients, how do you add value to that person’s life? How do you solve a problem for them? What is a specific thing that you can do that would make their job easier, that would make their life easier, that would help support their.

And I know you all, I know we come from a very genuine place with wanting to help patients with wanting to help people in general. So this is not a an unfamiliar area for us, right? We want to provide value that is very innate in this profession. So this is just an additional, more strategic step when it comes to referral.

How are you gonna add value to someone who has already the client base that you want to bring into your practice? And these are really the benefits of having a strategy, right? Because your skills, your time are so valuable if you are spending time and energy doing things. You didn’t go to school for, you’re not interested in, you’re spinning your wheels.

Just trying to make sure you have enough patience in your practice that you can help. That does a lot to your energy, and we don’t want that. We want to have more energy. We want to be really intentional with our energy, and it’s the same thing. You’re being intentional here with who you can add value to.

This also helps bring the right people to you. So once you identify these people, Sticking with that personal trainer example, they understand how your practice works. They understand the results that you can get for their clients. They understand the value that you bring to the table, and so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time explaining to someone, This is the way the process works, this, they’re gonna do a lot of that for you and make your job so much easier so you can focus on treating and getting great.

Which you can do. It also was time and energy saving, right? So again, it takes you out of that, Oh, I need to always be there to convince someone to come in. I need to be there to explain how acupuncture works and what it does. No, you train somebody else to do that, and then they’re doing that for you, and that effect multiplies, and that is so key.

So important and it’s very tangible, like you will get tangible results from this. And lastly, here are your next steps for these three key areas. You first and foremost, wanna identify your ideal patient. Being as specific as possible, knowing that being specific does not exclude anyone from coming in. It just means you’re gonna get the right people coming in for you and for your practice.

Determine who their trusted resources are, so the trusted resources. For your ideal patient, and then you just really importantly, need to think about that value add. How are you going to offer value to those trusted sources? I love talking through this with people. I’m happy to answer any comments moving forward and.

This is an exciting thing because we need more people who are familiar with our medicine. We are great practitioners. More people need to know about us, and this is a way to help people in your community send you the ideal people for your practice. So hope you all enjoyed that. I’m excited that I got to be here and talk through this proven strategy with you.

Please don’t miss another episode of To The Point. We next week are going to have Chen Yen, and I believe, I mean she, she is all about referrals as well, so she’ll be adding value for you next week. I hope you all enjoy it and I will see you next time on Two the Point.

5 Ways To Market Your Practice In An Uncertain Economy

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Hi folks, Jeffrey Grossman here. And thank you so much for joining me and thank you AAC for inviting me back for yet another installment of how to grow your practice, marketing ideas, tips, and insights. So my name is Jeffrey Grossman. For those of you that don’t know me. I am I, the founder and creator of acupuncture, media works, ACU downloads and ACU perfect websites.

And I’ve been in this industry of helping practitioners since 2002. So we do everything from building websites to creating digital marketing assets for you to use. So today I wanted to do is I wanna talk with you about five ways to market your practice in an economy. As we all are aware, things are uncertain.

We’re not sure what’s gonna happen with different price hikes on mortgage rates and where we’re headed right now. So there’s a few ways that I want to share with you that can help embed your. Certainty in these uncertain times with the idea of what you can do to keep your practice growing, to keep patients on your schedule, to keep people, wanting to refer to you.

Okay. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna share my screen with you today. And then what I’d like to do is at the end, there’s some information that I’ll have available for you. But the first thing I wanna say is. In the month of October 24th is. Called acupuncture and herbal medicine day.

My friends that is our day as acupuncturists to out from the rooftops. That acupuncture is awesome. It’s a national event that’s been orchestrated and created by the NCC AOM many years ago. And it’s our time to share a concerted. A concerted message that acupuncture works and to get out there and let more people understand and educate them further about how awesome acupuncture is.

So at the end, I’ve got a special gift that I wanna share with you that is available for you. For you can get out there and market your practice for H American acupuncture and herbal medicine day. And these tips that I’m sharing with you can be used specifically to stimulate greater awareness during this particular event that’s coming up.

So I’m gonna do is I’m gonna go ahead and share my screen with you. Here we are five ways to market your practice in an uncertain economy. So the first thing is that tip number one is that there’s this thing called viral marketing. And the idea behind viral marketing is that you wanna get your message out to as many people as possible.

Using your patients as the carriers, right? So viruses the viruses, the people are the carriers of the virus getting that, that, that virus out there to many other people. So in a state, in a sense you want to create that kind of same viral awareness about your practice, and you’re spreading the message through your own word of mouth networks.

And. So one thing that’s important to do is try this. You’ll be able to get a good gauge on how good your patient education, your marketing tactics are. If you ask a patient, if they know anybody who can benefit from acupuncture, That’s too general of a question, right? So they may think of their uncle.

They may think of their friend. Who’s frequently sick with stomach trouble. And you’re only going to get a limited number of referrals when you narrow down the scope of what you’re focused on in, in your viral marketing request. So people have. Likeminded friends, like-minded communities, like-minded circles that they all connect with.

So if you ask your patients, if they know anybody who is like them who might be experiencing the same type of problem that they’re experiencing, it’s gonna be far easier for them to recall these other people who have similar issues, whether, whether they’re, someone who’s in a job with them on a sports team with them or whatever lifestyle that is related.

You know their condition or their lives. So the idea is with viral marketing is to find those like-minded people, and ask them if they know anybody who. Is experiencing something that they’re, that they came to see you for, that they might be interested in referring more to you. So for instance, let’s say you have a patient who came in and they want to quit smoking, and you’ve had success with that patient in helping them to kick the habit.

So in with viral marketing, what you’ll do is you’ll provide them with specific tools that are specific on what you helped, that person, that patient. Overcome or get better with, so you’ll equip them with tools on quitting smoking and different routines and things of that nature to further their own awareness around how well, they’ve pro they’ve moved through this process, but they will also be able to identify other people who.

Are smokers who want to quit as well. So the idea with viral marketing is to find those specific people, those specific vectors, if you will, who who have similar the same condition or the same issue or the same concern that they can refer someone to. Okay. So other types of marketing are a little more diffuse and spread out and we just market to everybody without anything to focus on.

So this is more. Of like a specialized approach to getting your message out. So when you identify that particular person, you might have a number of people that come in any given week that have gotten, quit smoking and they’re, you’ve helped them achieve over overcome their digestive pain or you’ve helped them with allergies or whatever it is narrow down into each of those individual.

People with their individual conditions and ask if they might know somebody else who might be suffering from or might be experiencing or who, or might wanna make a change similar to what they’ve experienced there. So that is the idea behind viral marketing and I, a few ideas are to ask your patients this question.

So this is where you get a really good clarity on whether or not you are marketing your patient education. Is doing justice, right? So many practitioners just go in, they treat, they, patients leave and that’s it. Whereas it’s important for you as a practitioner to use every moment of the time that they’re in the treatment room, in the waiting room, and even what they go home with something that can further their knowledge and education.

So you will have a really good understanding as to. You stand with your patient education. If you ask them this question, if you were at a party and someone asked you what your acupuncturists did. What would you say, or how would you explain Chi or your care or whatever? Okay. So this is a very important piece to this part of viral marketing.

Having your patients be able to clearly explain what may have happened to them on the treatment table or how you have helped them overcome quit smoking, or have you have helped them with their allergies and so on. Because the more information they can provide. It becomes more convincing to that other person that they’re referring.

All right. The other part, another idea with viral marketing is to make sure that you identify your, a patients. And I talk about this probably every time we get together here and meet on Facebook is your, a patients are the patients that you know, and you love. And they’re just amazing, right? So your, a patients, as you want to just.

Populate your entire practice with these people because you really resonate with them. And when you see them on your schedule, your energy level goes up as opposed to those patients that you see on your schedule. And you’re just like, oh man, how am I gonna, how am I gonna get through this now?

So when you identify your eight patients, start with them and start identifying what they. Condition was that brought them to you in the first place that you helped them overcome, asked them if they know other people who might be suffering from that same problem and then go through your asking of a referral.

Okay. And that’s a whole different conversation that we’ll talk about at another time. You don’t have time for that today. Another part of the viral marketing aspect ideas is to make sure you have a strong call to action. Gift certificates or little business cards with a call to action on the back of them.

Something that literally motivates a person from the outside world to literally step foot in your practice. My friends, every marketing, you do needs to have some type of a call to action that motivates them to just be like, this is really cool. I wanna try this out and I’m gonna take them up on whatever that offer is.

Okay. And the other thing is to host a referral drive and referral. Quite simply are within your clinic where you are motivating your, a patients to help you achieve a certain number of new referrals in a particular given period of time. Like a month, you have a thermostat and you’re like, Hey patients, I wanna get to.

30 new patients. This month are 25 new referrals this month. And then every time a new referral comes in, you just keep filling it up and filling it up and filling it up. And it creates this good energy around the clinic. When you have a referral drive that everyone can participate in and it, know, you have your gift certificates ready, you have a conversation that you can share with your patients and so on.

So that’s another way to do that. Okay. Tip number two is doing some lead generation and lead generation. Is doing something like a promotional event that you could do at your practice. Okay. You could do it anywhere really, but doing something at your practice. But lead generation also goes beyond doing something in the clinic itself.

And I’ll talk about that in a few minutes. So doing lead generation accomplishes a few things, it celebrates your. Hosting event inside your clinic does a few things. I’m sorry, just for clarity’s sake, it celebrates your practice. It celebrates your patients. It brings in new blood and introduces new people to your practice and what you have to offer.

It builds Goodwill because you’re hosting a particular event. Inside the clinic that your patients are excited about and it attracts family, friends, current patients, and it reactivates inactive patients cuz you have something to share with them, to bring people back into the fold. Okay. So lead generation in this respect relates to the idea that you are bringing in more leads by hosting an event.

In your practice. Also many of you might be familiar with the term lead generation for online marketing, which is using emails and using opt-in forms and using Facebook ads and things of that nature that is important. That is lead generation, and you should always be doing something that generates new leads, AKA new patients, new prospects into your practice.

But that’s not what I’m talking about here in this. We’re talking about creating an event that you could use in your practice to bring people in. Okay. Hopefully that makes sense. Few ideas. You could host an acupuncture happy hour event or AKA 2022 technique, which is something that I’ve taught about in the past.

And using two acupuncture points, getting 20 minute treatments for 20 bucks and putting people on cloud nine using. Points for that. And I have a whole specific protocol and technique for hosting the acupuncture happy hour event. And if anyone’s interested, you can feel free to reach out to me, put a comment below here and I’ll check it out and I’ll send you some information about, about those types of events.

But those have been very fruitful when I hosted them in my clinic. You can also for lead generation, you can have an open. You could have a dinner with doc with, where you invite patients in to, have food with you or where you invite patients in have food with you and you’d get takeout from a local restaurant.

You could have professional networking meetups. You could have in-house talks, movie nights, how to events, like how to boost your immune system, how to alleviate stress, how to you. Create cone GS and things of that nature, healthcare classes, online marketing and social media. Okay. So that is a whole category in and of itself.

And like I said, we’re not really gonna go into that very much, but but those are some ideas, some ways to, for you to generate leads into your practice. So in uncertain times, what do you wanna do? Best thing to do is to throw a party in your clinic, right? Host people coming in there, generate some energy.

Generate some leads by doing something like. Okay. Tip number three is to get local. So you could team up with like-minded establishments and be part of a health fair or some type of a screening event that happens. And let me tell you one of the, one of the ways that I really grew my practice was by participating in health fairs on a weekly basis.

When I was practicing downtown Seattle and health. And screenings are an amazing way to generate new leads. Okay. So what it does, it allows you to meet people in person. You get to interact with one another that they get to learn what you do. They get to ask ’em questions. They also get to learn what you can do for them.

And you can talk with them about insurance. Connecting up, there’s a lot of business. LAR you know, those of you that are in larger cities or even smaller towns have larger companies that host health fairs that you might not even know about, or maybe you do see them, and you don’t even think about being, participating in that.

So health fairs are a great way for you to generate new leads. And it also lets you get local and start meeting more people around and. The more you put yourself out there, the more you’ll bring back to you. I’m not trying to be philosophical or anything like that, but that is the truth.

The more energy you’re putting out there, the more you’re gonna be pulling back. So the more you’re doing any type of Legion or any type of event or things of that nature, that’s all gonna come back to you. One thing that I wanna share with you, that is a massive tip. If you’re doing any type of health fair event or any type of screening, or even anything that you’re doing in the world, Put out Giovanni’s book on the ugliest tongues ever.

Take his book, open it up to that, that, that color palette of this page and put the tongues out there and people will walk by and they’ll be like, Ew, gross. Why do you have a bunch of tongues there? And that my friends. Opens up the door to conversa con conversation with this new prospect and allows you to begin educating them, informing them, inspiring them and encouraging them to come in to see you great tool.

I tried so many different ways to bring people and attract attention to my booths or my tables when I was at these health fairs. And this by far was the best thing that really pulled people in. So massive tip there. If you haven’t heard me talk about that. Tip number four is to reactivate inactive patients.

So for those of you that have been in practice for anywhere over a year or two, whatever it is, you probably have more inactive patient finals than you have active patients. I remember. Back in the day. My inactive patient file was many boxes, more than my file box of active patients. And it just happens, right?

People, they come see you, they fall out of care for a number of reasons, but this is something that you should be doing on a regular basis. You should be having a regular. Patient reactivation process and protocol that’s in place systematically every quarter in your practice where you’re going through your files, you’re reaching out to the patients that are falling out of care.

Start with your a patients, when you’re doing that and then rinse and repeat, keep it going, keep it cycling. And the reason is because inactive patient are a gold mine, right? Because you’ve spent time and energy. Bringing that person in the first place, getting them to see you, getting them on the table, getting them to accept care and getting them to pay you, or, getting their insurance on board and you spend all that time and energy making that happen and building that, knowing that like that trust factor.

It’s a lot easier to work with and market to those people who already know you. They like you, they already trust you than it is to bring somebody in. Who’s never seen you before. You gotta, then you gotta start just developing that relationship. So your inactive patients are goldmine for you to tap into.

So if you’re feeling slow in your practice, I would suggest you start a patient reactivation campaign, my friends. Okay. And a couple ways to do that. You can call people. Make a list of your, a patients you haven’t seen in a while that you love and you miss right. Call ’em up. Check in with them.

You can send snail mail, you can send emails, you can do newsletters that are printed in digital, and don’t lose them in the first place. Make sure you stay on top of mind awareness. That’s Toma to. Top of mind awareness, because what you want is what you want to keep having your patients see your logo, your brand, your comments on Facebook on a regular basis.

So when they think of, when something comes up for them, they think of you. Because you’re on their top of mind. Okay. And stay on top of it. Be consistent again, like I said, keep it in a cycle on a regular basis every three months or so. Okay. And then the fifth tip is to give talks, right? People are thirsty for information, that information that can help them be happier and live a healthier life.

Especially now people want that there’s stress. There’s immune problems. There’s there’s skin conditions. There’s breathing problems that are happening. How can you get out there and share the information that can help them be happier that can help them be healthier. You can provide.

Lectures, whether they’re free or they’re paid to organizations, to schools, to colleges, to libraries, to businesses, to support groups, to healthcare facilities. There’s so many opportunities here. There’s yoga studios. There’s other clinics that are out there. There’s chiropractors, massage therapists, there’s other professionals.

There’s doctors. That you could get out there and share this information about acupuncture. So again, if you’re not as busy as you want, you wanna get busier one way to do that, if you feel comfortable, giving talks is to get out there and give talks. And for those of you that are curious about giving talks, yet you.

Don’t feel super comfortable. I would encourage you to join Toastmasters. I encourage all of my students when I was teaching the practice management class to join Toastmasters, because it gives you the confidence to succeed as a talk giver, giving presentations, and also gives you access to potential referrals.

Okay. And the other thing is to just do it. My friends, you’ve heard this quote before and just get out there and do it. You don’t want to be like, SSUS here pushing a rock up the hill, you do some marketing and then it falls back down and you gotta get out there and mark it again. You don’t want take, if you’re struggling in your.

And you just shift one thing, just do one thing that could make all the change from you pushing this, struggling, Boulder up the hill to pushing something a little lighter. Okay. So just do it. I’m referring to the fact of just getting out there and just taking one little marketing nugget, whether it’s something you got from here today, whether it’s something I talked about in the past or what, something, somebody else didn’t just do it.

just get out there and switch it up. Just one little thing can make a massive change in your practice. Okay. And then, like I said, if you wanna learn more, we put together this free marketing bundle for you for a acupuncture and herbal medicine day. It’s got a bunch of cool things in there. There’s this website right here.

ACU websites.com/. Hyphen day, and you can download this really cool bundle that has all the tools that you could use in your practice to create and stimulate a greater awareness for for upcoming October 24th. Which is acupuncture and herbal medicine day. So folks again, thank you so much for taking the time and joining me here today.

Take one little piece of nugget and inspiration and insight and put it into use today. If you need any help, if you feel like you need some accountability or some questions or concerns, reach out to me. You could reach out below here, or you could send an email to Jeffrey acupuncture, mediaworks.com.

It’s J E F R E Y. Other than that next Fri or this coming Friday is gonna be Shelly Goldstein. Who’s gonna be joining us. So keep your eye out for another great event that the AAC will be putting on. So in the meantime, stay strong, be well, take a nugget, put into the use, just do it and we’ll see you soon.

Take care. Bye bye.

Handling the Money and Time Objection

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Do you get discouraged when you hear money is tight? I can’t afford it or things like I don’t have the time for, and this is Chen Yen. You’re six and seven figure, practice makeover, mentor at introvertedvisionary.com and your host for the acupuncture American Acupuncture Council show today. So this can be something that when you hear you, you think, oh, I could so help this person.

And so how can you navigate this so that whoever you’re talking to will actually end up deciding to come in for treatments, if it’s really the best fit for them and it, if it could really help them? So let’s talk about this, that there are couple of key things that can help with this. The first thing is that it’s really important, cuz how many of you feel like you don’t wanna be pushy?

Go ahead and tie like this. If you feel like you don’t wanna be pushing, cuz you’re not alone with that. And one thing about this is that I was actually thinking about this one day. I. I just had this click that. You know what there’s actually no pushy a leader out there. There’s no one that says, oh, you’re pushy.

Oh, wait, you’re not pushy. Oh, wait. You’re pushy. So it’s really about how can we come from the person’s highest good in how we help our, or talk to our potential patients or clients. And if we can be in alignment with that, then we can’t control whether someone might feel like we we are being pushy or not.

How do, can you navigate when someone says to you, money is tight or I can’t afford it. So how many of you tend are feeling like you’re hearing this more or maybe just about the same or less than before. Go ahead and type in the comment and below, and I’m curious, I’d love to see, as far as the money is tightening the first thing too that’s important is to really help whoever you’re talking to, to feel heard.

So for example, what acknowledging that they said that whether it’s, I understand or empathize with their, what they’re saying, and then the next step is something that a lot of. Acupuncturists and other holistic practitioners end up skipping over bring up and which is. Finding out more about what they’re really thinking and why is this?

Because when someone says money is tight or I can’t afford it, why does someone say that? Sometimes they truly can’t afford it. But sometimes it’s because they don’t really know how you could they haven’t really Brought into the idea of coming to you for treatments or that this is the best approach for them yet.

So they might say that because they’re not really sure yet. And. And then cuz have you ever paid for something that, that it, maybe you even were looking for this one particular thing, but then I, you didn’t think it was the right fit. So thought, oh, you even mentioned to someone that you couldn’t afford it, but then you might have turned around and bought something that was even more expensive.

So you the truth was you had the money but that whatever you were looking for, you didn’t feel like it was the right fit. So you just said you couldn’t afford it, but you really could afford it. How many of you has that ever happened to you before? The first step is to find out what more about their situation and in terms of whether they’re interested or, they’re ready to move forward.

It’s just that money is a consideration or so what you can say is this something you wanna do and money is a consideration, or you’re not really sure yet. So that way they can tell you more about how they’re really feeling about the treatment that you’re recommend. Then what you can say next is you can say, let’s talk it through happy to answer any questions for you.

So what kind of, what questions or con considerations or cons you could either say considerations, or you could say concerns, what questions or concerns are you are you having, so then you could understand more about where they’re coming from, and then if there’s something that they aren’t as educated about yet, or then you can educate them about that.

But if you never ask that question then and you jump to the conclusions that they can’t afford it, then you would never know that. So that’s really important and can help you. The other thing is that depending on what the where you are at in the conversation and how the conversations is going, sometimes it’s about being very direct with people.

For example, it could be mentioning that mentioning this so you can write this down. We will pay for what we prioritize to be important. The truth is when you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. When you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. And then just leave it at that. And then you could say it’s up, but it’s up to you.

and again, if you are truly coming from that, person’s highest good. Then what you say will land for people and really help them think. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from. Acupuncturist and other practitioners, for example, this one acupuncturist was telling me that she had a patient of hers tell her that I can’t afford it.

And then she drives off in this really nice car. And sometimes people need to be reminded about the importance of their health and that’s what you’re there for. So if you truly have Their best in terms of you feeling like you’re recommending what’s truly best for them in your heart, then you saying being direct will actually help them think so.

Now let’s talk a little bit about the consideration of, I don’t have time. So this is something where how many of you sometimes hear this? I, the, I don’t have time to come back once a week or twice a week, or, once a month, I’m so busy. The times that you have just don’t work for me and then you start thinking, oh wait, maybe I need to go change it around my calendar, make myself more available at this time so I can fit them in or right.

And the again, this is a similar similarly you can bring up. So there, there are two, two reasons why someone might say that they don’t have time. One is that they are really busy and then they’re not really seeing the value of what you’re recommending in terms of them coming in for treatments as a higher value to what they’re doing with their.

And so this is another scenario where either it might require them understanding the importance of getting the treatments and how it’s going to help with their health and how important that is. And if it makes sense, too, you could also bring in the truth is that when, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.

Sometimes even, people like us, right? Clinicians who really care about our health, even ourselves, we need to be reminded of that sometimes when we get busy as well and let alone our patients or potential patients. So now the very important thing here is, remember how I mentioned to you about how how many of you are concerned about being too pushy.

Here’s one hot tip. So that is in, in terms of, if you are already thinking about how can you help them understand or educate them more about this. So they get it more before you say things like are, is this something that you wanna do? But money is a consideration or saying things like the truth is if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything before saying that.

It’s really important for your potential patient or patient to feel heard. So the first step is to acknowledge them, whether it’s whatever they said to you, like I understand, or whatever they say and really, feel into understanding them from where they’re at.

The only thing that I would, wouldn’t say that I understand or Frame that I get that is I don’t have the money or I can’t afford it. So instead of saying, I understand you don’t have the money. Or I understand you can’t afford it. Why would I not reinforce that? It’s just because people say that for different reasons.

Some people say it because they can’t afford it. They truly can’t afford it. Some people say it because they can’t afford it, but they don’t really. See that this is something they wanna do yet. Like they’re not sure yet. And or they don’t see the value in it or they don’t trust in you enough.

And that’s why they’re just saying I can’t afford it. And that’s why it, if someone says that you don’t need to reinforce that for them, because it may or may not be true. So what you can say in that situation and what I like to say or recommend our clients say is if it resonates with you, is that I understand money is a, it sounds like money is a consideration for you, right?

And then you can talk things through. Okay. So as far as here’s another hot tip, as far as the here’s one of our clients, she’s actually an, so she’s an acupuncturist. And then she says that she likes to, to work this into the conversation. And so you could listen in on this and then see if it resonates with you.

And if it also matches up with what’s happening, then you could also incorporate it in your visits or conversations by phone. So she says that she likes to break up to people that at the end of the day, It. She only wants people who are happy to be here. So if it doesn’t feel good to you, then it’s and then this isn’t the time for you to do this.

However, if it feels good and it’s something that you wanna do, let’s talk it through. So it’s let’s talk through your XYZ. Let’s talk it through to see if we could work it out together, because once you leave, then I can’t give you any other information. So if there’s something that I can talk through, then let’s talk through it.

So once you leave, so it could be once you leave or once you get off the phone, once you get off the phone, then I can’t give you any other information. So if there’s something we could talk through, let’s talk through it. So really energetically with this, it’s about being committed, but not attached, being committed to help them.

But not be attached to them. Seeing. So energetically holding that space for your potential patient or or client. So do you ever have other kinds of concerns that people bring up like, but you don’t accept insurance and then that’s the end of the conversation or I need to for some of you who may be Offering things like packages or things that could involve spouse, like fertility kinds of things.

Do you ever get people saying, oh, I need to talk to my spouse. So do you end up feeling like, Ugh what do I say to this? And what and so if these are, and other kinds of considerations or concerns sometimes trip you up as far as how best to hold the energy, how best to hold the space for whoever it is that you’re talking to.

And what to say, right? And so if that’s something. Has been a challenge or you would just like to. Having more mastery with withholding the space, then feel free to, to check out our website@introvertedvisionary.com and you can go to the about button and then the contact button and just message me there.

And I’m happy to give you a template that a script, as far as what you can a framework of what you can see if it resonates as far as how to navigate. For example, the insurance kind. Situation which can come up in a practice often. That way you’re not in a place where it’s do you accept insurance?

And if you don’t accept their insurance, or if you don’t accept insurance at all, then that’s the end of the conversation. So how can you navigate that in, in an authentic way? And that feels good to you. So yeah, so feel free to, to just message me there@introvertedvisionary.com. And and click up out and then contact us and happy to send that to you.

To you educating people and really holding the space for their highest, and if it’s not the highest good for them in terms of what you feel like would be good for them, then refer them somewhere else or suggest some something else. And that will allow you to To have the space to continue to attract people who are really the best fit to, to work with you.

So look forward to hearing how this goes, and till next time.

Removing the Fear of Discussing Informed Consent

We are going to be talking about a sticky topic that as practitioners I’m sure some of us try to shy away from, but it’s extremely important.

Click here to download the transcript.

Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of, to the point. I am Dr. Nell with the American Acupuncture Council, and I’d like to thank AAC for the opportunity to present today. We are going to be talking about a sticky topic that as practitioners I’m sure some of us try to shy away from, but it’s extremely important.

And that is removing the fear of discussing informed consent. As usual, I’m going to make sure that you all have tools at the end of this, that you can implement in your practice. Immediately. With that being said, let’s go to the.

Okay. So here’s how today’s going to get broken down. In, a short value-driven time period. We’re going to start with how you’re currently using informed consent. What does that look like? How patients actually feel about informed consent versus how we might feel about informed consent.

So some key element. Of informed consent, what needs to be in there for it to be effective. And then do’s, and don’ts because there are some things that we naturally want to do as practitioners that don’t necessarily align with what we need to be doing when having this important discussion. And then of course, those very tangible takeaways that we need for you all, to be able to say, Hey, I did this 15 minute live and now I’m going to implement in my practice.

So let’s dive right in. How are you currently using this? So when I say. We’re discussing informed consent. What does that first thought look like? Is it, oh, that’s that form? That’s in my electronic health records and it’s a quick sign off that patients do before they come in. Is that something that even gets discussed?

Is it part of your new patient packet when you’re coming in, your patients coming into the office and you have a stack of paperwork for them to fill out. They’re running late and you still want to get them in and they’re going through everything and just signing as quickly as possible. Do you actually use this as a counseling tool?

Do you go through it? Is it a written and verbal way to educate your patient on what their treatment plan is going to look like and what they should anticipate? Are some of you feeling unsure? I know I’ve been in this place before, when I was new to practice. Yes. I believe informed consent is a forum.

How am I utilizing that beyond a quick signature? And if we’re being honest, it might be this last one. Is it something you just get someone to sign as quickly as possible? Hoping that they won’t ask questions like, oh gosh, I don’t want them to ask about bruising or pneumothorax because that’s going to be an uncomfortable conversation.

We’re going to go through these and actually flip it. So you see what an incredible opportunity we do have. I truly believe that informed consent and discuss. Discussions around. It is probably one of the most underutilized patient retention tools. And usually we don’t think of it in that way. So that’s what I’m hoping you all are going to get out of this today.

So let’s keep going. So perception versus reality. So that last note that I had on. Slide about, are you just racing through it, hoping that they sign it in your electronic health records forms. And then we don’t have to really have a discussion around it because there are things like pneumothorax, bruising, potential bleeding burns from moxa or cupping.

Those are things that are actually in an informed consent. And so that can feel a little intimidating and a little scary to have to talk somebody through because our medicine is very safe. The good news is patients are very accustomed to signing informed consent. A lot of times it’s a very passive process.

Half the time they don’t even read it. But when we dive into those elements of informed consent, we’re going to see that. Not only them reading, but also understanding is a key part of that. And we want to make sure that we’re doing that. So with that being said, we are going to dial down our fear because patients are used to this.

If they go into any other medical practice, they’re accustomed to signing an informed consent form. And also. No those drug commercials or when you get a prescription and that long, long sheet of paper that lists all of the potential side effects of what they’re entering into with that prescription.

This is something that is so common nowadays, and it’s not unusual to go to a doctor’s office and have to sign an informed consent. And part of that is our legitimacy as medical providers, right? So we want to be doing things that align us with the healthcare delivery system. So we can provide that integrative care that is really patient centered.

That being. This looks intimidating, especially as a practitioner. We like to spend time with our patients. We have a very personalized medicine. We want to get to know them. And some of this can feel a little impersonal at first glance, but I want to briefly break this down for you because when you look at these elements of an informed consent form, You realize this is actually about patient centered care and this opens up true opportunities to dive into conversations that will actually help your patients come back into your practice.

So converting from new patients to overturning patient, so this whole form am definitely not reading it through. If you want a copy of this form. We do have one through the American acupuncture council and I am happy to send it to you. And my email is posted on this. So Nell at acupuncture, council.com.

I’d be more than happy to send you this because it’s a good, solid, informed consent form. But what does this actually say paragraph by paragraph? The first paragraph is just saying. As a patient, I understand that I’m signing this agreement and these are the things that are going to be included in this agreement.

Then we get into. That they are actually requesting the treatment. It’s not something that’s being forced upon them. It’s something that they are saying, yes. I would like acupuncture and I’m ready to enter into this treatment space. Different methods of treatment. So is it acupuncture? Is it ? Is it cupping?

Moxa. Those are the different methods that they could encounter herbal medicine when seeing a practitioner such as ourselves and then getting into the benefits and risks. Quite frankly, we should probably flip that. It’s a little more risks than benefits. Hopefully you are throughout the entire process of bringing a prospective patient into your practice and then retaining them as a patient you’re of course, going to be going over benefits in this form, though, there is more of a focus on the risks because patients need to be informed about what those potential risks may be.

And this is where I actually think that opportunity comes in for a discussion, which we’re going to go over in a few minutes. Something also very important results are not guaranteed and there’s no promise to cure. Now with this, that is standard across all medical practices, you are not going to go to a doctor’s office that tells you their results are guaranteed.

It’s not a spa experience. It’s not Walmart. It’s not, McDonald’s where you have it, your way. You’re a medical provider. And so we can’t make those promises. And especially in our medicine, we know. How individuals bodies respond very differently to treatment and those expectations have to be managed appropriately.

And again, that levels us up to being on par with other medical providers, because of course, we’re not going to promise to cure someone or guarantee results. And then going over the patient has responsibilities with this as well. It’s not just about you informing the patient. This is what they should anticipate, but it’s also the patient accepting responsibility for their part in this treatment.

What gets focused on in the informed consent when it comes to the patient’s responsibility is to inform the practitioner. So let’s say you have a patient who is not pregnant when they initially come into your practice. They should be letting you know if they become pregnant later on. If they stopped taking a medication.

If they start taking a medication, how would you know that unless you are in active communication with their MD or the patient tells you. And so we want to be really clear that there is a patient responsibility aspect to this informed consent. It’s not just about you as a practitioner, laying all these things out there for them.

And then alternatives to the care that you are recommending. And, in this particular form, might list and sides might list massage. What are things that people may be doing through the standard of care? Or could be doing other options that are out there for whatever ailment that they have, that they’re coming to you for treatment.

And it’s important because again, that’s informing the patient and that is true patient centered care. You want people to know what their options are and then an opportunity for questions. This is actually a requirement that. They’re signing off as the patient saying, I was given an opportunity to ask questions with this form.

And I think this is important because how do we remedy that with, the standard way that electronic health records and patient intakes are set up? A lot of times people are filling out this form before they come into your practice. And that’s not really the design of informed consent, and we are going to go a little bit into.

How this is so much more than a form and how you can incorporate this in every patient treatment that you give and that you need to be incorporating it in every patient treatment that.

Let’s look at the do’s and don’ts, so let’s not set it and forget it. So what do I mean by that? There are things that you do want to set it and forget it. Your business license, you want to make sure you take care of that. And that’s not really something that you might need to be thinking about on a day to day, your malpractice insurance, it protects you.

You’re paying for it every year. You know that you’re covered, you’re reading your policy. Should be reading your policy. But unless something arises, it’s not something that you have to actively engage with on a day-to-day basis. Informed consent is different. It is not something that you just have someone sign on that very first visit and then never have another conversation around it.

And I’ll tell you exactly how we implement that. We don’t want to limit that informed consent to the first visit. Okay. Every time you go into a patient room to check them when they have needles in, if you are taking needles out, if you are reinserting needles, that’s an informed consent conversation that communication that you have with your patient telling them that you’re going to be inserting a needle into GB 30, which is in a sensitive area.

That’s informed consent, asking the patient, if that’s okay, asking that they understand the purpose of that part of your treatment. So it’s something that you will engage in constantly. And we don’t want to shy away from discussing these key points of the informed consent, particularly those potential adverse events.

This is actually an opportunity to educate your patient because. If they are used to standard of care, if they’re used to integrative care, they’ve run into horrific potential side effects from treatment, whether it’s from pharmaceutical medication surgery, a lot of things that people with chronic illness.

Which is what we see in this country run into. And it’s actually an opportunity to get into those potential risks of treatment and educate the patient on how truly safe this medicine is. And you’ll be able to come up with your own ways. I can give you some examples in a minute of how to talk about bruising.

How to talk about how bruising from cupping is different than an injury bruise and. It’s the same thing. When people are doing sales, like to address the objections, you want to make sure you get in front of that because you don’t know where your patient’s mind is going to wander to. And how scary potential side effects could look for them.

And maybe they’re just mulling over that in their head. This gives you an opportunity to educate them on how unlikely some of the risks are and how common some of them are things to definitely do. And we, I just alluded to this a little bit, engage the patient in a collaborative conversation. When you’re making sure that they have time for their questions when you are welcoming those questions and actually going out of your way to elicit those questions by diving into them informed consent, that creates a bond with your patient that helps build trust.

That allows them to understand like, Hey. This person, this practitioner is truly engaged in helping me with my long-term health goals. This isn’t them just trying to get through paperwork, which unfortunately is something that patients are used to that will set you apart, engaging in that conversation and remain confident.

Because again, you are a medical provider, just like other medical providers that patients have seen in the past. You have this patient centered approach they’re already used to informed consent. So you taking the time to really dive into that with them, you should be confident. You are an expert in your field.

You’re more of an expert, even if you’re right out of school, more of an expert than the patient who’s coming to see you. So you deserve to have that. And realizing that patients are not, they’re just not intimidated by informed consent. They may have questions. I hope they have questions. I hope they’re engaged in their care.

That’s good for you as a provider. If someone is committed to their health and reaching their health. But just know that they’re not intimidated by this questions do not mean they’re against signing this form or engaging in this process now. All right. So like I told you, your tangible things, your action items for informed consent.

So I always tell students and practitioners, there is huge opportunity here. When you look at it as an opportunity to educate, and I am all about managing expectations. I think it is something that unfortunately, how many of you have had that patient who says, oh, I tried acupuncture before it doesn’t work.

Oh, how many times did you try it once? Did anyone tell them that it takes more than one treatment to receive sustained results for a chronic condition? No. So you get to be the provider who does educate that patient. So things that you can have a really engaged discussion on that actually turn your new patients into compliant followup patients who can become a life patients, because you’re building that trust and you’re managing the expectations on the front end.

Let’s talk about the results, not being guaranteed. Again, very standard across medical practices to have something in there saying results are not guaranteed. The way that I like to discuss this beyond just saying, in the form, we don’t guarantee results. Engage that patient in a discussion around how everyone’s body is.

How this medicine focuses on individualized, personalized, comprehensive care, which means that the patient that’s sitting in front of you, that’s suffering from insomnia and their friend who was suffering from insomnia and got this one point in time. Doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for the patient sitting in front of you.

That’s an opportunity to educate them on how treatment plans look different on how you are going to be putting your time, your energy, your commitment as a provider towards their personalized treatment plan. What a great way to discuss results, not being guaranteed. It’s about them. It’s about how their body responds.

That also engages the patient in this space where they realize, oh, I have. In my treatment plan as well. It’s not just about this doctor telling me what to do and I lay there on the table and get needles and it’s magically going to change my life. I have things that I can be doing outside of here. And that’s the same thing with no promise to cure.

It’s that personalized care we have to see how your body responds, knowing this medicine, this is what I anticipate. As you’re talking through your report of findings, you’re talking through your treatment plan. You get to utilize your expertise, but also make sure that the patient has some ownership in that.

This is an important one. There may be discomfort before relief. How many of you check in with your patient after that first? See how they’re doing, particularly if they’ve never had acupuncture before they’re coming in for pain, they feel great walking out the door. And then they go home to the stress of their kids or to the stress of work.

They are, physically moving things in a way where they don’t have proper biomechanics. They can do outside of your treatment. So many things to either promote your treatment and the good work that you did or completely tear it apart. And again, because of the individualized nature of our medicines, You don’t know which way that’s going to go for somebody.

And so knowing that there may be to some discomfort and that, we’re retraining the body, we’re reminding the body, what it feels like to be balanced, to have homeostasis that takes some time to stick. This is the managing expectations piece. And this all comes from a proper conversation around informed consent.

Okay. There’s no one size fits all approach. You are a wonderful, special individual. Who doesn’t want to feel special, making that patient feel special. And that you’re curating something just for them and knowing that they’re not going to be fixed after just one visit, you have to understand it’s not a no brainer for patients who haven’t experienced this medicine.

They are used to taking a pill and having symptoms go away. The problem isn’t necessarily solved, but that is the quick turnaround that immediate gratification that patients are accustomed to. And so we need to be able to recognize that, address it and explain that, it’s like a lot of things you could go to the gym.

You’re not going to get into shape or lose 10 pounds. It depends on what your goals are, how many treatments you’re going to need, how your body responds, but managing those expectations on the front end so that your patient doesn’t turn into somebody who goes to another acupuncturist, say it didn’t work for me.

And then I like to consider using more than one informed consent form. And I’ll tell you how I do this in my practice. And we have a. Host next week Michelle Gallas, who will be talking about cosmetic acupuncture. She is an expert in that field. And so she, might agree with this as well when you’re doing certain procedures like cosmetic acupuncture or micro-needling, there’s a higher risk involved with that.

It’s a little bit different than a general acupuncture treatment. Then cupping then Quasha. So I utilize AACS informed consent form, which has a very comprehensive, the form that we went over today. Very comprehensive list and you’re well covered. But I use an additional form for cosmetic acupuncture and microneedling.

The reason I do this is because it opens up yet another conversation. It doesn’t scare people off who are not getting cosmetic acupuncture and microneedling. If you have microneedle, you need to be listing bleeding. The face obviously is much more likely to bruise than other areas of the body.

You want people to stay out of the sun after microneedling depending on, what you use topically and. Depth all of that. So those are things you might not have to talk about with someone for a general acupuncture treatment. And so to keep the conversation really focused and make sure you are reaching the goal of having a patient who understands who is requesting the treatment excited about the treatment.

I like to use those separately. So if I have someone who comes in initially for a regular treatment, they’re being onboarded as a new patient, I will use the general informed consent because let’s say six months later, they’re like, wow, my GI issues are gone. My insomnia is better. I heard you do cosmetic work.

Can we do some of that? I want that new form coming in for a new discussion so that it’s fresh in their mind. And we have an opportunity to have that collaboration together, and the patient really understands what the expectations are. So I recommend always look for ways to discuss informed consent rather than shying away from it.

This is going to boost patient engagement, those referrals. You want patients who are excited and enthusiastic about the care that they received from you and something that makes us so different from other providers, patients usually see it’s not only that individualized approach, but that true connection that you have with your patients.

They want to feel that people want to feel heard. They want to feel validated, understood, and like you’re making a plan, especially for them. And so when we focus on that and look for ways that we can incorporate informed consent, whether it’s when you go in five minutes after the treatment is started, just to check on the patient, to stimulate the needle.

Let them know what you’re doing, ask them if it’s okay. Ask them how they’re feeling, how they’re responding. You get so much valuable feedback from that. And each touch point like that helps build trust with your patients who are then more likely to continue in your care and are more likely to refer other people to your practice.

So this is what we got through today. I hope that we’ve shifted some minds and hearts how we’re currently using the informed consent, how patients really feel about it. We went through those key elements do’s and don’ts, and then of course your tangible takeaways. So thank you all so much. For joining today I’m very excited about our next speaker next week on to the point, like I said, we have Michelle Gellis.

She is an expert in the cosmetic acupuncture field. I think, yeah, I might need to tune in and get some tips from her. So thank you all again for joining and be sure to share.