More Medicare Cuts for Physical Therapy in 2012

I just opened my mail today and found a pitch from PT-PAC urging me to send them $25-$1000 to keep “12 members of Congress” from including Medicare payments to all providers “especially physical therapy” in the $1.2 Trillion they have to cut from the Federal budget in the next 90 days.

Don’t get me wrong – as a consultant, who has intensely studied marketing, I recognize the pattern of their pitch – the blend of fear and urgency, the catchy creative.  I recognize it, but I don’t have to like it.

I just happened to have spent this morning doing the math.  I’ve reviewed the CBO reports that detail the state of the U.S. economy and the economic impact of increased Federal health care spending on our future prosperity.  And I’m not OK with it.  I don’t even have kids, but I think it’s crazy to mortgage the future of young people in this country to save the system we have.

We already spend more than $1 out of every $7 in total national value creation on healthcare.  And that might be OK with me if (1) we had an awesome system that actually consistently delivered health and (2) there was an end in sight to the increases in the percentage of our national resources that the “healthcare” system was consuming.  But such is far from the case.

Thanks, PT-PAC, but I think I’ll just go ahead and invest my $1000 attracting more clients who see the value of what I can do for them (and are willing to pay for it themselves) instead of paying for the current circus in Washington.

The best thing I can do for Physical Therapy right now is create and follow a blueprint that profitably improves the results actual patients get without contributing to the bureaucratic mess.  We have no business supporting the status quo.  The means is just as important as the end.

Physical Therapy Marketing

Is there any REAL Information out there?

Physical therapy marketing is another passion of mine. In a world where corporate physical therapy and POP clinics are driving quality minded physical therapy practices out of business, it seems to me that marketing our practices is the one core skill that will make the difference between clinics that thrive in the coming years and those that disappear.

Despite this, we’re being bombarded with a bunch of marketing tactics packaged up to make us scared or buy someone else’s “solution” without really understanding how the alternatives fit together for our practice.

And there’s precious little actual information out there, but here’s a link to an article that actually gives some substantive information about the internet and physical therapy marketing.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Does this kind of information matter? Does it help you market your physical therapy practice more effectively?

Internet vs. Phone Book

My assistant’s thirteen-year-old daughter was at the office this afternoon.

I showed her the phone book (that had been serupticiously delivered earlier in the day) and asked her if she knew what it was.

Her completely sincere response: “It has car ad’s in it, right?”

How does she find phone numbers, when they’re not already saved on her Droid?  She searches the internet.

From the mouth of babes…

Here’s an article with a whole bunch of info on physical therapy marketing online.

Great Service IS Great Marketing

This week was the first week of produce pick-up for our CSA (community supported agriculture).  Greg and I had finally joined this year, rather than picking and choosing our veggies week by week at the local farmers market and (remembering the bounties we had witnessed last year) were looking forward to hauling home a crate full of early season greens.

Lucas (our farmer), greeted us enthusiastically, showing us the new branded Fledging Crow crates that we (now members) would be using each week.  I peeked into ours expecting, what, I don’t know – a mid summer harvest?  And was surprised to discover that our share consisted of a bunch of rapini (broccoli raab), a bunch of spring onions (blossom included), pea shoots (yum – my favorites) and a bag of last year’s carrots.

For a moment I was disappointed, then incredibly touched.  This spring has been incredibly cold, wet and rainy here in upstate New York.  I knew from a visit to the farm a couple of months ago that Lucas and Ian (our other farmer) were working hard, but were concerned about the late arrival of spring.

Still, my first share of the season included not just the early spring harvest, but a cache of carrots, ferreted away over the winter, filling out my share crate (saying “we care”) and a newsletter sharing news of baby plants, growing, but not yet ready for harvest.

Great marketing isn’t about fancy pictures, great offers, or targeted marketing messages.  It’s about coming from a point of service, then telling people about it.  It’s about doing the right thing (at the right time) for the right reason.

P.S. – To learn more about “the Crow’s”  and community supported agriculture, check out Fledging Grow Vegetables.

 

How Leads Are Like Raspberries

Last weekend, I invited a friend to come over and pick blueberries on our property with her 5-year-old son.  She laughed and told me that no one shares their berry patch – berry patches are secrets because they are precious and scarce.  I told her they were welcome anyway.

A couple of days later as I was out running I discovered a huge raspberry patch.  The bushes were completely loaded with bright plump berries, just waiting to be picked.

I was struck by the idea that leads are like raspberries.  If you think they are precious and scarce, that’s your experience.  If you know that they are abundant, you just stumble on them in the course of taking your usual actions.

Of course, you still have to roll your sleaves up and pick them. (These were delicious and completely worth the effort.)

What do you think?

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