Website Mistakes

5 Steps To Resigning From Insurance Panels

One of the most common questions that private practice therapists ask me is "How do I get off of insurance panels?" This question just came up today in my Private Practice Toolbox Facebook Group so I thought it would be a great topic for a blog post. In previous posts I've written about why I broke up with managed care (part 1) & (part 2), but this post will focus on how to do it.

The thought of letting go of the comfort of being on insurance panels can create a lot of anxiety for private practice therapists. After all, if we don't have clients, we don't get paid. Find comfort in knowing this equation. You only need about half the number of clients in a self-pay practice to make the same income (or more) than you made in an insurance based practice. Once I realized this fact, I felt a lot more comfortable resigning from insurance panels. Let's do the math...

Insurance:

Say you are seeing 20 managed care clients per week and you are reimbursed an average of $70 per client.

20 clients x $70 session = $1,400

20 clients x $70 session x 4 weeks = $5,600 per month

(then subtract your time or money spent in billing and paperwork)

Fee-for-service:

2o clients x $125 = $2500/wk

20 clients x $125 session x 4 weeks = $10,000 per month

10 clients x $125 session x 4 weeks = $5,000 per month

(with NO extra paperwork, NO delay in payment, NO denied claims, NO required diagnosis...)

So often we focus on number of clients instead of the quality of clients and the amount collected per client.

5 Steps To Resigning From Health Insurance Panels

1) Rank the insurance companies

Make a list of insurance panels and rank them from your most favorite to least favorite based on:

  • reimbursement rates
  • paper work requirements
  • how quickly you're paid
  • number of clients you see from each panel
  • the type of clients generally referred
  • your general feeling working with each panel

2) Resign in waves starting with your least favorite

Generally, I recommend to my consulting clients to resign in waves over the course of a year. Resign first from the panels with the lowest ranking - the ones that pay the least and are the most difficult to work with.

3) Check your contract for resignation requirements

Review your contract to check on the resignation process that you agreed to. Look at the time frame required. Do you need to give them 30, 60, or 90 days notice? Do you need to send in a written letter?

4) Beef up your web presence

As part of your plan to resign from insurance panels, it critical to invest in creating other referral sources. The most important being your web presence. Google is my #1 referral source. The majority of our clients who come to my clinic Wasatch Family Therapy find us online. The benefit of clients finding you online is that they've already read about you, your services, and your philosophy on your website and have chosen to contact you. This increases the likelihood that they will be willing to pay your full fee.

  • Website - If you don't have a website, make that a top priority. If you have a website, make sure it's effective. Here are some common website mistakes and how to fix them.
  • Blog - If you don't have a blog on your site, add one and start blogging weekly.
  • Therapist finder sites - join PsychologyToday.com, GoodTherapy.org, and your professional organization's "find a therapist" site to help potential clients find you.

5) Know the benefits of self-pay and be prepared to educate clients

There are benefits to the client for paying out of pocket, instead of going through their insurance company, that they may not be aware of. As you make the transition away from managed care to a fee-for-service practice it's important to familiarize yourself with these benefits so you can educate your clients. A few of those benefits are: control over which provider you choose to work with, the course of treatment decided on by client and therapist instead of insurance company, and no diagnosis requirement.

Here's an example of how a provider educates her patients on the benefits of self-pay. Utah Psychiatrist Kelli Hyland, MD my colleague and consultation client, shares her philosophy in this blog post "Why Self-pay?"

(c) Can Stock Photo

8 Real World Marketing Strategies From Successful Therapists

Global Bathymetry DEM With Satellite Landmass (Version 2, Globe)Learning about marketing your private practice and actually doing it are very different things. I recently interviewed several successful private practice therapists about marketing strategies that have worked for them in the "real world".

My goal is to inspire you to effectively market your practice. You don't have to do all of these to build a successful practice. Just start with one that speaks to you and build from there.

1) Public Speaking

Public speaking not only educates your community, but also raises visibility and attracts clients to your private practice. "I did a lot of public speaking in neighborhood institutions - schools, churches, synagogues, hospitals to get my name recognized," says Dr. Roberta Temes of New York City. Parenting After Loss founder Amy Luster, M.A., LMFT also offers community presentations on on her specialty areas: infertility, high-risk pregnancy, and miscarriage patients as well as to the health-care providers that treat them as part of her marketing strategy.  Presentations on hypnotherapy have proven tan effective marketing tool for  Dr. Mary Sidhwani. "The community learns more about the effectiveness of hypnotherapy and also creates exposure for my practice and services," Sidhwani says.

2) Dynamic Website

Emma K. Viglucci, CFT, LMFT, CIT launched her practice website before most therapists had even considered it. "Marketing my website online has been the most effective marketing tool for me." Private practitioner Esther Kane, MSW of British Columbia agrees. An effective website has been the best way to market her practice and says it's an added benefit to be married to a website designer.

(Read 5 Common Website Mistakes And How To Fix Them)

3) Say "Yes" to Social Media

While some therapists are hesitant about using the social media to market their practice (and I'm not one of them), others are finding it to be an effective marketing tool. Viglucci says, "I've embraced this new aspect of online marketing at the beginning of this year, and was able to reduce my marketing budget by a 1/3 within 3 months." I echo her enthusiasm for using social media to build your practice. Facebook is the #2 traffic source to my private practice website Wasatch Family Therapy.

(Read Why Social Media Matters To Therapists)

4) Connect With Other Professionals

Professional networking is crucial for success in private practice, especially if you have a specific treatment niche. In addition to public speaking, Luster focuses her marketing efforts on building strong professional referral relationships with health care and childbirth providers, and parenting educators who work with her ideal clients.

Shannon Purtell, an anger management specialist finds that that getting involved in local professional organizations helps build her practice.

I found one of the best marketing strategies was to get involved with a local chapter of EAPA (Employee Assistance Professionals Association). I served on the board for 2 years as secretary and 2 years as president. These positions put me in regular contact with other mental health professionals, representatives from local and national EAP's, and marketing representatives from a variety of treatment centers. I was able to build professional relationships that have provided me with a steady referral base for years.

5) Everyday Life Networking

Networking as a marketing strategy need not be confined to other professionals. Therapist Diane Spear LCSW-R markets her New York City private practice by thinking about networking in everyday life.

The biggest thing has been learning to network in everyday life--there are millions of opportunities to mention what I do and that I'm expanding my practice, and educating friends and non-therapist professionals about how to refer their friend, colleague, or patient to me.

6) Word of Mouth

Sometimes just being an effective therapists has its own marketing benefits. There's nothing like the power of a strong recommendation from a friend or family member. Clients want to go to a therapist whom they can trust and they're more than willing to borrow that trust from someone else. "The best marketing strategy is word of mouth," says Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore. "Colleagues, pediatricians, and former clients who know me and know my work are my best referral sources!" Dr. John Duffy echoes the importance of word-of-mouth marketing. "Over the past several years now, the vast majority of my clients come from client and former client referrals."

7) Expert Media Appearances

Texas therapist Shannon Putrell, LPC recently had an amazing national TV appearance and additional visibility and credibility to her private practice.

I was contacted by a client that was participating in a reality program on MTV called True Life: I Need Anger Management. I worked with her and was featured in this episode of the series. The exposure that the program brought me helped to solidify my reputation in this niche, and increased my referrals to my program.

Regular local news, radio, and television appearances continue to help build my practice and provide a platform to educated thousands and thousands of people in one shot. As my clinic has grown, I've also trained therapists in how to pitch to the media. Watch some of our recent TV interviews here.

(Read more about building your practice through TV interviews)

 8) Write For Papers & Websites

Writing for local papers, websites, or blogs is a great way to familiarize your community with you and your specialty areas. Dr. Mary Sidhwani found that contributing articles to a small local paper increased her exposure and familiarized the community with her practice.

For a couple of years, I wrote for a local magazine, Wasatch Woman, who's readership closely matched my ideal client. Not only did it help get the word out about my practice, it added to my credibility and drew clients to my practice.

What marketing strategies have worked in your "real world" experiences? Please share your ideas below.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Kevin M. Gill

5 Common Website Mistakes And How To Fix Them

Your most powerful tool to build your private therapy practice in the digital age is an effective practice website. The Internet allows us to talk directly to potential clients who are seeking mental health information and services. The majority of Americans, 62 percent, use the Internet to find health care information (Pew Internet and Family Life Study, 2009). Few therapists have training in website programing and design, but as technology evolves, more options become available to create a cheap or free website that looks professional and accurately represents your practice. My websites are built on Wordpress, a fairly easy platform on which to build a website or blog. There are thousands and thousands of free Wordpress themes that you can use to customize your practice website. Therapy Sites, another website resource for therapists, allows you to select a template and customize it for your practice based on a monthly fee.

As I've consulted with therapists, developed my own websites, and done a lot of internet research, I've noticed some common mistakes that therapists frequently make when it comes to building websites.  These are the top five mistakes I've seen and suggestions for how to fix the problem to make your website more effective.

Mistake #1: Contact information is difficult to find

How to fix it --> Put contact information on every page in a prominent place

Even if you are starting small with a single page site, your contact information is the most important information to feature. After all, you want clients to actually contact you to schedule a session, right? I suggest putting your contact information on every page of your website with a "call to action".

Mistake #2: Feels too Impersonal

How to fix it --> Write website text in first person and include a photo

When potential clients visit your site they should have a feel for who you are as a person. Always include a photo and a personal statement. While your bio can be written in third person, the rest of your site should feel like you're talking to your potential client.

Mistake #3: Too much "psychobabble"

How to fix it --> Focus on benefits of your service in layman's terms

Most potential clients aren't going to be familiar with psychological acronyms or detailed information about every credential and training. Your potential clients care less about your training and more about if and how you can help them. Write your website text with your ideal client in mind.

Mistake #4: Confusing site navigation

How to fix it --> Feature the the four topics above in your site navigation

Your website should be easy to navigate. You don't want your site to be an additional source of stress for potential clients. Visit other private practice therapist's websites and notice what you like and don't like, what works and what doesn't. Put yourself in the client's shoes. What information are potential clients looking for? Here are the top 4 things potential clients want to find on your website:

  • who you are (your basic information)
  • what you do (services)
  • how you can help them (benefits of your services)
  • how to contact you (contact information)

Mistake #5: Bad design

How to fix it --> pick one or two fonts and stick with a consistent theme throughout your site

Simple and clean is best when it comes to websites. Unfortunately, many therapists with "do-it-yourself" websites, in an attempt to be creative, end up using too many design elements. When designing your website, keep in mind who you're ideal client is, and let your basic message guide your choice of colors and fonts to create a cohesive feel that represents who you are as a therapist.

Are you guilty of making any of these mistakes on your private practice website? Post the link below and I'll give you feedback about your site.

Creative Commons License photo credit: twm1340