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If you are still unsure about whether or not to transition your office-based physician position into a niche medical practice-based one, perhaps this information will help you make your decision. While the average primary care physician takes home $150,000 a year, the recent Medicare payment cuts are sure to affect physicians nationwide. Physician payment rates were cut by 10 percent in 2007, and are projected to be cut to a total of 40 percent by 2016.

Low reimbursement rates are just one of the many reasons why starting your own cash only or medical house call practice makes perfect sense. High overhead is also a quite popular reason for this entrepreneurial physician employment opportunity. Typical office-based physician costs are only expected to rise 20 percent in the next nine years alone. Already, several of these practices are losing money every time a Medicare patient is seen.

Accepting patients who will pay cash only will eradicate the worry of losing out on more money due to decreased Medicare reimbursement rates and other insurance reimbursement rates. To learn more about the benefits of cash only medical practices and obtain a cash only medical practice manual, visit Hippocrates Publishing today. Hippocrates Publishing is the entrepreneurial physician’s best resource for physician marketing, physician advertising, and niche medical office information.

You’ve pursued one of the top physician employment opportunities out there and now you have your very own cash only medical practice. While you will be welcoming in many new patients, it will be even more lucrative for your niche medical practice to attract former patients as well. To be effective in re-attracting patients who seemed to have disappeared, you must identify the reasons why. Patients leave a medical practice for an array of reasons, including:

• change of insurance plans,
• dissatisfaction with some aspect of your former practice,
• slipped through your recall system,
• or just have had no medical concerns that warranted them visiting the office.

How to find out if any of the reasons ring true with former patients? ASK!

Next step is to identify your target audience - the patients you would like to re-attract and/or continue seeing. It is wise to have built a fantastic database of your former patients, complete with full contact information to take with you to your new niche medical practice.

Next, send out a compelling letter that emphasizes the importance of the patient coming to you, now that you are in a new niche medical practice. List all of the benefits you offer as a cash only medical practice, describe your service criterion, and any other perks you have for patients who visit your office. If you can custom the letter to specific patients, all the better. Make sure all letters mention the patient by name, at the very least.

For those patients who do not respond, have a trustworthy, professional, people-friendly staff member make follow-up phone calls.

For more marketing tips for your cash only medical practice, contact the medical marketing professionals of Hippocrates Publishing. With best-selling medical house call manuals and other materials focusing on niche medical practice marketing for physicians, Hippocrates Publishing is on top of its game in helping entrepreneurial physicians succeed!

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One crucial step in the marketing plan for your niche medical practice, such as a cash only medical practice or house call medical practice is finding out what techniques are working, and which ones are not. Although generally a low cost business opportunity, a niche medical practice will require investment, and you want to make sure you are getting a good return on that investment.

For example, let’s start with advertising. Perhaps the most effective way to determine if your efforts are paying off is to simply ask. With each new patient, ask about how he/she heard about you, and/or who you can thank for this referral. Consider including the question on registration forms about how new patients heard about you. Make sure you designate a staff member to keep track of the results.

If the patient has been referred to you by a newspaper or magazine ad, ask what specifically about the ad grabbed their attention. If it was through word of mouth, ask what made them make the decision to call you/schedule an appointment. You will be surprised at the valuable feedback you will receive, and most patients will take joy in telling you. After all, nearly everyone likes to give their opinion!

For more marketing assistance and information regarding physician employment opportunities in the niche medical practice field, visit Hippocrates Publishing.

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Talk to any business owner - niche medical practice or not - and he or she will tell you that WORD OF MOUTH is one of the most powerful marketing tools ever to exist. Having current customers spread the good word about your product, or in this case, medical house call or cash only medical practice, will work to your business’ benefit in the ultimate way. Best of all, it’s of no cost to your business!

Other healthcare marketing tools such as print advertising, latino radio advertising for physicians, and yellow pages advertising is costly, and not always effective. But word of mouth is free, and always effective - a priceless marketing tool for sure.

Specifically for a medical house call practice or cash only medical practice, good word of mouth is generally the byproduct of going beyond patient expectations. In other words, the patient received superb doctoring in addition to excellent service. As owner of a niche medical practice, you want to continually create positive experiences for your patients, establishing great relationships with them, and earning more patients as they tell family and friends.

Some tips on creating that positive experience for patients:

*Train staff on how to welcome patients courteously and genuinely before supplying necessary forms.
*Keep a clean, comfortable waiting room with updated reading materials and a pleasing decor.
*Be honest with your patients about payment expectations, especially if they are uninsured.

Lastly, let your patients know that you are expanding your cash only medical practice to welcome new patients, and to recommend it to any family or friends that may be interested. Happy patients will be happy to oblige!

For more information on how to succeed with your cash only medical practice, and marketing your cash only medical practice, visit Hippocrates Publishing today.

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How important is a website to your cash only medical practice? Extremely important. And just having a website and letting it sit there doing nothing is not enough for the physician who is ready for a successful cash only or house call medical practice. You need to have a website that works for you. Your website is like a baby - it needs constant attention and cannot thrive when left alone.

A good website should stand out in terms of design, accuracy, professionalism and useful content. It should be frequently updated so as to inspire users to return and learn more with each visit. To initiate traffic to your website, make sure that it is listed with major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo.

Don’t skimp on design - a distinctive logo can work to clearly define your cash only medical practice, and help ensure that people will notice and remember. If hiring a professional to do your website, ensure that the person/company you hire is aligned perfectly with your marketing goals.

For more information on marketing your cash only medical practice, consult with the top resource for marketing for doctors - Hippocrates Publishing. Hippocrates Publishing presents physicians with the unique low cost business opportunity for starting their own cash pay or medical house call practice. From medical house call manuals to healthcare consulting and healthcare advertising support, Hippocrates Publishing is all you need to get started in your entrepreneurial medical career.

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It’s a given - marketing your cash only medical practice - or any niche medical practice for that matter - is vital. A survival tool, effective marketing for doctors comes in several formats - public speaking, print media, radio ads, the Internet, hispanic print advertising for physicians and more. So, why aren’t more physicians developing a marketing plan? Simply speaking, running a cash only medical practice or other niche medical practice without a marketing plan is like giving treatment without a diagnosis.

So, what are the first steps? Ask yourself what your goals are. List them. Some of the questions to ponder include:

How many patients do you want to attract?
What kind of patients do you want to attract?
Do you want to bring in any former (or current) patients of yours?
Can your cash only medical practice’s staff handle this number of patients?
How much time and money can you invest in marketing your cash only medical practice?

In subsequent posts to this blog, we will evaluate for you the various marketing tactics one can take when pursuing a low cost business opportunity for physicians, such as a cash only medical practice.

To assist with marketing for doctors, and to help physicians decide whether a cash pay medical practice is right for them, call or email the professionals at Hippocrates Publishing. For several years, Hippocrates Publishing has provided helpful resources to thousands of medical professionals around the globe, including several highly regarded physician marketing materials.

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This week, we will focus on some important to-do’s for your cash only medical practice. Whether a cash only medical practice is simply a thought or a reality that has already come to life, this information will come in very handy. Healthcare marketing is at the top of its game with the availability of niche medical practices, such as cash only medical practices and medical house call practices.

No doubt about it, starting your own niche medical practice, such as one that accepts cash only requires research, time and preparation to make this type of practice successful. One of the first steps to turning your physician niche marketing into a success is knowing how to hire the most optimal staff.

Hiring Physicians for Your Cash Only Medical Practice
Physicians who work in a cash only medical practice should be committed to quality healthcare. Since the office will probably not need to schedule as many patients a day as a traditional medical practice has to in order to cover its overhead, doctors will be able to spend more time with their patients. This type of niche medical practice is able to set its prices for services according to market rates instead of insurance guidelines, which usually means doctors are able to charge a slightly higher price per procedure. This is one advantage you can point out in your physician advertising or physician marketing materials when hiring top-notch physicians for your niche healthcare practice.

Note that for a typical cash only medical practice, less staff is required due to less paperwork. This in turn also means lower overhead for the office, causing some physicians to be able to perform medical services at lower prices.

Hiring Office Staff for Your Cash Only Medical Practice
It’s obvious that a cash only medical practice needs fewer billing staff as a result of eliminating the insurance companies for the billing process. Nonetheless, an adequate office staff is still necessary to ensure the smooth flow of the cash only medical practice. Those who are hired as office staff should be experienced in helping to make the cash payment at time of service policy clear and non-negotiable. If payment arrangements for the patients are allowed, these need to be fully understood by the office staff in order to communicate the policy effectively to the patients. Lastly, cash only medical practices, similar to traditional medical offices, will need to hire a staff that is dedicated to organizing the billing paperwork and keeping all accounts current.

For more helpful information on hiring for your cash only medical practice, consult one of our top-selling manuals, “Learn How to Start a Cash Only Medical Practice,” offered by Hippocrates Publishing.

For more information on marketing for doctors, healthcare consulting, and niche medical practices, visit Hippocrates Publishing today.

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If you are still on the fence about starting a cash only medical practice, perhaps the following will help you come to a determination on if you want to continue practicing in a traditional office or hospital, or pursue a niche medical practice opportunity.

Take into consideration that most (perhaps even you included) physicians are not too fond of insurance companies, including Medicare. The pay scales are meager in comparison to the hard work that you do as a physician. Because of this, more and more physicians are opting to eliminate the insurance companies, choosing to receive cash only instead.

How nice would it be to concentrate more on the patient and his or her ailments rather than worrying about the type of insurance they carry?

Cash only medical practices are referred to as niche medical practices, simply because they represent a special area of demand for a service that is less common, but growing rapidly. While many people are just fine with their monthly health insurance premiums and small co-pays, there are also millions that are uninsured that would love (and need) to have their medical needs met for a smaller price than what a health insurance company would charge them. These people are a perfect match for physicians who are frustrated with managed-care contracts, endless paperwork, and low reimbursement rates.

There is a tremendous amount of support for physicians, entrepreneurial or not, who wish to cut their ties with insurance companies, spend more time with patients, and start their own cash only medical practice. Hippocrates Publishing is a company with special knowledge and expertise in the arena of medical practice marketing for both cash only and medical house call and practices. Receive the knowledge and support you are seeking as a physician ready for a positive change. Check out all of Hippocrates Publishing’s books and booklets specially written to assist physicians with all forms of niche medical practices, physician advertising, practice marketing, and more.

With all of the problems in regards to the U.S.’ present healthcare crisis, this is the most opportune time for physicians to become more entrepreneurial and less dependent on private and government subsidized insurance plans (i.e. Medicare, Medicaid). The 2006 United States Census reported that 46 million Americans are without health insurance, which truthfully means that about 18,000 more Americans will die because of their lack of health insurance. And with all this, the U.S. still manages to spend more than any other country in the world, at an unbelievable amount of $2 trillion each year, or roughly $6,700 per person.

During Bill Clinton’s presidency, he promised reform of the nation’s rising healthcare costs. It appeared affirmative at first, though due to general distractions that included the economy, war, and terrorism, its complete implementation was confounded.

The number of healthcare lobbyists in Washington is an absurd amount with also knowing that medical care costs are continuing to rise and are nowhere nearing stabilization. The issue of increasingly rapid unraveling of employer-based health insurance, the plight of Medicaid, and the ever-continuous problem of the federal government’s solvency are problems largely associated with the nation’s high healthcare costs.

The mission for physicians now is to start to treat their medical practice like a business that is separate from government subsidized plans. There are appropriate solutions for physicians to follow in order to fight the healthcare crisis and come out profitable. These include:

*Educating themselves by learning the “business” of medicine with niche physician marketing and niche medical practices before it is too late.

*Thinking “outside the box” and becoming less dependent on private and government subsidized insurance plans.

*Learning how to decrease overhead and increase profit potential.

*Treating a medical practice like a business and accept cash!

Hippocrates Publishing has many medical practice marketing tools and manuals available - check them out today.

As with all things, the transition from accepting insurance to becoming a cash only medical practice takes time. As you embark on your cash pay medical practice, start by researching the legalities of ending any current contracts with insurance companies. This may be done on a gradual basis as your cash pay practice begins to grow.

Next will be notifying your patients and staff of your intentions to start this cash pay medical practice. It is common for many patients to question why you have decided to join the niche medical practice market, and it is recommended you be honest with them about your decision.

Lastly, as you build your cash pay clientele and your cash pay medical practice overall, it may be a good idea to work in other clinics before your business takes you to the point of being able to work for yourself and yourself only.

For more information on marketing for doctors and niche medical practice marketing, visit Hippocrates Publishing. We specialize in healthcare marketing tools such as books and manuals that assist physicians in medical practice marketing and niche medical practices.