Physical Therapy Month offered a great opportunity for PTs to promote their clinic and their profession, and one of our clinics saw impressive results. Pinnacle Physical Therapy & Rehab Specialists hosted a Soles for Souls donation point and collected more than 300 pairs of shoes. And earlier in the month, the clinic hosted two patient appreciation gatherings.

All that goodwill in the community is paying dividends for Clinic Owner & Director JR Watts, DPT, ATC, CSCS, who reports keeping busy with a steady caseload of patients. JR also is seeing a payoff from marketing to physicians. Using a three-tier category approach, he sends appreciative courtesies to his top-referring physicians every month. This has led to an increase in referrals.

Referral statistics reflect that Tier 1 physicians are your most established relationships. Tier 2 physicians refer less frequently and Tier 3 physicians refer the least. These groups should be engaged at different frequencies and in different ways for their display of confidence in your clinic and staff. (Click here to read a previous newsletter article on three-tier marketing)

To read the full article, click here

Industrial programs and paradigms continue to evolve, yet some therapists still struggle with the basic building blocks. One of our physical therapist directors has mastered those building blocks and continues to be recognized for it.  Nancy Nesbit, DPT, LAT, CSCS, Owner & Director of Back-n-Action Physical Therapy & Rehab Specialists, received attention for her expertise in a July 2009 article in the PPS Impact magazine.

Now, Nancy's expertise has been referenced again in a recent article in Advance for Physical Therapy & Rehab Medicine. The article's author, Susan Isernhagen, PT, wrote about frequently asked questions when considering starting a work injury prevention or industrial rehabilitation program.

"Now I realize that not having the additional industrial skills was actually holding me back," Nancy said in the article. "Being specialty-trained and implementing an industrial rehab atmosphere and facility for our patients has improved my practice greatly."

Nancy's experience is an example other therapists can follow. When therapists write from a knowledgeable perspective in any publication - from a small-town weekly newspaper to a national magazine - they position themselves as experts and gain credibility. In the eyes of the consumer, this credibility can translate to trust in the ability of the therapist to quickly recover them from their ailment.

As therapists, we hope to not hit that wall: the point at which referrals dry up and your visits start to decrease. But what happens if you do? Suzi Merrill, MPT, CEAS, of Victory Physical Therapy & Wellness found the solution. Using a combination of marketing and reverse currencies, Suzi reports that Victory is seeing its highest patient volume in six months.

Suzi first began to educate large physician groups as far away as two hours on the benefits her therapy services can provide. She collaborated with physicians to teach them about her excellent clinical outcomes and outstanding customer service. She next aligned herself with a physician specializing in spine surgery.

Now, Suzi is glad to open her doors to the spine specialist team, which treats at her clinic for two days a month and refers patients back to Suzi. (Click here to read a previous newsletter article on reverse currencies) Patients at Victory and in the community now benefit from the presence of the spine physician and from the outstanding PT care that Suzi and her staff provide.

"There is fruit from the marketing efforts you put in," Suzi says. "Referrals are out there, but you have to tap into them, seek them out and fight for them."

Our Central Office is excited to announce that it is now compliant to submit electronic claims in the ANSI 5010 format, two months before the deadline of Jan. 1, 2012.

Extensive collaboration has taken place recently between our Billing Department, led by Connie Ziccarelli and Billing Director Jodi Woodward, and our billing clearinghouse, ZirMed.  This seamless integration has allowed any minor flaws in submissions of electronic claims to be corrected quickly, proactively and without effect on cash flow.

Most recently, our clearinghouse performed tests at the end of October that confirmed our compliance.  Electronic Claims Submissions to individual payers will now be checked and enhanced on a regular basis to ensure continued compliance. Our clearinghouse, Zirmed, certainly aided in the transition, as it was recently named one of the top five clearinghouses in its readiness for ANSI 5010.

This milestone marks the end of a project months in the making. Though the transition won't affect anyone at the clinic level, it helps ensure payers are able to receive electronic claims in a format they require. This leads to a faster reimbursement process, which protects cash flow.

Hi, ! This Issue's Theme is: Affirmations & Blessings  

 

Therapists work hard everyday to produce successful clinical outcomes - recovering a patient from a sprain or restoring range of motion in the neck. All of these are positive affirmations - personally fulfilling rewards for doing a great job.

 

Affirmations also can come from growing a practice - seeing return on your marketing efforts, for example. This issue's articles highlight successes that some in our family are realizing. In this holiday season, let's all stop and think about what brings us an affirmation in life. 

Did you miss today's Practice Building web event, "Revenue Producing Documentation?"  

 

The Power of Small by Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval 

 

Click the book to purchase on Amazon.com 

   

RMS experts are quickly becoming a national resource for educating therapists on the implementation of a Physician Quality Reporting System. Connie Ziccarelli, COO, Kevin Svoboda, PT and Jodi Woodward are utilizing a variety of avenues to teach the process.

Kevin, for example, recently had a unique opportunity to produce a series of podcasts for the American Physical Therapy Association that explained how to implement a PQRS system into a physical therapy practice. The podcasts are available now at www.apta.org/pqrs.

Kevin and Jodi shared their knowledge and experience by recording the podcasts for APTA directors in late October. The idea to create the podcasts was fast forwarded after the APTA endorsed a proprietary training method that Connie, Kevin and Jodi created for our family of clinics.

RMS also was proud to send representatives to this year's American Physical Therapy Association Private Practice Section Annual Conference in Seattle. There, Connie and Kevin further taught the implementation of a PQRS system in a poster presentation. The educational opportunity was well received by those in attendance that are looking to implement their own PQRS program.

Self-affirmations can come in many forms. One way to affirm your hard work every day is to take a look at how you use your payroll earnings to plan for your future. This is a perfect time of year to take stock of what your savings needs are and plan accordingly for 2012. Take a look at your allowances and make sure you are withholding a proper amount so that your earnings work hard for you and you have no surprises come tax time.

Did you know that you can have your check deposited into more than one account? Perhaps now is the time to set up a savings account. Just contact Marie for more information on how easily this can be accomplished for you. Do you plan your PTO? Time off is important for investing in yourself, re-energizing, visiting family and taking care of medical appointments, among other things. But if you don't plan, you may run out of PTO too early in the year and cause yourself undue stress.

If you are enrolled in group health insurance, you also can take advantage of the monthly newsletters that are made available to you online from MyHumana. They offer tips on maintaining a healthy lifestyle and advice on ways to keep your insurance costs down by optimizing prescriptions and use of emergency services, among other things.

These are just a few ways you can look in the mirror and feel proud of your self-affirmations.