New Patient Acquisition with SuperBill

Note: This is the first post in a 2-part series on how SuperBill can assist you with patient acquisition and retention. For the second part, read: How SuperBill Helps You Retain Patients.

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A new patient walks into your clinic.

Every provider has seen it happen. A new patient walks into your office interested in your services. Maybe you’re a specialized healthcare professional like a chiropractor or a therapist offering a free consultation for new patients. Everything goes smoothly. The patient likes your clinic. They make plans to come back. But they never do. 

What most likely happened is the patient discovered their out-of-network (OON) benefits did not qualify them for reimbursement, and they went somewhere else. Or even worse, they feared they weren’t qualified for reimbursement, and without even checking their benefits, they gave up their pursuit of essential healthcare when in reality, they might have been eligible for reimbursement. 

In the first scenario, the patient cost you a consultation. That consultation could have gone to another patient who might have become a regular in your clinic. We’re talking about hundreds if not thousands of dollars left on the table. In the second scenario, the patient cost you that appointment slot, and they should have become a regular themselves. If only they had been aware of the benefits they already had…

Is your practice online? Okay, but is it really online? Do your patients have a digital portal where they can check out-of-network benefits and upload superbills to be automatically filed and tracked for reimbursement? That seemingly small difference can bring in a whole host of new patients. In this post, part 1 in a two-part series, we will talk about how to get more patients into your clinic and boost your clinic’s reviews with the help of SuperBill’s OON reimbursement services. 

How SuperBill changes your patient load

SuperBill verifies patients’ benefits before they walk into your office. That means they already know they’re eligible for reimbursement the moment they see you, which greatly increases their chances of accepting your service.  

SuperBill streamlines the process to save you time and earn you money. If they were signed up for SuperBill, the patient from Scenario 1 whose benefits did not cover your services would have used SuperBill’s free benefits check to determine they were not eligible for reimbursement. They would have skipped the free consultation to go somewhere else, saving you a valuable appointment slot; or, they would have accepted that they would have to pay out of pocket and visited your clinic, knowing what to expect. 

Now suppose the patient from Scenario 2 used SuperBill to check their benefits. They would have known they were eligible for an out-of-network reimbursement and they would have come back for more appointments, earning you a valued client and getting them the healthcare they need. Meanwhile, SuperBill’s automatic claims-filing system is getting them the best reimbursement possible, without them lifting a finger, while saving you from having to file claims or negotiate with insurers on their behalf. Your patient load grows, while your workload shrinks.

How much money could this save my practice?

Naturally, you didn’t become a provider just for the money, but at the same time, health care is a complicated business, and a business does not run without money. At SuperBill, we want to help make sure the money flows your way so you remain free to focus on providing quality healthcare like you do. 

Here’s a rough calculation of the money SuperBill could help you earn through patient acquisition. The numbers aren’t perfect, so think of this as a ballpark estimate. You can substitute your own rate to get a better picture of the return on your investment. 

Suppose a new patient comes in for a free consultation, and because SuperBill helps them maximize their OON reimbursement, the following sessions end up cheaper for them and they come back for 3 more sessions over the course of a year. Now suppose your sessions are $150 each. That’s $450 from an investment of $0 on your part. (Did we mention SuperBill is free when your patients pay with SuperPay!?) 

Not a bad ROI... And that’s just from one patient! If SuperBill helps you acquire one new patient each month, a conservative estimate for many practices, you make $5400 off an investment of $0. And that’s not even counting all the time SuperBill will save you to free up appointments with other new patients. The possibilities are endless! 

Other creative ways to increase patient volume

In addition to the ways SuperBill gets more patients into your clinic, we want to share a few other creative ways to increase patient volume. 

Reduce missed appointments.

You already know how badly missed appointments can hurt. SuperBill can verify your patients’ benefits and payment method, but it cannot guarantee they remember their appointment time. Consider investing in an automated patient messaging system to remind your patients when they will see you. 

It could be as simple as a text, or as ‘high-tech’ as a Google calendar invite. Establishing a no-show policy can help too. If your patients know they will have to pay for missing an appointment, they are much more likely to show up.

Invest in your clinic’s website.

Your online presence matters. You may have taken your practice online but you can always improve your online presence. Look through the following checklist.

1. Does your website respond well to mobile devices? Try scrolling through it on your phone. If the screen breaks, or the sizing looks wrong, you may need to make some design changes. 
2. Does your website have a blog? Adding a blog section will give patients a chance to get to know your clinic better when searching for a provider online. It will also help you rank higher in Google search. Hey, you visited the SuperBill blog didn’t you? 
3. Do you have patient testimonials? 80% of new patients read reviews before seeing a new provider. You want to shine before they step into your clinic. 

Connect with your community through social media. 

Again, online presence is important. But going around liking and commenting on every post you see is probably not the best use of your time. Instead, try to be intentional with your social media posts. Interesting, relatable content attracts the most users. One good post could bring in dozens of new patients.

If you are not sure what to post about, try this exercise. Take out a journal and a pen. It’s important that you write this first draft by hand, to avoid distractions. Now, in your journal describe the community in which you see yourself practicing medicine. Not the community you already practice in, but your ideal medical community. This could mean the way you wish things worked in your business, the way you wish people interacted in your community, or something else entirely. 

Write for 20-30 minutes, without stopping for too long to think, then read over your thoughts and post about them. People resonate with optimistic thinking, or, for lack of a better word, dreaming. You will drum up some conversation.

Your patient base will notice your efforts.

It might seem like they are not paying attention to the little things, but trust us, your patients notice the fine touches. What you as a provider rarely see is the process patients use to find new doctors. 

It happens in private, usually on the Web. So any change to your website, your payment processing system, or your digital reimbursement services can go a long way. We hope you learned something new about how to get more patients into your clinic.

Part Two of this series is up next: a post about how SuperBill helps you retain patients over time.