Software companies may imply that questionnaires, persuasive letters and financial comparisons will alert healthcare providers to the “lacks” or “faults” of their present billing system. This has never proven true. The providers’ efforts are focused on the increasingly complicated (and risky) task of offering quality healthcare, not fine-tuning their financial system.

Change is difficult to accomplish. Reasons for change must be impelling. Without an understanding of the motivating factors involved in marketing a medical billing service, the new biller will become frustrated by the market resistance and will quit the venture.

DIRECT MAIL MARKETING MAGIC: MINING FOR CRISES
Billing companies enjoy a considerable advantage when marketing their services to prospects. The very special nature of the billing task produces a narrow relationship between the biller and the provider. Essentially, every provider needs a biller to produce payments for the provider’s services. The questions for the provider are “am I being properly reimbursed for my labor by my current biller?” and “what risks do I face by attempting to improve the benefits of my current billing system?”

In some cases, the provider takes direct control of the task by doing his/her own billing. This may be less a case of attempted financial gain by avoiding a paycheck and more the result of experiences of inefficiency by prior billers. This is usually a short-lived solution.

The most common method of claims submission is to use on-site personnel. The benefits include the ability to provide direct supervision of the employee and to engage the employee in other workplace tasks. In other words, control and multi-tasking.

These are considered to be efficient solutions to the common needs of any employer. When it works, the results are very satisfactory to the provider. This solution can be tweaked by (1.) giving up some control when the employee proves that he/she mirrors the needs of the provider and by (2.) adding tasks to the employee’s work list.

The skill of the employee determines the effectiveness of the cashflow method. The provider will accept a great deal of skill deterioration as long as the cash produced is adequate for his/her needs.

When independent billing centers prepare claims, the provider must evaluate the list of risks associated with this change versus the rewards or perils they produce. When developing marketing strategies, the billing entrepreneur is evaluating troubled situations that may exist in the marketplace and selecting benefits to suggest as solutions and. As Jimmy Carter has said, success depends upon excellence of aim and excellence of execution.

CRITERIA FOR CHANGE
When selecting a replacement billing method, the provider is faced with these questions:

• Will the billing system produce the largest possible cashflow with the least reasonable expense and the highest degree of self-tending?
• Is the operator knowledgeable, trustworthy, reliable, honest, capable and efficient?
• If a reasonable cashflow is now being generated with acceptable cost and efficiency, what crisis could prompt any change in personnel or method?
• What’s the easiest solution?

The key considerations here are the concepts of “crisis,” “change” and “easy.”

New billing company owners are often under the impression that the “benefits” of their billing service is a top consideration for their business prospects. Experience has shown that the players in the billing arena are less concerned with “benefits” than the comfort of their current “easy” solution. They are most concerned with the perils of “change” and must face a “crisis” before reluctantly looking at alternatives to a now-broken system.

The biller should be aware of this need for crisis. The provider must feel the crisis, internally. It cannot be externally created. If there has been no crisis, there is no felt need by the provider. Consequently, no logical argument can force the provider to confront the dreaded concept of “change.”

WHY CHANGE?
A model of communication states “effective communication depends on the willing receptivity of the listener.” The cashflow paradigm of the provider is too critical to be influenced by clever argument or “salesmanship.” If current cashflow is adequate to support the provider’s concept of his/her lifestyle, there is no desire to introduce the risk of changing from a system that’s working to an unknown model unless there is overwhelming evidence that the new system will unfailingly produce a strong improvement.

The burden of convincing the prospect of this improvement is too great to be attempted. The provider will demand a “guarantee” (either implied or specified) of the stated benefits of the new system. In practice, this guarantee cannot be supported, especially by the startup billing service. All efforts to produce marketing materials that will effectively convince the typical provider of the benefits of change will fall short of their goal.

Providers respond to the felt need resulting from a crisis, requiring a change.

IT IS NOT ENOUGH
It is not enough that a system replacement will increase efficiency, that another method will produce payment sooner, that another method is less difficult or complex, that net payments will be greater, that staff can be released from bookkeeping tasks they were never trained for, that emphasis can be returned to quality healthcare and released from unfamiliar business-related chores, that receivables will be eliminated and reliability will be greater.

These statements are all promises of the benefits of change. The new biller is asking the provider to believe that the risks of change (in the worst case, complete loss of professional and personal income) will be rewarded immediately and completely. Trust me, doctor, I can make it happen.

Without a crisis, no one would take that chance.

DISCOVER A CRISIS
What path must billing service marketing take, then? The discovery of a crisis situation in the marketplace.

The crisis results from the interruption of a system that previously worked well enough.

• This may be caused when the current biller leaves or is fired from the practice and no replacement is standing by.
• This may happen when current knowledge and training for the billing task is more advanced and complex than the current biller is willing or able to accommodate.
• Working conditions may have changed (a new partner, changed office space, salary/benefits adjustments, harassment, office politics, increased workload, etc.).
• Governmental regulations may have been instituted (the HIPAA act, billing certification laws, etc.).

Any development that severely interrupts the existing method of cashflow generation for the provider will be deemed a crisis and must be corrected.

A complete presentation of the marketing solution for the healthcare marketplace entrepreneur appears in the book “Medical Billing Marketing:  Finding Local Clients” by Executive Director Merlin Coslick.

Direct mail strategy is fully explained, along with useful documents including a sample business contract and fee schedule for the provider-biller relationship. This book will prove especially valuable to help the new biller understand workable solutions to the real market conditions, described above.

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