The idea for this article came to me while driving to the gym one day.
Many individuals are happy to join a gym, but complain about the monthly membership fee, especially when they skip workouts sometimes (guilty as charged). Interestingly, most individuals stay on, in the hopes that they will ‘use the gym’ soon.
As a physical therapist, have you thought about monthly membership fees for patients post discharge? Patients should be visiting their ‘friendly neighborhood physical therapist’ for exercise and wellness needs. There are huge advantages in working with motivated patients who know you, like you and trust you and could buy a membership plan and come regularly. The patients could reach their goals faster while you can predict monthly income and create a sustainable source of recurring revenue, unaffected by external forces like physicians and insurance companies. The way to structure and sell these programs is a vast, untapped, unique market in physical therapy.
With such a program, you are almost guaranteed to work with patients who are more committed, more likely to respond to treatment, appreciate your services, refer you to friends and remain your patients for several months, sometimes years to come.
The new secret of physical therapy clinics: a one year ‘clinic membership’ program consisting of a package of treatment sessions. This program will generate and sell high value, niche cash based programs based on a recurring revenue model.
With traditional physical therapy, we see a patient and wait to get paid by insurance companies. With a cash based physical therapy membership model, you not only get paid cash for your services, but you can also collect cash in advance for your services before they are actually rendered. In addition, you can get your patients to commit to pay a certain amount, on a consistent basis, month after month by authorizing you to charge their credit card. This is called electronic funds transfer (EFT).
More on this in the coming days…
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Tags: Grow Your Private Practice, marketing physical therapy, physical therapy marketing
Leave A Reply (9 comments So Far)
Mike
1033 days ago
Great idea but I find most therapists dont understand how to sell “fitness”. There are also concerns regarding the structure and scope of practice of “aftercare or medical membership programs” that are unwarranted. There is a huge revenue stream to be tapped in the fitness arena but therapists must learn to market “fitness” and become comfortable in the fitness arena.
Nitin
1033 days ago
Correct. We need to play catch up with fitness professionals here. As PTs, we must look for alternate revenue streams.. literally, we need to shape up or be left behind.
Vincent M Burke
1032 days ago
It is a very scary market place for us to compete in when it comes to fitness and wellness however, I do feel that most PT’s don’t understand exercise as much as we should if we plan to set us apart from trainers..
We need to market much different than the trainers , come up with ideas that they CANNOT do because of thier lack of education etc..
Also, remember anyone can be a trainer and NOT everyone can be a therapist…..so i feel all PT’s should become trainers in a rep organization.. I was on the planning board of the school I went to and suggested to offer it to the students as part of the cirriculum and it worked out well…
Also the consumer may only be interested in working with a trainer NOT a PT and so it is nice to say you are a trainer when one asks you ….
I also trademarked a MAPP that trainers are asking me to do before they see someone for training and it has been great..We need to learn to work with them not against ….they can send us a patient
VInce
Nitin
1032 days ago
Vincent, this is a catch 22. We must position ourselves so everyone benefits. Physical therapists and trainers can work well together. It really depends on the patient. I think a physical therapist can have a trainer on staff and both can market together. We need to market ourselves along with trainers who work with us side by side. As a PT, it helps to find a trainer to be on the same team.
“The town’s first medical exercise facility, only at ABC Physical Therapy. Isn’t it time you finally got a physical therapist and trainer to design the most remarkable transformation and injury prevention plan ever, one that consistently outperforms any run-of-the-mill program at your gym?”
The PT (physical therapist) can focus on the evaluation and day to day treatment, while the trainer can design and execute the fitness program. In a private clinic, this works well. In a school or college, PTs can work directly with groups, like you mentioned.
In practice, the #1 thing the consumer looks for in a trainer is NOT certification, NOT designation, frankly, they don’t even care much if we are licensed PTs. When looking for a trainer, they note how fit you are (as PTs we must be in excellent shape before advice others about training), how strong of a motivator you are (gentle, but persuasive) and how quickly they see results.
Yes, trainers can send patients to PTs, and this becomes more likely when the trainer and the PT have a symbiotic relationship.
stacy barrows, PT, GCFP, CPI
1032 days ago
Great to see all these comments, and it is good to work out the kinks with all our professional issues at stake. Having a background in the wellness community, other professionals are definitely taking charge of the wellness/fitness areas and the PT’s are slow to keep the pace. Perception is a big issue. We need focus groups like these to insure that we are able to integrate with other professionals to maintain our identity and show how we are needed. We are already playing catch up on areas that we have been experts on, i.e.. functional fitness. Thanks for getting the communication going.
Nitin
1032 days ago
Yes, we have a lot at stake. But there is hope, as long as we stay united and stay vigilant about legislature, and about marketing ourselves proactively in our local community. Fitness professionals tend to be more aggressive with online and offline marketing, and we tend to stay within ‘our comfort zone’ as clinicians. Well, the time to come out of the comfort zone is now! The successful PT of the future is also a savvy marketer.
Perception is reality. We must be able to integrate and shine with our own unique skills, otherwise we will be left behind. It’s ironic that functional fitness is now a separate ‘niche’ in the fitness community, and we have ourselves to blame for the gradual slide in consumer perception.
“Marketing is too important to be left to a marketing department.”
David Packard
Phil
1029 days ago
Caution: Be careful before jumping on this bandwagon. It sounds like a great idea but usually isn’t. Most PTs who have tried to incorporate the fitness market in their therapy clinic have failed for a variety of reasons not the least of which is that it is a different business that is hard to sustain in and of itself. That is why so many “Fitness Clubs” open and close in failure. Also, to have enough “members” using your facilities to make this profitable, your gym would be too overloaded for you to treat your patients. There is also a huge liability issue regarding when your former patient is no longer a patient and therefore not covered under your malpractice insurance. If that former patient, now client, is injured in your gym, your malpractice insurance might not cover you even though you will be sued as the physical therapist.
Any one who wants to consider trying this model would be wise to first find two or three PTs who have already incorporated it and been successful with it, that is actually made substantial money doing it, for at least 5 years. If you can find those PTs, follow their model. If not, be wise enough to stick to real physical therapy, treating patients with pain and disability. Promote that. There is a lot of money to be made practicing physical therapy if you market it and do it right. There is no need to look for other avenues of revenue if you do that.
Nitin
1029 days ago
Hi Phil, appreciate your advice and it is well received. Actually, many PTs are already doing this very successfully. If a PT fails, it is because a programming system, a marketing plan and the right staff was lacking. Fitness clubs do open and close, but well marketed personal training studios and group fitness bootcamps are booming. The right business model is NOT a gym with hundreds of people paying you $20 a month (thats left to the big chains like Planet Fitness, Golds etc) , it is having a ‘tribe’ of 30-40 patients who will pay you a recurring monthly fee for semi-private cash-based fitness programs. Physical therapists can carry a separate insurance policy (mine costs less than $150 a year and covers me upto $1 million dollars) when they function as fitness professionals. Did you know we can easily get a policy like this?
Some of your reservations can be overcome, and seem old school, but yes, you make a valid point that it’s best to model a successful system, which applies to anything, including starting a private practice. This is virgin territory for PTs, and hence the fear and reservation. I am not suggesting that every PT jump into a ‘membership program’, but providing food for thought. Personally, I have implemented this and have seen it work, in a group exercise program I provide for women in a 10 mile radius of my town in NJ.
The choice is ours, stay within our comfort zone or explore, test, challenge and improve the delivery of wellness and fitness services to patients and clients.