PT OWNER INTERVIEW: Should You Add Cash Pay + Subscription Services in 2023?
Should you add cash pay or subscription services to your PT practice in 2023? Is doing that even moral as a physical therapist? Our CEO Neil Trickett interviewed James Pumarada, PT and Founder of Complete Physical Rehabilitation in New Jersey, to find out how James created 3 levels of cash-pay services in his practice.
ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP AT A LOW PRICE POINT
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JAMES: Then you layer in another piece to it, which I came up with this year: onboarding our current and past patients onto an annual membership at a low price-point. All businesses– Amazon, Disney Plus, anything you use in your daily life–everyone has some type of monthly membership for their services at a more affordable cost. For us, we have an annual membership that allows patients to get a 20% discount on cash-based services. 3 PRIVATE CONCIERGE PHYSICAL THERAPY SERVICES
NEIL: One thing you do really well is your cash-based services.
When we’re faced with upcoming challenges with reimbursement cuts and changes–and let’s face it, it’s been going on for decades, someone’s always trying to cut funds–you are looking at: “How can I create additional sources of revenue in my practice?” That sets you apart from a lot of other practices.
Why did you decide to offer cash-based services in the first place?
But if you’re doing cash pay, the secret sauce is: you need to provide value for that price point.. People seek value.
JAMES: Neil, it’s definitely an interesting challenge providing cash-pay services. There is a certain level of commitment and onboarding to get a person to commit to a service. But here’s the thing: it’s easy to charge someone cash. But you’re doing cash pay, you need to provide more value than if your patient went to an in-network provider using their insurance benefit. The secret sauce is: you need to provide value for that price point. People seek value. They want to see the value in what you are doing. 1 INSURANCE-BASED INDIVIDUALS PAY CASH FOR SPECIFIC SERVICES JAMES: What we ended up doing was: for the insurance-based individuals, we use a cash-based model of using the Light Force Laser. We say “If you want to get better faster, with no side effects or medications involved, then you should definitely give the Light Force Laser a try. It will get you better, faster from physical pain, it’s a deep tissue laser, etc.”
JAMES: For our concierge-level individuals, we said: for that price point, it allows you the ability to use Lightforce Laser, if needed, on every session, for one part of the body. So that alone makes
our patients say “Well that’s great value!” WHY SUBSCRIPTION-BASED SERVICES AREN’T “EVIL”
JAMES: When we graduated physical therapy school, we looked at PT as taking a patient from A to B to C. We thought of an annual subscription model, where people are returning to us, as something that was evil! We thought we shouldn’t be doing that as physical therapists. But why wouldn’t you give a patient everything that’s in your head? Why wouldn’t you give someone a full treatment experience over the course of their life? That doesn’t mean that patients constantly need manipulations. All we’re saying is patients may need our advice. Everyone needs a coach.
Listen to the full episode on the PT MARKETING POWER HOUR podcast!
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