Frustrated With Health Care

One of the absolute best ways to gain credibility and presence on the internet is by writing articles.  What do you write about?  You write about what you know.  While the purpose of a Press Release is to announce an event or something new, the purpose of an article is to share information.

You can write about what’s important in your life or business.  You can share a simple “How to” or “Why to”.  For example, as a healthcare provider you can offer advice relative to your specialty that would benefit your patients and the community.  As an internet marketer one of the best ways to attract followers is by providing information to let people know that you are a leader.

That all said, to capitalize on your articles and to gain the most exposure, it is important to submit a minimum of three articles weekly; some authorities suggest that if you can’t submit ten or more you’re not getting full benefit.  The impact your articles have on the search engines is exponential.  If you submit three weekly you might have a 2x impact on the search engines.  Submitting five weekly would give you an 8x effect.  Whereas submitting ten articles weekly would increase your exposure 100 times.  This is definitely the case where more is better, and while quality is important, quantity wins out over quality; as long as the information is worthy.

Another strategy to get your article recognized is to have a title that is of interest to people; something that is being searched for.  You can check this by going to http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com.  Type in a few key word and see what comes up.  You might want to choose a title based on what is searched for most.  Once your title is set you will want to mention your title within the article 3-4 times as a normal part of your article.

You can do a Google search for article submission sites, but the two that I like are http://www.ezinearticles.com and http://www.goarticles.com.  You can submit each article to as many article submission sites as you like, but you can’t submit the same article to the same site more than once.  They don’t like this and it could jeopardize your account with them. 

Thank you in advance for providing your comments and opinions about this post.  Please let me know if this has been helpful information for you, AND if you were able to implement these strategies to a positive result.

A press release is an announcement or explanation of a new product or service.  You can also use a press release to announce an event that has happened or is about to happen.  If you’ve had experience sending press releases to your local newspaper, the difference between an online press release and one that you might send to your local newspaper is that the one online is more likely to be posted.  In fact, if you follow the guidelines for submitting your online press release you are more or less guaranteed that it will be posted.  By contrast, how many press releases have you submitted to your newspaper that apparently made it to the circular file?  Of course another advantage is that your online press release has the potential to be viewed by many more people who are interested in your announcement.  And, do not be concerned if you are promoting a local brick and mortar business on the world-wide-web, you’ll find that many local people have computers too.

Again, you need to have something to announce; a new piece of equipment, a new staff member, a new doctor in the office, new hours, a special talk your going to do or did, an unusual condition you’re treating, a new product you’re offering . . . heck, you can announce ANYTHING from a new paint job in your office to moving your office.  If you don’t have anything, find one; hold an event.  How about “Hawaii Day”, “Summer in February”, “Patient Appreciation Day” . . .  I think you get the idea.

Now that you have a topic you need to write the press release and come up with a title.  Your press release can be anywhere from two paragraphs to 1  1/2 pages.  However, the shorter the better and of course you want to include your contact information at the end, preferably your web site URL. 

Your title has two purposes.  First, it has to grab your reader’s attention and qualify them as a targeted prospect for your message.  You’re not going to get everyone to read it, but you do want to have a targeted market in mind.  Second, your title needs to have your primary keywords that you want to be indexed by Google and other search engines.

For example, most every press release I would do for my office would begin, “Middletown, New York Chiropractor, Dr. Peter Holst . . . “  “. . . to speak at local senior center”,  “. . . . announces July is Patient Appreciation Month”

Next you will want to create a summary of two to four sentences.  “Residents at the XYZ Senior Home in Middletown were all excited to hear Dr. Holst.  Many of them learned how to safely stretch to keep young.”

For the body of your press release your goal is to give enough information without going into too much detail.  You want to wet their appetite so they want to call you or click through to your web site.  Within the body of your press release you want to:

1. Mention your key words 3-4 times.
2. Be sure to write it in the third person.
3. Include one or two quotes.

Always include a call to action at the end of the body of your press release.  Tell them to call your office to receive a free report, have them go to a specific page on your web site for additional information.  Tell them they can print your new patient forms right from your web site.

There are a few online press release services, some are free, some charge as much as $200.  The difference is that the paid ones claim to offer a better chance to get you to the top of the search results.  Although I have not yet invest the big bucks, I have found that the $15-$20 sites do a pretty good job.

1. www.free-press-release.com
2. www.24-7pressrelease.com
3. www.1888pressrelease.com
4. www.prlead.com
5. www.prweb.com

For a couple of examples, you should be able to pull up one or two of my press releases by just Googleing my name, Peter Holst or Peter A Holst.

Make no mistake about it, people are looking for you on the internet.  They may have heard about you from a friend, from the Yellow Pages or from your sign, but they often times want to know more about you.  Even if you have an office web site, which is great, but people know that this is basically just self promotion. What they really want to do it find you on Google.  And, they want to find you high up on the ladder.  So . . . , have you tried to Google your name or your practice with yourtown?  What did you come up with?  Are you on the first page? At or near the top?  To get there you need valuable content about you on the internet.  Here are the 5 strategies.  The specifics for each will be illustrated in seperate posts.

1. Press Release:  A Press Release is an announcement about a specific event that happened or that is about to happen.  Did you open a new office, get a new associate, get a new piece of equipment, change your hours, change one of your office policies, or have a baby.  Any of these are worthy of submitting a Press Release.

2. Articles:  An article is basically your opinion on a specific topic.  We are all experts in something and an article is your way to tell the world about your expertise.  It could be something about your profession or your hobby.  It could be about anything you feel strongly about or you have knowledge about.  If you think you are a great joke teller you could write about that; if you are a member of a service organization you can write an article about that.  Articles are posted on line at an article posting website.

3.  Start your own blog:  Just like an article, your blog should be content rich and not just a sales pitch.  With a blog you need to have a domain name and a blogging interface.  You should also post to your blog at least once or twice a week.  If this is of interest to you start thinking about a domain name.  A good place to start is your name, like JohnSmith.com.  However, if your name is fairly common you might need to be creative.  When we specifically discuss blogs I will offer some suggestions.

4. Video:  Videos are another great way to get your name to the top of the search engines.  This strategy does take a little more time and effort, but it is getting to be a favorite of mine.  If it interests you start kicking around YouTube to get some ideas.

5. Social Networks: This is just another way to get your name out there. However,you probably will not want to open too many different accounts; three is typically a good number. For example, LinkIn, FaceBook and Twitter; these are a great start.  For now you may want to go to these site and open an account using your name.  Try different iterations if your first attempts is already taken.  That’s what happened to me when I tried joining as PeterHolst; believe it or not there are a couple of us out there.  So I chose to use PeterAHolst.  You could use DrYourName.  Since you want to “brand” yourself, it will be in your best interest to use your own name.

Next post I will go into Press Releases and Articles.

Peter Holst, D.C.

http://www.whoispeterholst.com

Do you have a presence on the net? 

Even though I was perhaps one of the first chiropractors in my area with an office website, up until recently I didn’t really believe, nor did I notice that we ever got any new patients from the internet.  I always thought of my website as providing information for my patients and the community, if they happened to stumble upon it.  My website is also part of a service that provided a monthly e-Newsletter that is distributed to my email list.  It happens to be a great service, but that’s another story altogether.  The point I am trying to make is that even though I have had an internet presence for many years it wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I started to notice an increase in my referrals from the internet, and it has been increasing ever since.

What do you get when you Google your name?  Are you within the top ten?  Are you on the first page, the second page?  Do you show up at all?  Obviously the higher up you are on the list, the better your presence.  You know I always thought, “this thing is called the www, which stands for the World-Wide Web”.  What good is that to me when most of my business comes from within a 15 mile radius of my office?  However, there are more people going on the net every day and they ARE within your sphere of influence, and they can, and do, search for local business.  So . . . what do you get when you Google your profession and your town together, say, “Dentist Poughkeepsie New York”?  Again, are you in the top 10?    Also, did you know there are “Geo-specific” searches so that in many cases you do not even have to include your location; you can just Goggle “Dentist”.  The results will by different from zip code to zip code. 

Increasing your presence on the net is a great, and often times free, way to advirtise.  All it takes is a little creativity and the know how, and before long your name will appear at the top of the list.  The first step, however, is determining how you want to “Brand” yourself.  So here’s what I want you to start doing.  Think about how you want to be branded, how do you think people will look for you?  By your name?  This is always a good start, but how else do you want to be found?  By your business name?  How about by your profession?  How about by what conditions you typically treat?  Once you have all the searches in which you want to be found try doing the searches to see what comes up.  Vary your searches.  For example, search for your profession with and without your town, with and without your State.  Also, using quotes provides a more specific search so try searching with and without quotes.  For example, “Your Name” and Your Name.  What you want to do is take notes on the total number of hits with each search, as well as whether you come up in the results and if so, where you come up.

Before moving on to discuss internet marketing strategies that would be helpful for any business, including businesses that are dependent on local traffic, it might be important for you to know where I gained my expertise to offer this information.

By this time it should be secret that my second passion has been network marketing.  Over the years I have been involved with a couple of really great companies.  Unfortunately, no matter how great the company their business model has always been to compile a list of names and then attack those people on your list; friends,  relatives, loved ones; it doesn’t matter, no one is spared and no one is sacred!  Well, if you happen to be one of those friends or family members, it is no fun to be put in that position – trust me, I understand.  However, as the network marketer we are trained to believe in our product and our mantra becomes; “Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Someone is Waiting”.  Sounds good, but it has the potential to get downright ugly!

For this reason, I have decided to study internet marketing and the newest craze, Social Networking on the Internet.  Believe it or not, there is a right way to do it, and there is a totally wrong way; I believe I have come across the right way.

That right way started with a company called CarbonCopyPro (CCP).  CCP is an online marketing platform and business sales system with a first-class, top-tier product line.  This product line is called Wealth Masters International (WMI).  WMI was started and is run by Kip Herriage and Karl Bessey.  WMI is a wealth creation and management education system.  Quite simply, they teach wealth strategies and wealth mind-sets.  These are strategies that are typically not taught in schools, but should! 

So . . . CCP teaches internet marketing strategies specifically for WMI.  However, their marketing strategies work for any business.  In fact, I am applying them to promote my practice as well.  And, I welcome the opportunity to share what I have learned with you in future posts on this blog.

By the way, you might want to take a look and see if CCP/WMI might be right for you, http://www.oneyearplan.net/pahdc.

<a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/n86aqs4f2n” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>

Even if we are doing “everything right” in practice to stay the course by keeping a positive attitude, thinking abundance, doing outside talks, and asking for referrals, you’d have to be some sort of “superchiro” not to be feeling the affects of the down economy.  And of course we still have health care insurance companies “beating us up”; it would appear that us New Yorkers aren’t the only ones affected.  So really now, how much of this can we take?!  It would seem that us chiropractors are the new second class citizen.  

The truth is that from my perspective our current healthcare situation doesn’t make me a happy camper.  You see, I have always had aspirations of being wealthy; yes, even in my decision to pursue chiropractic.  Not withstanding this, you know that I did, and still do, have a strong attraction to the science, art and philosophy of chiropractic.  However, when I decided to become a chiropractor, this was just icing on the cake, since I felt that I could make a good living as a chiropractor, which I thought would be parlayed into “fame and fortune”.  Let’s face it, as a self-employed chiropractor we are taking risks, which we are supposed to be rewarded; the question is, are we?

Early in my chiropractic career I dreamed that the money would begin to roll in, which would give rise to investment opportunities.  Then of course, at the end of the trail, I’d have a great practice that a young and aspiring chiropractor would purchase from me for at least $250K . . . my how times have changed?!

Again, not withstanding this, I still dream . . . you see, I happen to be one of those crazy people that believes that while money may not bring me happiness, it is a whole lot easier to be happy with money than without.  In fact, for the most part, I don’t believe you will find too many rich people saying that money doesn’t bring you happiness.  Think about it for a minute, if money was not a consideration, how would you live your life; how would your life be different?  Wouldn’t you be happier doing the things you enjoy doing?  Well . . . I’m sorry to say, but to live the life of your dreams it takes money.  In fact, wouldn’t you agree that as a rich person you would be a much bigger asset to society, to your community?  You bet you would; I know I would!  Not only would I contribute greatly to the local economy, but I would have more time and resources to give back to my community.  I happen to be an active member of our local Lion’s Club; they would benefits dramatically.  Historically, I have given unselfishly to our church; they would also reap the rewards of my good fortune.  Think of the civic organizations you can help; how about your church?  This is something I have thought about for quite a while, and I still do.

While I love serving my community with quality chiropractic care, I no longer have the delusion that it will fulfill my financial dreams.  This is why I have diversified.  This is why I have pursued network marketing over the years, and this is why I have turned to the internet to study Internet Marketing!

Since I no longer feel the need to continue venting, which just perpetuates negative energy, I feel the need to transition this blog to a more positive direction of solutions to the healthcare frustration.  In this vain, it would be my pleasure to share internet marketing ideas that I have learned that would benefit you in any product you would like to market, including chiropractic.

What are your ideas?  Are you more into venting or solutions?  Certainly I can continue with the occasional bitch session, but I think this blog would be better served with constructive solutions.

Just when I think I’ve gotten it all out of my system and I’m ready to start talking about some positive, constructive stuff another article comes across my desk that I feel compelled to discuss.  This is yet another article that adds to my frustration, and yet, supports my moving forward plans.

The newest article was in this past weekend’s Parade; “Don’t Let the Economy Endanger Your Health”.  This hard-hitting story reports some sobering facts about how people are reacting to the economy relative to their health.  In fact, based upon conversations I’ve had with many other doctors these figures come as no surprise. 

Startling results of a survey from the American Heart Association reveal that 57% of those surveyed report that the economy has affected their ability to take care of their health.  The impact is obviously greater amount those with lower incomes, although 33% of those earning $75,000 or more say that they also feel the squeeze.  People are forgoing lifesaving care; 10% have reportedly stopped or reduced their medication for chronic diseases such as high cholesterol and asthma.  13% have elected to not get a flu shot, while 18% have avoided getting needed exams like mammograms. 

However, in reality the state of our economy may not be completely to blame for this; health care has just gotten to be so freakin’ expensive.  In 1970, Americans spent approximately 7% of their budget on health care.  At 17% for 2008, this represents a 2.4 trillion dollar outlay, which exceeded our spending on housing or food.  The truth is that the U.S. leads the world in advanced specialty care; as such, we spend more money on health care than any other nation in the world, and what do we have to show for it?  In spite of our huge price tag, the World Health Organization reports that the U.S. is ranked 31st in over all health as compared to all other industrialized nations; a very sad commentary!

So, what does the author, George Anders, recommend us to do?  He suggests that prevention must be our priority and that we should find creative efforts to encourage wellness; sound familiar?  To me, this sounds like it is right out of a chiropractor’s mouth, after all, isn’t this what chiropractic is?  All we need to do is demonstrate that our care is wellness orientated and that we are a great health care option; that’s all it should take, right?  Well, actually, I believe that because of the economy another part of this puzzle is to demonstrate affordability and possibly re-think our fees in these tight economic times.

Like most chiropractors my desire has always been to help as many people as possible.  In fact, in my career there have been times where it was not uncommon for me to see upwards of 90-100 patients a day in my practice.  Today, I’m lucky if I see 30-40 a day; clearly a significant drop.  So what happen?  Did these patient’s condition get better?  Do they all-of-a-sudden no longer require my services?  Obviously not!  The solution?  We just have to find newer more modern ways to communicate with our patients to bring them back in.  Lightening bolts in the Yellow Pages doesn’t work.

You know, I really don’t like to beat a dead horse, but I do think that something else needs to be said about the direction our “health care” system is going.  I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m a chiropractor and I am concerned about how chiropractic services are going to fit into the whole health care picture.  Or, maybe it’s because I see health care continuing along the path of an ever increasing dependence on drugs to cure all our woos. 

It would seem that the push now-a-days is for national health care and what they call “preventative care”; you know, early detection through expensive testing procedures and early intervention through expensive drug regiments.  As previously mentioned, this is sick care and it is LESS cost effective.  Where in this plan is true health care?  Where in this plan do you see chiropractic care fitting in?  As many chiropractors will tell you, it does not!

Back in 1998 chiropractors may have won the battle with the AMA to cease and desist their anti-trust practices, but it would seem that the AMA is getting the final word.  Think about it, what three organizations run the health care industry?  I think you might agree that it is the AMA, the pharmaceutical companies and the health insurance industry.  So, let me ask this, do any of these organizations even consider health care from a wellness point of view?  From a chiropractic point of view?  Not on your life!  It is just not in their best interest!

Medical costs continue to sky rocketed and chiropractic services have been prevented from keeping pace.  Why?  Simple, the allowable fees are also set by the health insurance companies and they do not value chiropractic services.  The result is that with higher overall health care costs the health insurance industry has raised their co-pays, obviously to save money by precluding them from having to deal with what they consider to be nuisance claims; aka, chiropractic services.  One obvious solution is for chiropractors to fight for higher fees, but you know that along with that we would also have to compromise by accepting a cap on care.  OK, great you say, we’ll take $75-$100 per visit with a 12 visit cap.  Then we all know that 12 visits isn’t enough so we’ll just convince our patients to continue care at a cash fee that is much less, right?  Depending on your area getting the full fee might be an unrealistic expectation.  Aaahhhhh, but is it legal to charge less than the established fee schedule?  To answer that let’s take a look at our current model of “national health care”, Medicare.

As a chiropractor in the Medicare system we have three codes that are covered; 98940, 98941, 98942; all chiropractic manipulation codes.  These codes are only covered when there is an active treatment plan with an end result in mind; on going preventative, maintenance care is a non-covered service.  All services, covered or not, are supposed to be properly documented and properly billed.  This means that for all care, covered or not, a claim form must be submitted to Medicare; a special modifier is used to tell Medicare when care is active when it is not.  In either case, your patient is supposed to pay their share, which means that for covered services they pay their co-pay and for non-covered services they are supposed to pay the full fee.  Anything less and you run the risk of having to answer questions of the National Government Services.  It would seem to me that these same rules would apply to any new government plan that comes down the pike.

Now the questions one might have is, why do we need to submit a claim to Medicare for non-covered services?  That’s a good question, but I might speculate that it is because “they” want to keep on eye on us to make sure we are not taking advantage of Medicare patients by convincing them that they require more care than they actually “need”.

The questions abound: Who’s rules are we playing by?  Who says that a patient can’t make their own decisions regarding their need for care?  Since care that is not active is considered a non-covered expense, then why are we bound to the established fee schedule?  Whose to say that we couldn’t give it away for free, and if we did would they still be concerned?

Today while listening to a popular talk show host I was inspired to discuss their comments on my blog, but I wasn’t sure which blog would be most appropriate, this one or my other one, www.HurryUpAndSlowDown.com, which is devoted to the Chiropractic Lifestyle.  I decided to post it on both.

While listening to him speak today his comments were much like those of a chiropractor.  He was saying that our government’s plan to cut costs by pushing preventative health care are misguided efforts that will not save money.  He went on to say that real preventative care is getting regular exercise and watching what you eat.  The government’s thrust and the focus of the medical profession is not prevention care, but rather it is based upon early detection and intervention.  Their goal is to get people into their system of taking drugs as early as possible.  On the contrary, their cost-saving efforts will significantly increase cost simply because of all the expensive tests and early intervention drugs they will dispense.  I wanted so much to call the station just to give him a big thumbs up.  Unfortunately, I did not have the time to hang on the phone; so I did the next best thing, I sent him an email.  Here is what I sent him.

Holy cow!  When I tuned in today you were talking about how preventative care, as the government sees it, is all wrong; that it is NOT about prevention, but rather early detection and treatment.  This is called “sick care”, NOT health care, and this model of care will never save money!  As you so eloquently put it, preventative care is about exercise, and a good diet, which definitely cuts cost.  This is the exact message I have been preaching for the past 20 years.  In fact, when you combine it with a periodic tune-up of your spine and nervous system with a chiropractic adjustment, this is what we call a chiropractic lifestyle.  And, now that the government has gotten themselves involved they are further spending excess money by supporting medicine and big pharmas message that all you need are drugs, a whole bunch of expensive tests, and perhaps a little surgery.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  This is NOT health care and people ARE better off staying as far away from them as possible.  By doing this they will not be required to poison their bodies with expensive drugs, AND they will save lots and lots of money.

Here’s some sick stats: 

            80-90% of all disease is related to lifestyle stress.

            Years ago when the doctors went on strike in Canada, the death rate went down!

            The medical profession kills nearly 100,000 people each year; that’s like 500 fully loaded jumbo jets crashing every year!

A great prescription for preventative care: 

• Take responsibility for your health
• Watch your diet, and most people knows what that means; see item 1.
• Get moving. Exercise is NOT a 4-letter word!
• Get appropriate rest.
• Stop your stinkin’ thinkin’. A negative attitude will kill you and all those you touch
• Get your spine and nervous system checked by a chiropractor.

Think about it; taking responsibility for your health = fewer symptoms = fewer visits to the MD = fewer expensive medical tests = less need to take expensive drugs = a more efficient, cost-effective, productive member of society.

 THIS is the chiropractic lifestyle; THIS is true Health Care!

No matter what you call it, network marketing, home-based business, MLM or multi-level marketing, they’re all the same.  You have a business and a product that you believe in, are passionate about, and want to tell others all about it.

If you haven’t had any experience with network marketing before you might be interested to know that people from every walk of life are into it; lawyers, doctors, businessmen and women, students, teachers, housewives . . . the list can go on and on.  Suffice it to say that the network marketing bug knows no boundaries and the fact of the matter is that in our current economy more and more people are in to it today than ever before.  Let’s face it, the thought of being your own boss and owning your own business is appealing to many, and with the extremely low start up costs with network marketing its appeal is that much greater.  Think about it, compared to a brick and mortar business a network marketing business has no office and no employees.  This alone saves you up to $100,000 and more per year, and the income potential is just as real.

So, how does a new network marketer get their business off the ground?  Historically, new network marketers are required to make a list of 100 or 200 people they know to call; just to tell them about their opportunity.  This means that no one is sacred; your mother, father, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, neighbors, business associates, pastor, hairdresser, mailman; the list can go on and on.  There have been stories where network marketers would call in a plumber for something insignificant just to pitch them on their opportunity.  ANYONE within arms length is not safe with a network marketer who is worth their salt.  And, admittedly, I have been guilty of many of these tactics; no, I never called a plumber, but I have given my card to a waitress.  Like I said, no one is sacred.  Unfortunately, many network marketers become members of the NFL, “No Friends Left”.  There’s got to be a better way to build your network to create your residual income.

“Stay tuned” to my next post where I will go into another ”Solution” to my frustrations with health care.

Peter A. Holst, D.C.