Transitioning from Patient Volume to Patient Value

First, every health system still wants patient volume. You need a population to manage. The more population, the more income and opportunity for the health system.

Our rant the last few years here has been that marketers must drive high-contribution patient volume. You do that by identifying the DRG’s/CPT’s that have high-contribution and drive those specific procedures from risk assessment events. It assumes you are willing to find out something about the pricing of your services. Price is a key element of Marketing, but usually not part of the healthcare marketing discussion.

Here is something that isn’t going to change: The justification for a marketing department is to drive business that will make the organization financially sustainable.

In the marketer’s transition to value pricing from the focus on only driving patient volume, you must continue to understand pricing – but now the pricing of managed care arrangements. A wise marketer will  identify which contracts are lucrative so you can strategize to keep those patients in the system.

The famous 4P’s of marketing – Promotion, Product, Placement, Price – are all equally important. We seem to only talk about Promotion in the healthcare discussion.  That’s a big mistake. You need to also understand the other three P’s to be an effective marketer. So today’s post is about Price, something you must ask the finance team about to stay useful as a marketer as healthcare transitions from only Volume, to Volume plus Value.

How Social Media Increases Patient Volume – Or Doesn’t

This post via Social Media Today is worth a scan for healthcare marketers because it puts forward a definite opinion about how social media should be used – and not used – to drive more business.

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