When we consider black swan events, which I’ve discussed here before, they’re often looked at in a negative connotation. And rightly so. But in an effort to find a silver lining to this pandemic, we should consider the pandemic as a black swan event, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a dramatic improvement in society. There are many changes that will occur post acute phase pandemic. As we enter this new chronic pandemic phase, things will change. Ironically, many changes will result in better customer service in the healthcare setting. One example? No more waiting in doctor’s offices!

No more waiting in doctor’s offices

If you’ve received an email from your doctor as they start to see patients in person again, you’ll notice a common thread. They all detail the changes you should expect when coming into the office. This is part of phase 2 in many states. Our office is no different.

Based on the San Francisco Mayor’s recent announcements and clearance by the Department of Public Health, hospitalizations due to the coronavirus are flat which means we can resume non-essential services as part of Phase 2 on Monday, May 18th.

Just as so many other physician office’s prepare for this next phase, we are implementing several safeguards as well. Our office building already requires that everyone entering the building wear a mask. But standalone offices are requiring the same of anyone entering their office.

Many offices will begin spacing appointments further apart so patients can be brought directly to the exam room after entering the office and having your temperature checked. That means no more waiting in our waiting room! This is a huge paradigm shift for patient care and customer service. Something that has been a long time coming.

Doctors and staff will also wear masks during consultations and treatments. To ensure patients don’t come into the office sick, staff will confirm they are not experiencing any symptoms associated with COVID-19 such as fever, cough, loss of taste (ageusia) or loss of smell (anosmia) before they leave home.

Elective surgery

For facilities that offer surgery, this will also be a new experience. Elective procedures that were originally postponed will be allowed to reschedule. That means rescheduling hip and knee replacements. Or cataract surgery. But for hospitals and surgery centers that have lost a great deal of revenue during the pandemic because they had to cancel elective procedures, they will probably not allow cosmetic procedures for the time being.

Why the difference? For patients undergoing cosmetic procedures, they must pay out of pocket. For the surgeon’s fee and also for the facility and anesthesia fee. When comparing cosmetic vs medically necessary, insurance-based procedures, hospitals get paid a small facility fee from cosmetic patients. So if the name of the game is prioritization of procedures as facilities ramp back up, they will preferentially go with better paying procedures, of which cosmetics is not.

Benefits of an office-based operating room

To be clear, this is not because cosmetic procedures are not allowed. On the contrary, new health orders are allowing any type of elective procedure, including, and without limitation, cosmetic and dental procedures. But there is a caveat. Facilities that resume elective procedures must have a protocol in place that ensures the safety of the surgical patients. And since it appears most hospitals and surgery centers will not prioritize cosmetic procedures, patients may find it’s easiest to schedule their cosmetic procedure in an office-based operating room like ours.

Here are several surgery specific protocols that facilities, including ours, will put in place to avoid the possibility of operating on a COVID+ patient. We are requiring all surgery patients to obtain a COVID test at one of the free testing centers in the Bay Area prior to their surgery date. As a follow up, we will also perform a rapid COVID-19 antibody blood test the morning of surgery. This is to rule in (or rule out) exposure. But also, this test will confirm they possess antibodies that confer immunity to the virus.

Flattening the curve

Based on recommendations by the country’s foremost experts, a complete return to normalcy via a vaccine or herd immunity, may take at least 18 months. Sadly, waiting to reopen society once there is absolutely no risk of contracting the coronavirus is not realistic or plausible. That is why we as a society must restart, with safeguards in place. Throughout this entire crisis, the overarching goal was to flatten the curve (and thus far, at least as San Franciscans, we have done that), not eliminate the curve.

In other words, the goal is to minimize the number of people that get COVID-19 at any one time so as not to overwhelm the healthcare system. To that end, the shelter-in-place and quarantine are relaxing in a way to allow life to move forward. And at the same time continue with various forms of surveillance and social distancing to minimize the risk of spread.

The irony is these changes will actually provide much better customer service than many expect from the healthcare system. From more convenient virtual consults to no more waiting in doctor’s offices. We can use this opportunity as a black swan event of improvement, not failure.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post No more waiting in doctor’s offices! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Here’s the sad truth. Everything will be more expensive now. Regardless of what business you as a customer frequent, the business owners’ expenses are going up. And they’re not arbitrarily using COVID as a pretext to raise their prices. Expenses are up because restaurants, clothing stores, doctor’s offices etc are spending more on personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies than ever before. Specifically in our practice, we’re spending more on PPE but also rapid in-office testing kits.

It’s not just the expense of buying more supplies. The supplies themselves are more expensive than ever before. Why? Because of the law of supply and demand. Manufacturers, suppliers and distributors recognize there’s a greater demand, so prices go up. While they may not raise the prices to usurious highs that are just plain price gouging, everyone’s costs are going up. So to cover these increased expenses, a businesses’ prices go up and pass those costs onto the consumer.

Everything will be more expensive now

Aside from supply and demand of PPE increasing prices, another economic phenomenon will come into play over the next several months and years. This pandemic has reaffirmed something we already knew. Our supply chain relies too heavily on countries that have experienced an epidemic several times in the 21st century. SARS in 2002/2003, MERS, H1N1 in 2009 and now COVID in 2019/2020. China, Taiwan and South Korea are the first affected by these epidemics.

The US will start to shift as much manufacturing as possible to facilities within our borders. This is great in reducing the unemployment rate by increasing the number of manufacturing jobs available. However, labor is more expensive in the US so the costs of those goods will be more expensive than those coming from Asia. Pro: it’s good for jobs. Con: it will cost us more. Intel is already in discussions with the White House to develop chip making factories here.

Cosmetic surgery costs and the airline industry

Airline tickets were less expensive in recent years. It wasn’t magic. By loading planes with more passengers than ever before, the airline could lower costs due to the volume of passengers. Now that the middle seat is gone, so are those discount fares. With fewer tickets available for purchase, airlines will have to raise their prices.

This is analogous to cosmetic surgery. Yes, prices will go up due to increasing expenses for PPE. But offices may not feel comfortable seeing as many Botox patients every day or operating on several patients in one day. With lower daily volume comes lower revenue. So doctors will be forced to raise surgery fees to counteract the loss in volume.

If you’re a consumer curious about pricing from a local doctor, click here. If you’re a doctor that wants to know how you fit within the competitive landscape, create an account and login here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Why everything, including cosmetic surgery, will be more expensive now first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

What’s an abandoned cart?

Say you’re shopping online and add a tub of Vaseline to your cart, or condoms (ribbed for their pleasure), and you forget to complete the purchase. Okay, maybe that’s not what you’re adding to your cart, but in general, sometimes you’ll add something to your cart and ultimately not make the purchase for one reason or another. Then, 15 minutes later you receive an email encouraging you to click on a link to bring you back to that specific item on the website to finish the purchase. And notice, the link doesn’t simply bring you back to the homepage of the website forcing you to search the product again. It brings to back to the exact item of interest.

That email you received is an example of an abandoned cart. And the link that brought you to the specific product you were considering is called a deep link. No searching necessary.

Why is an abandoned cart email so important?

If you think of any other healthcare provider, their online stores don’t send out abandoned cart emails. Why is that? Because if a website is expected to send someone an abandoned cart via email, you must first know their email address!

If your online store required someone to login and provide their contact information (name and email address), you would then have a way of capturing their email address. But how do you encourage them to enter their contact info? Withhold something they need. For example, don’t show them the price up front!

Think about it. Most online stores simply show the product or service, like the example below. By showing the price, you’ve removed any incentive for the user to enter their contact info.

Withholding price changes that dynamic. If the consumer had to create an account and add their demographic information to see the price of a particular product, they would. And if adding the item to their cart to see the price required their information, then you could capture their contact info (a lead) with each abandoned cart. Just as they receive the abandoned cart email with a deep link encouraging them to return to your website to purchase, your front office staff would receive the same email with their contact information for follow up.

For the people that purchase, great, you get their money and their name. But there will always be more people considering purchasing an item than those that actually purchase. As the sales funnel demonstrates, there are more potential names and email addresses to be gotten from the people that may purchase an item vs those that will purchase.

Case study in Abandoned Carts

Dr. Steven Weiner, a facial plastic surgeon in Florida that has a non-surgical practice demonstrates the importance of abandoned carts. He used to show all of his products and product prices online. Then he switched to a Price Estimator on his website (https://theclinique.com/build-my-bod/) wherein the consumer must enter their contact information to see any pricing.

More importantly, if they were considering purchasing a product, they wouldn’t see the price until they created a free account and added the item to their cart. Once in their cart, they could see the price and decide whether to purchase or not. Over the course of 4 months, they definitely purchased! He generated almost $5,300 in online sales.

During that same time period, he generated more than just dollars and cents from his online store. He captured the contact information from 95 unique users that added items to their cart but did not purchase. Because his system tracks users and the carts they abandon, his office staff had the opportunity to follow up with those leads. Over time, some of those leads will turn into patients purchasing high dollar procedures or at least products generating some cash flow for his practice.

Wrap up

Regardless of what type of advertising you engage in, the ultimate goal should be to capture the consumer’s contact info. A call-to-action on your website is your best chance of getting that information. However, not all “call to action” buttons are created equal. Asking for someone’s contact info in exchange for an ebook or to be added to your monthly newsletter isn’t tantalizing anymore. Requiring the consumer to enter their contact information to see the cost of a procedure or the cost of a product they’re considering purchasing online is tantalizing enough.

This concept can be applied to your online store as well. Not every online store will result in many sales but it doesn’t have to be a total loss. If you have an online store, then no doubt it is your single greatest source of lost leads because you aren’t tracking abandoned carts. Still don’t agree? Keep in mind that Amazon utilizes the abandoned cart…and they probably know what they’re doing!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post The Power of the Abandoned Cart first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Presentation topics at Miami Cosmetic Surgery

While Dr. Kaplan will be speaking on several topics that relate to BuildMyBod Health, his first presentation on Thursday morning is actually related to his day job as a plastic surgeon!

On Thursday, February 20th, he’ll discuss the technique he created, the Single Incision Minimally Invasive (SIMI) neck lift. This is a procedure that reduces the typical number of neck lift incisions from three to one. Most importantly, the two incisions eliminated in this procedure are the two longest and most unsightly. The incisions behind the ears.

He’ll show before and after photos of his own patients and results from his study in the peer-reviewed Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open journal.

Topics relating to price transparency, ie BuildMyBod Health

BuildMyBod Health is a revolutionary platform that takes a critically needed issue – price transparency in healthcare – and makes it more accessible for the consumer, and more palatable for the physician.

Consumers want to know their out of pocket costs for all healthcare services. Either because they’ll be paying out of pocket for a medically necessary service if they haven’t met their deductible or if it’s considered cosmetic. BuildMyBod Health allows the consumer to check pricing through the doctor’s website from the privacy of their mobile phone. In the process of checking pricing, they have to enter their contact info before submitting their “wishlist” of services.

The consumer instantly receives an email with a breakdown of costs delivered to their inbox. And the healthcare provider receives their contact info – a lead for follow up! Dr. Kaplan will show how this kind of give and take can benefit the doctor’s business.

On Thursday afternoon, Dr. Kaplan will talk about turning social media followers into consults. Since physicians are utilizing social media to create content and educate consumers, they want something to show for it! All of that content creation should generate clear, measurable results. Offering the opportunity for the social media follower to check pricing is the easiest way to capture their contact info.

How price transparency grew Dr. Kaplan’s newly purchased practice

Dr. Kaplan will also speak on his experience buying a practice in San Francisco. He will review statistical data on this transaction and how many patients he retained from the previous doctor. But he will also talk about how he used a Price Estimator on his website to grow his email database to over 10,000 potential patients in 6.5 years. And that will improve his valuation for a future sale!

If you’re in the Miami area this weekend and want to get your learn on, click here to register for MCS! And if you’re a healthcare provider that wants to use price transparency to generate leads, click here. And last but not least, if you’re a consumer that wants to check pricing from a doctor near you, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr. Kaplan speaking at Miami Cosmetic Surgery first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

One of my patients came in the other day to receive Botox/Xeomin for her forehead wrinkles right after her ObGyn appointment in the same building. She related a story to me of how terrible the customer service was at the front desk of the Ob’s office and how it’s so much better in our office. Upon hearing this, I immediately knew why the customer service is better in our office.

The difference between insurance vs cash-pay practices

My patient said that the front desk personnel were very passive aggressive and unfriendly. She pointed out how she has good insurance, pays a lot for it and expects to receive good customer service in return. This isn’t unreasonable. Whenever we pay a high price for something, like dinner or a car, we expect the establishment we’re patronizing to treat us well.

But that’s the problem. There’s a disconnect between the patient and the doctor’s office when using health insurance. The patient isn’t paying the doctor directly for those services. There’s an intermediary between the patient and the doctor: the insurance claims process.

I understand most consumers use health insurance when seeing their doctor. I’m not disputing that. But the underlying root problem comes into clear focus when I think about other offices vs my office. In insurance-based offices, the patient pays the insurance company and maybe, just maybe the insurance company will pay the doctor. In a cash pay office, the patient pays the doctor and that’s it.

Why customer service is better in cash pay practices

Look at it this way. If someone comes in and gives my front office staff a $10,000 cash payment for a cosmetic procedure, which is a very typical occurrence in a cosmetic practice, my staff is naturally going to be very nice to that person. I’m not saying you should only treat people nicely if they have money. I’m just saying that if someone gives you a bunch of money, your natural response will be one of appreciation and pleasantness.

Compare that to an insurance-based practice. When the patient gives the front desk their insurance card, it’s not the same as cash. In fact, it’s even worse, Because when the patient hands the insurance card to the office staff, not only is it not cash, but it embodies an evil system. That card represents a process of filing an insurance claim, getting denied, appealing, appealing again, frustration and finally a feeling of defeat when you receive either very little or no reimbursement.

It’s just that simple. That’s the difference between a cash-pay practice vs an insurance-based practice. Sure the front office staff should be trained to be friendly no matter what type of office they’re in. But the fact is that insurance processing sucks the energy and youth out of anyone that is touched by its scourge. This leads to a poor attitude and subsequently poor customer service.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Customer service is better in cash-pay practices first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Join the Bae Club (aka Club Kaplan)!

For those of you not aware by now, Dr. Kaplan goes by Dr. Bae on social media! As silly as it sounds, this online persona has taken on a life of its own. He’s still the same person regardless, but being Dr. Bae in the Bay Area just made sense on Snapchat and Instagram. Spelling it B-a-e rather than B-a-y is simply a play on words.

And now Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery and Dr. Kaplan are launching the Bae Club! The Bae Club is an additional way to provide our patients with a high end, VIP experience.

When you join the Bae Club, you’ll enter a world of special offers just for you and the ability to treat yourself year round. Check out either the Membership or Package below and see which fits your needs best:

The Bae Club Injectables and SkinCare Membership:

• Up to 20% off Botox/Xeomin, fillers, Latisse and Obagi skin care products.
• Get treated, or purchase, as much and as often as you like and always get up to 20% off.
• All you do is pay a low monthly membership fee (automatically charged to a card on file).
• Purchase must be made online by clicking the button below. Can not purchase in office.

Purchase your Membership HERE!

The Bae Club Wrinkle Reducer Package: 

• Come in the office every three months, get 20 units of Botox/Xeomin and walk right out of the office!
• Instead of paying a lump fee for treatments at each appointment, you pay a little each month with an automated charge to your card on file.
• You’re getting the treatments anyway but instead of paying the full amount every three months, you pay a monthly fee that covers your cost for the year – but at a 15% discount!
• Purchase must be made online by clicking the button below. Can not purchase in office.

Purchase this Package HERE!

We know something new like this can be confusing so please don’t hesitate to call with any questions. Dr. Kaplan (aka Dr. Bae) and his team are always available! Call or TEXT us at 415-923-3005.

The post Introducing the Bae Club! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

BuildMyBod Health founder, Dr. Jonathan Kaplan will speak at Becker’s 17th annual spine conference in Chicago. As one of the largest industry meetings that help hospitals and ambulatory surgery center’s (ASC’s) achieve first-in-class best practices, this is recognition of the new-found importance of price transparency in healthcare.

Becker’s Conference Agenda

BuildMyBod Health founder and plastic surgeon, Dr. Jonathan Kaplan will be discussing how price transparency can lead to better patient engagement.

With more consumers paying out of pocket for medically necessary services before meeting their deductible, these patients are increasingly behaving like cosmetic patients. Price sensitive. Choosing a doctor regardless of network. And to be competitive, physicians and physician practices need to capture these patients. This is the reality that cosmetic plastic surgeons have experienced for decades now. And so it’s not surprising that a plastic surgeon holds the key to engaging patients who are paying out of pocket for medically necessary services. Using pricing information as the “carrot” to engage the patient is a huge customer service opportunity!

The BuildMyBod Health platform allows consumers to check pricing on out-of-pocket services using a Price Estimator on the doctor’s website, but only after providing their contact info. This generates a lead for the doctor’s practice who can then navigate the consumer through the healthcare process.

Everyone wins!

BuildMyBod allows consumers to visit a doctor or facility’s website to view their various services. They can then add procedures-of-interest to their “wishlist” and after submitting their wishlist along with their contact info, pricing info is automatically and instantly downloaded and emailed to the consumer. The patient gets instant gratification in the form of out-of-pocket pricing information. The healthcare provider receives the consumer’s contact info – a lead. Everyone wins!

The need to know out-of-pocket healthcare costs is of rising importance because more consumers have high-deductible health plans. When you have to spend $5000 to $6000 out of pocket before your insurance kicks in, you want and need to know what various outpatient services like lab tests, colonoscopies and X-rays will cost because consumers will be shouldering more of those costs.

While BuildMyBod Health started with out-of-pocket pricing information for cosmetic services, they have expanded to medically necessary services. When paying thousands of dollars out of pocket, there’s no difference between a boob job and a full body MRI!

To check pricing on healthcare services from a doctor near you, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr. Kaplan speaking at Becker’s 17th Annual Spine Conference first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Starting today, Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, Founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health is giving four lectures over the course of two days at the AACS Annual Meeting in Orlando.

BuildMyBod Health: A primer

For those of you not familiar, BuildMyBod Health allows consumers to check pricing on healthcare services that are typically paid out of pocket. They are paid out of pocket because 1) you haven’t met your deductible for a medically necessary service (think colonoscopy, lab test or X-ray) or 2) because the procedure is considered cosmetic and insurance doesn’t cover it anyway. Consumers interested in pricing can visit BuildMyBod.com or download the BuildMyBod iPhone app. Even more user friendly, consumers can utilize the BuildMyBod Price Estimator on a doctor’s website.

Regardless of how you find the doctor, you add procedures or services of interest to your “wishlist.” Then submit your wishlist along with your contact info. After that, you’ll instantly get an email with a breakdown of the costs and the doctor’s contact info. The doctor’s office will also receive your contact info for follow up. By receiving your contact info, the doctor’s office can help you navigate through the healthcare process.

What presentations are on tap at the AACS?!

On Thursday, Dr. Kaplan will speak on utilizing social media influencers in your practice. What’s the difference between influencer pages on Instagram and social media influencers? How can you tell if a social media influencer that wants free product to promote your practice has a legitimate following? Dr. Kaplan will provide the attendees with the tools and knowledge to answer these questions.

Twenty minutes later he’ll talk about the necklift technique he developed as a board certified plastic surgeon. His paper on the Single Incision Minimally Invasive (SIMI) necklift was recently accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

To round out the day, Dr. Kaplan will discuss generating leads through social media. Physician practices produce so much content for social media but what do they get in return? Dr. Kaplan will explain how funneling all inquiries on pricing (the most common question on a doctor’s Instagram page) will leverage the consumer’s need for price transparency with the doctor’s ability to generate leads.

Finally on Friday, he’ll give a presentation on weeding out price shoppers and finding serious patients in the process. This is similar to the topic he discussed at the Nazarian Institute last weekend.

If you’re in Orlando for the AACS, be sure and attend one of his lectures. It’s not everyday you hear something new!

To check pricing on healthcare services through the BuildMyBod Health platform from a doctor near you, click here. Or to sign up as a provider and offer pricing information to consumers in an automated way and generate leads, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr. Kaplan speaking at AACS in Orlando first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

One of the more frustrating aspects of running a medical practice is the constant calls and emails asking about the cost of procedures. This annoys doctors because it makes them feel that their training and expertise accounts for nothing. As though, all that really matters is “how much is this gonna cost me?!” But doctors also need to recognize that just because someone asks about price doesn’t necessarily make them a price shopper.

Two types of price shoppers

When people ask about price, there are those simply calling each office trying to find the cheapest doctor with no regard to quality or certification. Those are the patients doctors supposedly don’t want.

The other type is the person who has a genuine curiosity about price. Just like they wouldn’t go to an open house without knowing the cost of the home, or wouldn’t go to the dealership without knowing the cost of a car, they don’t want to waste their time on a consult if they can’t afford it. This of course, is very reasonable.

But sometimes doctors send mixed messages.

But do doctors really dislike price shoppers?

On the one hand, doctors say they don’t want price shoppers for the reasons stated above. This is also why they don’t list pricing on their website because then it looks like they’re trying to compete on price or indulge the patient by saying, “here’s the cost, that’s all that matters!”

But these same doctors that say they don’t like price shoppers also routinely run specials and other discounted promotions (ie $10 per unit BOO-tox for Halloween, Labor Day specials etc). Well, who do you think is showing up for those discounted treatments? In other words, if you don’t like price shoppers, why are you encouraging their behavior?! If your goal is to weed out price shoppers from your practice, then why weed in price shoppers with specials?

The reason is, doctors need patients. And during traditionally slow parts of the year, doctors have to find a way to bring patients in, so they run specials. Yes, this will result in bringing in some price shoppers. So while a doctor can’t eliminate price shoppers from their practice, they can do a better job differentiating between the price shopper they like vs the price shopper they don’t like.

Automation is key

With so many calls and inquiries about pricing, doctors and their front office staff need to be more efficient in separating out the two different types of price shoppers. The question is how. Automation is synonymous with efficiency.

When a consumer checks pricing through my website , they’ll find I have a Price Estimator. But what’s unique about my Price Estimator is that the consumer can’t see pricing until they choose procedures of interest and enter their contact info. Once they take these very simple steps, automation kicks in. They automatically receive an estimate for the procedure they’re interested in and my front office staff automatically receives the consumer’s contact info.

Therefore, through an automated process, we have combined price transparency with lead generation. When we follow up these leads, the patient can do one of two things. Book a consult or not. If they’re serious and come in for a consult, these price-aware patient are 41% more likely to book a procedure according to this study in a peer reviewed journal.

By using pricing as a “carrot” to get consumers into your sales funnel, the practice can build a huge patient database for future remarketing via email campaigns. Even if the patient doesn’t come in immediately, they may eventually come in after enough “touch points.”

The bottom line is that discussing pricing on your website shouldn’t be seen as a strategy that involves competing on price. Don’t compete on price. Be one of the few doctors that offers pricing information in an otherwise price-opaque healthcare environment. By giving patients what they want (pricing info), you’ll be competing on customer service, not price.

If you think you could use a Price Estimator on our website to weed out price shoppers, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post How I weed out price shoppers and find serious patients in the process first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Price TransCAREncy

In the past, the healthcare community, despite previous efforts, has not embraced price transparency. The reasons are multifold but the least scandalous reason is due to the difficult-to-explain interactions of the healthcare triumvirate of insurance payors, healthcare providers/facilities and patients. And the most scandalous reason is that if price is hidden, competition is reduced and the healthcare industrial complex can make more money.

To fix this broken system, we need price transparency. This will impose market forces on healthcare, introducing greater competition, which will lead to more affordable healthcare, especially for commoditized services (i.e. X-rays, lab tests, outpatient services).

But how do you implement price transparency? A menu of pricing on a website won’t do it. For everyone to “buy in,”, we need to ensure that everyone benefits. Of course, the benefit to the patient is knowing their financial obligations ahead of time so they can plan accordingly, or find an alternative. But how to get provider buy-in?

Price Transcarency = Price Transparency + Lead Generation

By combining price transparency with lead generation, the provider now captures the consumer’s contact info when they check pricing online. This allows the provider to follow up and act as a navigator for the patient. By generating a lead in the process of the patient checking pricing, the provider now has buy in. May seem too simple, but sometimes the best solutions are the simplest or most obvious.

Price trancarency already exists in the form of a Price Estimator that works for both medically necessary services as well as cosmetic services. Whether it’s a procedure paid out of pocket because insurance doesn’t cover it (cosmetic) or because it’s medically necessary and the deductible hasn’t been met, most Americans are paying out of pocket for a portion of their healthcare. The idea of Price Transcarency benefits everyone. Join the revolution!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Price TransCAREncy, not price transparency first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

What’s in store at the MAX Expo?

Dr. Kaplan’s TED-style talk at the MAX Expo will be about customer service in healthcare. The premise is based on words of wisdom from John DiJulius, the customer service guru at the DiJulius Group of Ohio.

Mr. DiJulius states that your business should strive to provide such excellent customer service that the price will be irrelevant. In other words, the cost is not a primary concern because the product or customer service are so worth it.

As Dr. Kaplan argues here, this is true when it comes to a cup of coffee because the consumer has a general baseline understanding of the cost of coffee. Maybe it’s $1.50 in a diner, $5 at Starbucks and maybe the greatest coffee ever is $10. So while price may be irrelevant, the consumer still has a basic idea of their potential out-of-pocket expense.

Not so with healthcare. The consumer has no baseline understanding of cost. Sure there are online sites that provide averages but when it comes down to it, that’s not helpful or actionable. Dr. Kaplan will show how a Price Estimator (like the one from BuildMyBod Health), allows the healthcare provider to provide accurate pricing to the consumer based on their insurance plan through what’s called an allowable. This is the out-of-pocket amount the facility is allowed to charge the patient.

During Dr. Kaplan’s talk, he’ll explain that in fields other than healthcare, great customer service can make pricing irrelevant. When it comes to healthcare, it’s actually price transparency that leads to a patient experiencing great customer service. Through price transparency, the consumer isn’t confronted with surprise bills or learning how much they owe after a procedure. Now how’s that for customer service!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr. Kaplan & BuildMyBod Health speaking at MAX! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Valuation of an existing plastic surgery practice

The Late Career Boot Camp has speakers discussing the valuation of a practice from the seller and buyer’s perspective. In my case, I was the buyer. The doctor selling his practice to me settled on the purchase price in the following way. He chose the net revenue from injectables (Botox and fillers) over the course of a year. In other words, how much did he bring in over the course of a year from Botox and fillers, then subtract the cost of the botox and fillers. Oh, and then he multiplied that by two. Apparently that’s a thing – a valuation based on multiples.

To his credit, he based the value on injectables only, not surgery. In his opinion, the most likely patient to return to continue seeing me were non-surgical patients who typically receive injections every 3-6 months. Therefore, surgical patients who may never return, were not included in the valuation.

The question a buyer has to ask themselves is what are they buying. Buying a database of patients is tricky because it’s not clear how many will return to see the new doctor. In my case, only 151 patients (8.66% of his patients) ever came to see me. That might not sound like a lot but those 151 patients each spent an average of $5,214 over the subsequent 5 years.

Even with that revenue, the main value in the practice that I purchased was the existence of the already-accredited office-based operating room. That was the main reason I wanted this practice in the first place. This allows our office to provide a private, VIP experience to patients. This way, they don’t have to have their breast augmentation in a hospital where the risk of infection is greater.

How to increase your valuation

When I took over the practice, there were 1,744 patients in the database. The existing email database had only 200 email addresses! After scouring, the patient charts, I found more email addresses, bringing the total from 200 to 819.

What I’ve found over the last 5 years is that there’s more potential value in an email database of existing patients and potential patients (leads generated) than just a patient database. Consider that a doctor will always have more leads than actual patients. It stands to reason. A practice markets themselves to generate leads and there’s a natural attrition through the sales funnel from leads to actual patients. So, the database of leads is greater than the database of patients.

In preparation for the sale of a practice, it would behoove a doctor to aggressively generate as many leads as possible so that when they turn over the practice, they have more than just a database of patients that have already been in to see the doctor. They also have a database of potential patients that may not have received treatment from anyone.

After a review of the numbers, my current patient database after 5 years comes to a total of 4,376. But my total database of patients and leads (email addresses and phone numbers) is 8,500! That means that my email database of real and potential patients is double what my patient database is.

What sounds more valuable, a database of 4,376 or 8,500?!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

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