This is Part 2 of the article “Five Ways to Get More TMS Patients Without Spending a Lot of Money”. If you happened to stumble across this part first, that’s OK. It’s not like a Marvel movie where you have to watch 13 other movies in consecutive order first. You’re welcome to read this part first and then bounce back to Part 1. Or you can skip over to Part 1 now, read that first to get up to speed, and then finish the article here.
In Part 1 we revealed how full your TMS schedule should be (hint: 80 percent utilized or better) and how practices are able to find enough patients to make those numbers a reality. We then shared the first 2 of 5 ways to get more TMS patients: First, build better relationships with referring providers, Second, get patients excited about TMS before they ever step foot in your practice.
We also talked about the marketing Rule of 7: people need to hear your message 7 times before they’re willing to accept your offer. And remember, three of those messages about TMS should happen before the patient ever steps foot in your practice.
In today’s post we’ll wrap up the last 3 of 5 ways to get more TMS patients – all without spending a lot of money.
3. Get Practice Staff Excited About Success Stories
Some practices use a daily staff huddle. Some send a weekly email newsletter. Some rely on individual department meetings to convey important information. Whichever method you use in your practice, make sure the positive stories of patients being helped through TMS are being shared.
We naturally respond to other people’s enthusiasm. When every member of your staff is energized by seeing and hearing the stories of patients whose lives were changed through TMS, that enthusiasm will transfer to your patients. It inspires confidence in them to move forward with TMS treatment.
Compare the following two interactions:
Interaction 1
Patient: “I keep hearing about TMS for treating my depression. What do you think about it?”
MA: “It’s OK, I guess. Some patients like it and some don’t. You can try it if you want.”
Patient: “Maybe not now. I’ll keep thinking about it.”
Interaction 2
Patient: “I keep hearing about TMS for treating my depression. What do you think about it?”
MA: “TMS is amazing! We had a patient just finish TMS yesterday. She said she felt like an entirely new person and couldn’t wait to start living her life again. I’ve seen some incredibly amazing results with our patients.”
Patient: “Yeah, that’s what I keep hearing. I think I want to try it.”
When every member of your staff is excited about TMS, your patients will be excited about TMS, too.
4. Make Sure Your Providers Are Excited About TMS
“I don’t recommend TMS just for fun. I recommend it because it’s the right treatment for my patients. I wish I could help them understand that.”
The above quote from a psychiatrist I am acquainted with illustrates what it looks like when providers themselves are committed to helping patients heal through TMS. If you offer TMS in your practice and your providers are not recommending or prescribing TMS to every qualified patient, you have a trust issue with TMS among your providers. Your providers should be the biggest champions of TMS within your practice because they have seen the studies and witnessed firsthand the patient results.
How can you get providers excited about TMS? Two ways:
- Incentive compensation
- Case review
Incentive compensation aligns practice expectations with provider performance. If TMS is a focus of your practice (and based on patient outcomes combined with reimbursement levels, it really should be) then it makes sense to align providers’ financial compensation with the practice goal of starting patients on TMS. Pay to prescribe and other similar compensation structures are illegal, but there are legal ways of structuring a compensation program to achieve the same goals. It is strongly recommended you consult with healthcare attorneys familiar with the laws regulating provider compensation before changing your provider compensation plan.
The second way to encourage providers to recommend more patients for TMS is to hold regular case review sessions and review patients who qualified for TMS but were not prescribed. The tone of these sessions is critical! They should be informative, collaborative, and consultative not combative or punitive. The goal is to help providers themselves identify which patients are good candidates for TMS in the future. These case review sessions can be held one-on-one with the medical director or as a group with all providers collaborating together. In either case, maintaining a positive approach is the key to a successful meeting.
5. Bend Over Backward To Help Patients Start TMS
Fumbles in football are costly. They are an instant transfer of momentum from the team losing the fumble to the team recovering it. They are often the deciding factor in games, allowing a team to win that was about to lose a game, or stalling a potential game-winning drive by a team pushing for a last-minute score for a come-from-behind victory.
The most devastating fumbles are goal line fumbles: when a team is about to score but ends up losing the ball mere feet away from the goal. Sound familiar?
Fumbles don’t just happen in football. Your mental health practice is likely fumbling multiple opportunities to start patients on TMS – opportunities that are just as costly to your practice as losing a football in the last few seconds of a game.
When it comes to starting patients on TMS, here are three ways to prevent fumbling away opportunities at the last minute:
- Prior authorization
- Follow-up by practice manager
- Alleviate anxiety every way possible
Prior authorization
When it comes to prior authorization for TMS, you need to be at the top of your game. A sloppy prior auth submission process or lack of follow-up on denied authorizations will cost you. Patients are far, far more likely to start TMS with an insurance approval. Don’t fumble at the last minute by letting potential patients slip away. Make sure your prior authorization process is well-documented, competently managed, and reviewed regularly.
Practice manager follow-up
At one mental health clinic I am familiar with, every time they focused on having practice managers contact every patient who had been recommended for TMS, their TMS start rate went up. Every time they got lax in their follow-up protocol, their TMS start rate went down. It’s no coincidence.
Patients can only process so much information at once. Even after discussing TMS with their provider, they leave the office with only a vague understanding of what happens next. Having a practice manager follow up a day or two later makes all the difference. The practice manager can answer questions, explain next steps, and put the patient at ease. Just the simple act of reaching out helps reassure the patient that you care and that you will be there for them every step of the way. Build this into your daily workflow and watch your TMS start rate increase.
Alleviate patient anxiety
Patients who qualify for TMS are dealing with a lot. Severe depression, anxiety, treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, OCD and various combinations. It’s no surprise that they have anxiety about starting TMS. It’s no surprise that they have difficulty committing to a treatment program. It’s no surprise that they may have spotty attendance – especially in the first few weeks.
All of this should be expected and planned for. Whether you choose to use the TMS techs, front desk, or office manager to reach out to patients, have someone reach out to patients with every missed appointment to reassure them, alleviate anxiety, and help them recommit to attending treatment. It is the patient’s responsibility to attend treatment but the practice should bend over backward in every way possible to help the patient start and complete TMS treatment.
Summary
Want to see more TMS patients in your practice? Use these five ways to get more TMS patients and you will see more patients. Pick one of the five to start with and continue to add the rest until you are consistently using all five in your practice.
- Network with referring providers
- Get Patients Excited About TMS Before They Ever Step Foot In Your Practice
- Get Practice Staff Excited About Success Stories
- Make Sure Your Providers Are Excited About TMS
- Bend Over Backward To Help Patients Start TMS
Need help implementing these ideas? Have more questions you need answered? Reach out to Mindhealth Media at info@mindhealthmedia.com.