When you market to physicians, everything depends upon your ability to capture their attention, differentiate your agency from its competitors and deliver a powerful message. How do you develop a successful strategy that will differentiate your agency and, ultimately, generate referrals? In part one of this article, we discussed steps 1 and 2. Today, we will conclude with Steps 3, 4 and 5 to help you enrich your pitch and presentation.

Step 3: Do Your Homework
Approach your presentation to a physician in the same manner as you would a job interview. Do your homework and research the physician's practice before your meeting. For example, you can:

• Visit the physician's website. You can learn a lot about a physician from the site's online biography or About Us section.
• Conduct a search for the physician on the professional networking website LinkedIn.com. If you have a LinkedIn account, review your connections to people working at the physician's practice or hospital.
• Contact the office manager or billing department to find out if the physician is currently billing for Care Plan Oversight (CPO), and, if so, determine how many patients a month. Knowing this information will provide you with an idea of how much potential revenue the physician might not be receiving for patient care already being provided.

Step 4: Know Your Position
Find out what percentage of the physician's patients are referred to your agency versus other agencies in the past month or quarter. If the physician is splitting business between you and another agency, can the physician identify a compelling reason to choose a competitor over your agency? If not, focus on making your agency's expertise a compelling reason to refer more patients to you.

Step 5: Add Value
During your presentation, go the extra mile to make sure the physician understands how he or she will benefit from working with your agency. Do not forget to pinpoint your agency's key differentiators (identified in Step 1) and tie that to your presentation to show how you will add value to the physician.

One way to clearly demonstrate value is by offering physicians an easy way to improve their bottom line without any extra work. Consider Care Plan Oversight (CPO) as an example. If the physician is not billing for CPO, you have unearthed a potential revenue goldmine. Physicians are leaving thousands of dollars a year on the table when they fail to bill for CPO services. Imagine the value you could provide to a physician if you simplify the CPO billing process with a tool that helps them demonstrate and track billable CPO activities automatically. When you are evaluating home heath software packages, make sure you choose one that provides these services.

Finally, research the numbers for your region to find out how much additional revenue the physician could make from CPO. The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC&H) is providing the current payment rates for physician services in home health and hospice, effective through March 31, 2010, free of charge to its members at www.nahc.com/regulatory/home.html. After March 31, the scheduled 21.2 percent Medicare payment reduction for physician services may take effect, as the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (H.R.4691) signed into law on March 2 only delays the reduction until April 1, 2010. Kinnser will provide up-to-date information about the new legislation as it becomes available to the public.

As we continue to cover Care Plan Oversight on the Kinnser blog, what other information can we provide you that will be helpful when marketing to physicians?