Why You Need to Start Telehealth In Your Practice Immediately

Hey everybody, what's going on? Dr. Jeff Langweight of the Evidence Based Chiropractor and this morning I wanted to break down why telehealth is so critically important, why you need to be thinking about it for your practice if you haven't started yet and also give some tactical insight and advice on how you can get started doing it, actually get appointments booked and help your practice hopefully survive and thrive despite the situation that we're all going through. So I'm going to break down the two reasons why you need to really be why I'll encourage you should be considering telehealth for your practice. And of course, if you have any questions about telehealth, about marketing, about email, about research or about physician relations, that's a wide berth right there. Feel free to leave them in the comments. I'm going to be here probably once or twice a day hopping on live, asking questions, talking about the things that we're learning live and what we're seeing. Because, because this is a situation that is evolving day by day. And ultimately I speak for everybody at the Evidence based Chiropractor and the smart chiropractor. We're here to help and support your practice. There's a lot of uncertainty out there. There's a lot of panic for many docs as their volumes are decreasing. But there really are some controllable things that you can do where you don't need to feel panicked or out of control. You can take control of your practice, you can take control of your messaging. It's and do some things to help keep your practice moving forward despite all of these crazy times. So number one reason why you should consider telehealth for your practice is the reason why we do everything, which is the patients and the people in your community. Over these last few weeks, I think the stress has been higher for almost anybody than it was the previous weeks or months before. So all of those patients, those active patients that you had coming into your practice, those people are probably still dealing with the issues. So if they're not coming in to see you in your practice, that doesn't mean that they're better, right? That they could very well still be struggling with issues. They might not be getting enough exercise, they might have changed their sleeping habits due to stress. They might not be eating the best foods possible. I know St Patrick's Day earlier this week, you know, we were trying to let people know, don't go crazy on the booze. All of these things happen, have a propensity to impact musculoskeletal health increase pain. That's not a good place for people to be. So when we talk about telehealth as a chiropractor, there are very real things that you can and should be doing. And two easy examples of this are a lot of people are working from home right now that never have before. As a matter of fact, millions upon millions of people. And ultimately understanding their workspaces, what do their ergonomics look like at their desk is really, really important. That's where people are spending six, eight hours or more per day. And many people were unprepared. They didn't have home offices built. They're probably in weird and awkward positions. So ergonomic assessments via telehealth are something that is really, really impactful that all chiropractors can do. Because I see in so many groups right now, docs are like, ah, telehealth, Like, I don't need to do that. Or, you know, I don't know, I can't deliver care. I don't see what the use is from a chiropractic perspective. And you really need to be able to take a step back and open your mind for the fact that ergonomics are a big part of what's going on right now. If you have questions about any of this, if you like what I'm talking about, give me a thumbs up. I'm always open to feedback as well. But ergonomics are one big avenue. The second is at home care and exercise. If people cannot come in to your clinic gym hybrid. If people cannot come in to get care and get an adjustment or manipulation, if people cannot come in to do their active care in retail rehab, the next question becomes, well, what are they doing? And I'm going to challenge you. You need to be that guiding voice for them. You should be, but you need to step up and do it. So when we look at telehealth from a chiropractic perspective, I think there are two huge things that come to mind. Ergonomic assessments for at home work critically, important and very, very timely for what's going on. And us as chiropractors are the people that should be doing that. So keep that in mind. The second is all of your at home care and rehab, are people exercising? Are they keeping up on their stretches? Are they going through their active care? That's something that you absolutely can guide people on over these next few weeks. And I would argue you should be. Now, those are kind of the first tier, right? Patience, that is number one. And it should be number one for all of us, helping take care of the people in our community. People are probably struggling more with musculoskeletal issues rather than less right now. So being out in front of it, having those active communications is super, super important. Number two, let's just get real. It's the health of your practice. Meaning many docs are seeing 50% decreases in their patient volume. Other docs are not even able to see patients based upon state mandates. So with that being said, the question becomes, how are you mitigating this? How are you going about communicating with your patients consistently online and via email? Those are two areas that you can and should be controlling. The message online, your social channels and email. You should have consistent communication with your patients. And the second aspect of that is offering telehealth gives you revenue, and it gives you revenue in a way that is completely equitable. Meaning you can have revenue coming in for telehealth by doing ergonomic assessments and by doing active care recommendations. And those are real things that really help people in this time of need. And it really helps you as well. Because when practices are seeing 50% decrease in patient volume, 80%, 100%, if you can't get into the practice at all, that's a really big deal. So finding alternative ways that you can connect with your patients and connect with the people in your community is really, really, really important. Now, one platform, if you have any questions on all this, I know we have dozens of people watching right now, so thank you. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them down below. But telehealth can and should be a big part. Does anyone know what billing should look like? And there's a couple codes there. Brooks, that's a great question. I've seen a couple guides go out. I think Mike Massey put out an awesome guide. I'll share that link down below as soon as I hop off as well. Um, coding and billing from a telehealth perspective is fluid. I want to be very clear on that. It is fluid. Things are changing day by day and state by state. I would say, in some ways, you know, number one, take a peek, right? There's a lot of parity laws going into effect. So many of the large healthcare organizations primary, not Medicare, Medicaid, I'm going to exclude those. But a lot of the primary, your Blues, your Cignas, your Aetna's, et cetera, are doing parity and are paying for telehealth. You're going to want to call and be sure I'M going to also encourage you out there. This is a great opportunity for a cash transaction where you have the opportunity to really get people on the books. Do a cash transaction, that's simple, that's easy, and you can set your fees in a different way, in my opinion. So again, all of this is very fluid, but if you're doing ergonomic assessments, if you're doing things like this, this is different than your traditional office visit. So I believe that we're going to have some latitude there, 100%. You need to be ethical, you need to be compliant and you need to be in tune with your state laws. Again, we'll drop, I think Mike Massey put out a great piece the other day. We will drop that down below. But it does open up other opportunities for you as a doc as well. So big takeaway here is that telehealth should be a part of your practice, starting nearly immediately. Getting out there doing ergonomic assessments, getting guiding people for at home care, super critical, patient first approach always is the way that we go about it. But the number two aspect of this, and let's just get real, is revenue for your practice. You need to keep the wheels turning in your practice. You need to create revenue coming in. I'd encourage you to check out doxy me. I'll also drop that link down below. It's a great telehealth platform that's free, that's beautifully designed, it appears to be easy to use. I think we're gonna go live later on today with a mock patient interaction so you can see what that looks like. But there's another component of that, and this is kind of the third piece is how are you promoting the fact that you're now doing telehealth? I've seen some great ideas going back and forth, but I'm going to encourage you just flat out. If you haven't checked out what we're doing at the smart chiropractor, please do so. We're putting together a series of email automations for all our docs. It's built into Cairo emails. We'll share some of those templates. But what we do is the automation component. So we're helping our docs get set up on doxy, etc. Over these next few days with the trainings. We're also put together a guide, a resource guide that we're going to be releasing this weekend that really showcases how telehealth fits into chiropractic practice. And the other component on that is automating the opportunity to connect with the people in your community. So what do I mean by that? I mean getting the word out that you are now doing telehealth visits. So we're actively putting together a variety of social media graphics that we're putting into Hopper and automating for all of our smart chiropractors announcing that they're going to be doing telehealth if they choose to do so. We are also getting together a email sequence right now we have five built. We're going to extend that for who knows how long. We're going to have emails going out consistently for our docs letting their active and inactive patients know that telehealth is now an option. Because having it an option is one thing I would encourage everybody again, get started on Doxy. It's free. Have that as an option for your practice. But the second component to that is ultimately getting people to schedule. Right? Having telehealth is great, but if the schedule is empty, that probably isn't doing a lot of good for the people in your community or for you. So I'd encourage you. If you have not checked out the smart chiropractor, please do so. This is a huge area of focus. If you can do this yourself, go for it. If you need and want help, we are here to help. Also on the content side, check out Calm Campaign C A L M Campaign. If you haven't done so yet. We know that putting out content right now is also going to be critically important for your practice, but you don't want to be tone deaf to what's going on. So we put together Calm Campaign which is basically just about staying calm. Hey, here are some proactive things you can do. Make sure you're getting enough rest. We put together a variety of social media posts that help the individuals in your community, maybe even yourself when you look at them, stay calm throughout this situation. Also with Comm Campaign, we are loading in a presentation that are proactive steps the people in your town and community can do to stay healthy. Right? I say it, I'll say it again. Get enough rest. Eat the right foods, high fruits and vegetables, make sure you're eating enough healthy foods, make sure that you are exercising, et cetera. Kind of a do's and don'ts presentation that all of the docs you will be able to. If you sign up@comcampaign.com, totally free, you'll be able to do that. It gives you something to talk about online. Stay relevant in the conversation. We've also put together a Covid email template that you can get out to docs and to your patients if you are still open open letting them know you are and also the steps that you have taken as far as rec, local recommendations and staying, you know, with sanitation, et cetera. So if you want, please check out comcampaign.com it's free. We want to give as many tools as possible to help you help the people in your community stay calm and give you the opportunity to put out content that is not tone deaf to what's going on. That's all available at commcampaign. Telehealth kind of recapping here, telehealth, two huge important things I think that all docs need to keep in mind. Number one, this is all about your patients. And number two, this is about the health and revenue of your practice with your patients. How do you install telehealth? I'm going to make two big recommendations at home care and ergonomic assessments. Those are the two things I think we can really focus on and add a tremendous value as chiropractors to the people in our community. And number two, this is about the revenue your practice. I'm going to encourage you. You have to be taking proactive steps. Now is not the time to be silent. It also is not the time incidentally to make exaggerated claims or be all crazy. Right? You don't need to be a crazy Cairo, but what you do need to be is the voice of reason in your community helping people stay calm. So that goes back to comcampaign.com, but also giving them the opportunity to connect with you and listen. And just being able to listen as their trusted healthcare provider is exquisitely important in this time of stress. What we do as chiropractors, don't confuse our profession with the treatment. Our profession as chiropractors is not doing chiropractic, meaning just the adjustment alone. That's an important part of what we do, but what we can offer beyond that, ergonomics at home care recommendations. A listening ear in the time of increased stress is so critically important. Do not take that away from yourselves. So keep an eye out for doxy me. I'll drop that down below. I'm happy to, you know, repost that walkthrough. I'm going to get it out to the email list. But again, content production, email communication, getting telehealth started and announcing telehealth I'm going to encourage everybody are three big areas of need. Opportunity and you just need to do it over these next few weeks. If you can produce that content yourself, please do so. If you want to share best practices on this page or any others, please do so. That's what this is all about. But if you need help doing it, we are here for you at the Smart Chiropractor. That is our B2C arm of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Right? Evidence Based Chiropractor is all about B2B Communications. Incidentally, huge shout out to Dr. David Hough who went into a hospital adjusting the staff, the doctors, the PAs, the nurses, helping keep them if they were struggling with musculoskeletal issues, helping keep them upright and serving other people. Talk about service. Big ups to Dr. David Huff. I posted that down below. Check it out on this page. Like it? Share it. Give Dave a huge thumbs up as far as that's concerned. That is awesome and super super impactful. But it also goes to communicating with your current patients. Do not go silent over these next few weeks. Be the voice of calm and be the voice of conservative musculoskeletal care. People do not need to be going into their ERs. If there's anything that we can provide you that you think would be helpful, leave it in the comments. Put a post up here, hop over to the group. If you're a member of the Evidence Based Chiropractor or the Smart Chiropractor, let us know. We are here to serve. We have Chandler, I'm sorry if I missed the answer. Can we legally do new patient consult or only existing patients? Great question Chandler. It depends on the state. You can do it all. As far as whether an insurance company is going to bill for it or not is a completely different question. So I'm going to type or drop in the comments what Dr. Massey had put out, which was sort of an up to date. This is a fluid and moving target. Regarding billing, I'm going to put that. I'll drop one other link as well that gives a state by state rundown of telehealth, but I don't know if it's up to date by the minute or by the hour. So this is why I think telehealth is so critically important. People are hurting out there. Your active patients that aren't coming in didn't magically get better because they stopped coming into your practice. So get out there, communicate with these individuals. Just give them a call and say how are you doing? But most importantly get signed up on a platform like Doxy Me. I know Jane, the Healthcare EHR has an integration if you can use that, awesome. Get started on one of those. And if you need help promoting the fact, because it's one thing to get started, it's the second thing to fill up your schedule and make sure we'll drop some of the samples that we're putting together in some of these groups. But that is what we're building out right now. Literally live within the smart chiropractor is all of the automated social posts to announce telehealth for our docs that are that are doing it. And also we are building out a complete email sequence that automates email to everybody's email list saying, hey, we're doing telehealth now. Here's what we can offer you. Here's the benefits it provides, here's the link to get started and get scheduled. We think this is a huge avenue. Again, number one is communicating helping your patients. Number two is keeping your doors open and getting revenue into your practice. Both things are critically important. Any questions that you have whatsoever, feel free to leave them to in the comments. I am going to hop off and drop what I said those links in the comments as well. We're here ultimately to help. You cannot stop marketing your practice. You cannot stop reaching out. You cannot go silent over these next few weeks. Now is the time not to be an opportunist, not to exaggerate claims, not to market your practice in the traditional way. But now is the opportunity to step up as somebody who is helpful in your community, somebody who's there to listen and somebody who's there to adapt and change and adapt and change. In this case I think revolves around communicating online. A lot of docs put off really help, you know, building their Facebook audiences. A lot of docs put off, you know, sending consistent emails once a month does not count. And a lot of docs put off really evolving and innovating within their practice because things have been good for a little while. Things have changed. There is not one right answer. I saw Kevin Christie post this in the in the chiropractic marketing group. There is not one major hack. But what there is is an opportunity to think in new ways, to to communicate and impact people's lives in new ways and to be of service to the people in your community. Telehealth is going to be the number one way that you can do that. But you have to have consistent follow up. You have to have consistent content on your practice Facebook page letting people know that that's an option, inspiring people to take action and then getting it done. So hopefully this gives you a little bit of inspiration to get out there. There are some things you can control amid this chaos and one of them is consistent production. Another one is consistently communicating via email, and the third one is getting started with telehealth. And this is going to be a big area of focus. You're going to see me talking about it a heck of a lot over these next few days because we are building out all of those tools within the Smart Chiropractor to help our docs get up and running, to help get people filled on their schedule, to get revenue into their practice, and to get people the help that they need while they are in the four walls of their home. That revolves around ergonomics, it revolves around exercise. The sky is the limit as far as how we can help people in our community. It is only closed in by our own creativity and our own ability to communicate. So at the Smart Chiropractor, our goal is to help you communicate in every single way possible. That's a whole bunch of stuff to digest over this next few hours here. Be on the lookout. If you're on the evaspace Chiropractor email list, be on the lookout. I'm going to send out the telehealth walkthrough video that we shot yesterday. Ask any questions that want in the comments down below. I will be sure to answer them to the best of my ability and I will be back on probably sometime today talking more, answering questions and helping get your practice in the right direction over these critical next few days and weeks. I hope you have a great day. Lean on us. Email us DM us. We are here to help and we'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.